欧亚大陆的黄土带与旧石器早期人类活动

文章对欧洲和亚洲黄土分布资料进行了整理,结合欧亚的旧石器考古资料,发现在旧石器早期,欧亚大陆的考古遗址主要分布在黄土带上,这反映了在旧石器早期,东西文化的交流与传播可能存在着一条"黄土之路"。这条"黄土之路"东至中国华北,在天山、阿尔泰山地区分为两条线,在高加索地区汇合,通过欧洲,一直向西至法国和不列颠群岛。通过对欧洲、中亚和东亚黄土旧石器遗址剖面的对比,发现无论是冰期还是间冰期,在黄土分布区,有的地方一直是人类活动的场所,比如欧洲和东亚,周围的自然环境能使人类生存和生活;而有的地方只有在间冰期才适合人类生活,比如中亚。这需要进一步的工作证明。在S₅（MIS 13～15）阶段,无论在欧洲还是亚洲,考古遗址发现的几率都比较大,这也许说明在这个时期人类的活动更为活跃。而且在这条横贯欧亚大陆的古土壤带上,相似的自然环境也许存在着更多的交流。这需要进一步对旧石器文化特征上进行比较方能得出更确切的结论。

EURASIAN LOESS BELT AND ANCIENT HUMAN ACTIVITIES DURING THE EARLY PALEOLITHIC AGE

Loessic Paleolithics and Loess lithic industry were research disciplines proposed at the beginning of 1990′s,which focus on the relationship between Paleolithic cultures and environment,esp.loess deposits.Was there a Loess Road of human and cultural evolution traversing the Eurasian continent? To answer this question,the distribution of loess and Paleolithic sites in Europe and Asia was outlined,which seemingly shows that a Loess Road might have been built during the early Paleolithic age.The road might be started from North China in the east,crossed the Loess Plateau,the Central Asia,and the Northern Near East,traversed the European plain,and finally reached France and British Isles in the west.Preliminary comparison of European loess sites bearing early Paleolithic artifacts with those in Central Asia and East Asia shows that the frequency of findings of artifacts is rather high in S₅(MIS ₁3～15)in most sites,which may indicate that more human activities and cultural exchange occurred at that time,although such a conclusion needs further confirmation.Our proposal of the existence of a Loess Road aims to encourage researchers to pay more attention to the interac-tion between loess deposits and ancient human activities.In the last four decades,Chinese loess study has made great progress.Applying new loess advancement to Paleolithic archaeology would certainly benefit archaeological researches and the cooperation between Paleolithic archaeology and Quaternary is the key to the researches.