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Archaeologist Makes Case for Seafaring Neanderthals

The more we learn about Neanderthals, the more like us they become. They made jewelry¹, from shells and eagle talons². They probably painted cave art. They may have buried their dead as well.

我们对尼安德特人的了解越多，他们就越像我们。他们用贝壳和鹰爪制作首饰。 他们可能有洞穴艺术。他们也许也埋葬了他们的死者。

And now some archaeologists say evidence is mounting for another skill the Neanderthals might have shared: the ability to navigate³ the seas.

现在一些考古学家说，尼安德特人可能会分享另一项技能的证据越来越多：能够驾驭海洋。

"Maybe that's just part of the human psyche⁴, of wanting to go and explore places, and maybe that extends back further than we would have thought."

“也许这只是人类灵魂的一部分，想要去探索远方，也许这比我们想象得更远了。”

Alan Simmons of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He presented his case at a meeting of the Society for American Archaeology⁵ in Washington, D.C., first reported in an article by journalist Andrew Lawler in the journal Science.

拉斯维加斯内华达大学的lan Simmons。他在华盛顿特区的美国考古学会会议上介绍了他的案例，这是由记者Andrew Lawler在科学杂志上，发表的一篇文章首次报道的。

The case goes like this: hundreds of stone tools have now been found, lodged⁶ in ancient soils, on Mediterranean⁷ islands like Crete and Naxos. We can't date the tools directly—they're too old. But Simmons says you can put them into a rough chronology with other tools, based on their sophistication. He compares it to car styles:

情况是这样的：现在已发现数百种石器，存放在古代土壤中，地中海岛屿如克里特岛和纳克索斯岛上。我们无法直接与工具约会，他们太旧了。但Simmons说，基于其复杂性，你可以用其他工具，将它们放入一个粗略的年代表。他将其与汽车风格进行了比较：

"The tail fins⁸ of old Cadillacs, you could seriate those and show this is older than this or more recent than this, but you couldn't put an absolute date on it. That's exactly what we do with typologies and technologies, you know, this is the way these tools were made during a certain time period."

“老凯迪拉克的尾翼，你可以将它们串联起来，并且显示它比这更早或更近，但是，你不能在它上面，加上绝对的日期，这正是我们在类型学和技术方面所做的，正是这些工具在特定时间段内制造的方式。“

Those clues and other hints—like the fact the stone tools are buried in ancient soils—suggest the implements⁹ could date back to the Middle Paleolithic, somewhere between 50 and maybe 200 thousand years ago—meaning they could have been made before we Homo sapiens showed up. And therefore, to leave tools on the islands, the tool-makers must have plied¹⁰ the seas.

这些线索和其他暗示——比如石器被埋在古代土壤中的事实——表明这些器具可以追溯到50年至20万年前的中旧石器时代，这意味着，它们可能是在我们智人显示之前发生的。因此，为了在岛上留下工具，工具制造者必须穿越海洋。

"To me this suggests Neanderthals at least had the same cognitive¹¹ capacities that fully¹² modern people do. ‘Cause you don't just make a boat or a raft or whatever and go out and float around in the ocean. There's a lot of cognition involved. You have to have navigation skills. This has implications for language."

“对我而言，这意味着，尼安德特人至少具有与现代人完全相同的认知能力。”因为你不只是制造一艘船，或一艘木筏，或任何其他东西，而是出去漂浮在海洋中，这涉及到很多知识。你必须具备导航技能，这对语言有影响。“

It's just speculation¹³ for now—boat remains¹⁴ are nowhere to be found. But perhaps new digs, and better dates on the tools that have already been uncovered, will strengthen the case. Til then: it seems that old stereotype¹⁵ about Neanderthals being brutish cave dwellers¹⁶ is already critically endangered. If not extinc

这只是现在的猜测，船只遗体无处可寻。但是，也许新的挖掘方式，以及已经发现的工具的更好日期能加强案件研究。看来，尼安德特人成为残暴的洞穴居民的陈旧观念，已经严重濒临灭绝了，如果他们不是外星人的话。