青藏高原边缘地区晚更新世人类遗存与生存模式

自20世纪80年代在青海小柴旦发现旧石器遗存以来,青藏高原边缘地区已经发现了10余处旧石器时代遗址,年代属晚更新世晚期。这些遗存显示,古人类在距今30ka左右开始尝试向这些高海拔地区扩散,但直至距今15ka以后才有更多的人群迁徙至此。通过对这些遗存分布位置、古环境特征、年代测定和石器技术、组合分析,得以管窥古人类对该地区的开发利用过程,并进而阐释史前人类技术发展、生存模式演变和古环境的耦合关系。     

河南卢氏发现黄土旧石器

文章报道了在河南卢氏发现的3个旧石器地点:石制品出自S₁的Ly15地点;在S₃,S₂和S₁中均有旧石器发现的Ly13地点;出自S₂的Ly14地点。3个地点的石制品均以石英岩砾石为原料,锤击法打片,石器数量较少,有手镐、刮削器,这些发现为探索中国南北旧石器文化的关系及其与环境变化的关系有重要意义。     

泥河湾与黄土高原地层对比及其旧石器文化序列

泥河湾盆地和黄土高原堆积着我国第四纪划分和对比的标准地层，同时也是古人类活动的重要场所。两者沉积环境不同，但都较为连续地记录了中国北方第四纪气候环境演化历史和古人类活动的信息。在综合前人研究成果的基础上，对这两个重要地区的地层进行了对比，并列出了两个地区的旧石器文化地层序列。     

The past in dust: current trends and future directions in Pleistocene geoarcheology of European loess

Loess is a main archive of Pleistocene landscapes and environments and therefore has an important connection to the preservation and interpretation of Paleolithic sites. In Europe, anthropogenic sites have been found in loess because of past local occupation. At one extreme, sites are well preserved with minimal disturbance often accompanied by embedded proxies to estimate ecological parameters. On the other hand, loess deposits have undergone post-depositional alterations such as weathering, pedogenesis or bioturbation due to changing environmental conditions or other disturbances that obscure anthropogenic sites. We outline the current state of research and connections between Paleolithic archeology and loess research while introducing a series of subsequent regional case studies as part of a special issue. We also make recommendations for future work to incorporate a wider variety of methods to create more robust inferences on hominin and environmental evolution and their connections.     

中国北方晚更新世人类的适应变迁与辐射

晚更新世是现代人在全球建立全面的生态优势的时期。中国北方有比较丰富的发现,但现有的材料和研究没有能够回答人类此时的生计状态、适应模式和环境联系。文章从行为重建和生态学的角度考察,将中国北方晚更新世的人类适应置于欧亚大陆整体人类演化框架中来考虑,重新审查已有的发现,提出中国旧石器时代晚期可以分为两个阶段:以骨角工具、装饰品和更精制的石器组合为代表的早段(EUP)和以细石叶工艺为代表的晚段(LUP);并确定中国北方晚更新世人类适应至少经历两次革命性的变化,同时存在至少4种适应模式;而且其地域化的特征是从早到晚加强。人类的适应辐射则主要表现于人口的扩张,特别是向极端环境的殖民,技术模式的迅速转换和地域化特征的加强。     

泥河湾盆地磁性地层定年与早期人类演化

主要评述了近年来泥河湾盆地磁性地层学的研究进展,包括建立泥河湾组的磁性地层年代格架、厘定泥河湾动物群的时代和确定华北地区早期人类活动年代序列.研究表明:第一,泥河湾组河湖相沉积序列记录了高斯正极性时末期以来的地磁极性特征(松山和布容极性时),即沉积时代始于约2.6Ma.早期人类至少在1.66～0.78Ma期间的大约90万年的时间内长期持续地占据高纬度的泥河湾盆地.泥河湾动物群(包括广义和狭义)的时代为2.0～0.8 Ma.第二,华北地区早期人类已经能够适应东亚高纬度地区冬季风增强、夏季风减弱和干旱化趋势增强的复杂环境变化,尤其能适应中更新世气候转型前后中国北方多变而且不稳定气候条件和生态环境.因此,气候和生态环境的多变性与不稳定性是促进人类进化的重要因素.第三,早期人类走出非洲以后,可能沿不同的路径并以较快的速度扩散到东亚地区.向南越过印度尼西亚的赤道地区,向北至少扩散到40°N的泥河湾盆地.     

云南剑川地区象鼻洞遗址孢粉组合和古环境

为了解云南剑川旧石器时代中晚期植被和气候变化特点以及当地环境与人类活动的关系,选取象鼻洞遗址各地层的13个土样进行孢粉分析。结果表明:该遗址堆积时期孢粉植物群以亚热带和温带成分为主,类型相对丰富,呈温暖期气候特征,但气候存在小的波动,呈现出早期温暖湿润、中期短暂干旱、晚期又逐渐暖湿的特点;木本植物花粉在孢粉总量中占绝对优势,说明当时人类活动对自然环境的影响不明显;可作为食物来源的植物很少,因此,当时居住在象鼻洞的人类主要食物应来源于捕捞或狩猎;对照邻近地区已有的研究成果,推测该遗址气候变化与季风活动有关。     

Paleolithic vs. Epipaleolithic fisheries in northern Iberia

A comparison of Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic fisheries in NW Iberia shows an overall high trophic level of catch. Freshwater fisheries (and thus their impacts) are ca. 8000 yr older than marine fisheries and have suffered virtually no changes in the region except for the increase in numbers, being focused on two families (Salmonidae, and Anguillidae to a very minor extent). Marine fisheries in the Paleolithic likely had a low impact but rapidly increased in importance, raising the average trophic level of the catch, the number of affected taxa and the proportion of marine to freshwater fisheries with time.     

旧石器遗址强烈化学风化沉积物细粒混合矿物的光释光信号特征及其测年应用

从湖南省北部赤山岛枫树嘴旧石器遗址剖面第2、第3和第4考古层位采集的3个沉积物样品中提取的细粒混合矿物,尝试对其红外释光(IRSL)信号进行研究。实验表明,虽然长石IRSL信号很弱,但仍可以测得信噪比足够高的红外激发后高温红外激发释光(post-IR IRSL)信号。与此同时,样品存在明显的红外激发后蓝光释光(post-IR OSL)信号,并且样品的IRSL与post-IR OSL信号均以快组分为主,这为该地区沉积物利用长石光释光信号定年提供了新的可能。鉴于长石IRSL信号较弱,根据剂量恢复实验结果,本研究采用post-IR IRSL SAR法(50℃红外激发后270℃高温红外激发,pIRIR270℃)进行等效剂量测量,同时也应用post-IR OSL SAR法定年进行比较。实验结果表明,细粒混合矿物的pIRIR270℃等效剂量分别为418.8±13.2 Gy、562.3±18.2 Gy和694.8±17.9 Gy,相对应的post-IR OSL SAR等效剂量结果为345.0±29.4 Gy、409.6±33.7 Gy和424.7±32.2 Gy。假设强烈化学风化未对沉积物的剂量率造成很大影响,基于长石pIRIR270℃信号的释光年龄为89±6 ka、118±8 ka和152±9 ka,比前人所得的石英OSL SAR法年龄老30%~55%(约20~55 ka)。通过对比不同测量条件下获得的等效剂量值来评估长石IRSL信号是否存在晒退问题,没有发现长石post-IR IRSL信号存在晒退不完全的证据。根据本研究post-IR IRSL SAR法测年结果,赤山岛枫树嘴旧石器遗址似阿舍利技术类型的石器出现在倒数第二次冰期(MIS 6)后期至末次间冰期(MIS 5)前期,比湖南道县福岩洞现代人类牙齿化石年龄(80~120 ka)稍老。作为似阿舍利技术石器制造者的赤山岛古人与福岩洞现代人的关系将是我国旧石器时代考古学和古人类学研究的一个重要课题。     

Feldspar multi-elevated-temperature post-IR IRSL dating of the Wulanmulun Paleolithic site and its implication

The Wulanmulun site found in 2010 is an important Paleolithic site in Ordos (China), from which lots of stone and bone artifacts and mammalian fossils have been recovered. It was previously dated by radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) techniques on quartz. To further confirm the reliability of the chronology constructed based on OSL ages and test the applicability of the recently developed pIRIR procedure on sediments from northern China, twenty-four sediment samples (including eolian, lacustrine and fluvio-eolian sands) from the site were determined using the multi-elevated-temperature post-IR IRSL (MET-pIRIR or pIRIR) procedure on potassium feldspar. The results show that the studied samples have two MET-pIRIR D_e preheat plateaus (280–320 and 340–360 °C), and the bleaching rates of the luminescence signals are associated with sample ages and stimulation temperatures. All the pIRIR ages (7–155 ka) corrected for anomalous fading and residual dose obtained after solar bleaching for 15 h are larger than the corresponding quartz OSL ages (4–66 ka) previously determined, even for the young eolian samples (<10 ka). But the corrected IRSL(50 °C) ages (6–85 ka) are broadly consistent with the quartz ages. It appears that the IRSL(50 °C) ages are more reliable, although this contradicts the previously results obtained by other people. On the other hand, we also obtained an extended age plateau between the stimulation temperatures of 50 and 290 °C in the plot of age versus stimulation temperature (A-T plot) by subtracting different residual doses obtained after different bleaching times. The reliability of the plateau ages requires further investigation. For the sediment samples from this site, quartz should be more suitable for dating than K-feldspar, and the quartz OSL ages of 50–65 ka for its cultural layer should be reliable.