10月9日，《自然》杂志刊登了一篇文章提供了新的年代判定方法，用于确定印尼苏拉威苏岛火山洞穴中史前岩石艺术作品的年代。考古学家已经确认有些艺术作品至少创建于4万年前，因此东南亚洞穴人类艺术作品存在历史与欧洲一样久远。

　　Archaeologists have long been puzzled about the absence of prehistoric rock art in other places beside Europe, especially since they have already agreed that modern humans were established in South Asia and the Far East by 50,000 years ago. Thanks to new dating techniques, we now know that humans were producing rock art at both ends of the Pleistocene Eurasian world.

　　考古学家一直纠结于在欧洲之外缺乏史前岩石艺术品，特别是他们已经认可了南亚和中东存在现代人类的历史能够追溯到5万年前的实归功于新的年代判定技术，现在我们知道了在更新世期间欧亚大陆两端的人类都曾创作了岩石艺术。

　　印尼史前岩画可追溯至4万年前1.jpg

　　Sulawesi is the world's eleventh largest island and is located in Wallacea, the zone of oceanic islands that lies between Asia and Australia. The Maros and Pangkep regions, where the rock art has been dated, cover about 450 square kilometers of the island's southwest peninsula. The caves containing the motifs were carved into the landscape by ancient volcanic lava flows that cut into the limestone, forming clusters of towers that erupt from the plains.

　　苏拉威苏是世界上第十一大岛，座落于亚洲和澳大利亚大陆之间的海域内华莱士群岛。发现岩石艺术品的马洛斯和庞格普地区位于该岛的西南部，占地450平方公里。由古老火山熔岩冲击石灰岩形成的洞穴中，存在着雕刻成风景样式的艺术作品，展现了平原上的成群的高塔.

　　The network of foot caves formed around the bases of the towers were occupied by prehistoric humans who migrated east from Africa. As a result of this discovery, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has added these caves to a tentative list of protected world heritage sites. Final selection to the World Heritage List is based on criteria that demonstrate a site's importance for the world's population.

　　围绕着高塔的基座形成了人类足以进入的洞穴群，当时被从非洲迁徙到东方的史前人类所占据。联合国教科文组织将这一发现增补为临时性世界保护遗址。世界保护遗址最终遴选结果将基于遗址对世界人口影响的重要性进行评判。

　　印尼史前岩画可追溯至4万年前2.jpg

　　Bird Cave in Maros

　　马洛斯地区的鸟类洞穴

　　Archaeologists have previously discovered materials used by humans within many of the cave walls and have discovered a total of 90 rock art sites. Previously, the earliest dated evidence for human occupation at Sulawesi came from radiocarbon dates of excavated deposits in two different caves that showed people were using them for habitation approximately 35,000 years ago. Both sites had previously yielded evidence of pigment use, including hematite (iron oxide) crayons and ochre-smeared stone tools, implements that were likely used in the creation of rock art.

　　之前考古学家在很多洞穴墙壁上都发现了人工痕迹，并且总共发现了90块岩石艺术作品。之前，苏拉威苏遗址最早的人类居住痕迹来自于从两处不同的洞穴中挖掘出的沉积物，放射性炭检测显示大约在3.5万前有人类穴居于此。之前两处遗址中出土的证据显示有染色的痕迹，包括：使用赤铁块以及褐石，这些都可能用于岩石作品的创作。

　　The Maros-Pangkep rock art was actually first recorded in the 1950s and has been studied extensively by researchers over the subsequent decades. There are two distinct styles of art within the caves, dated to the Pleistocene period, which extends between 2.58 million years ago and 11,700 years ago.

　　事实上马洛斯-庞格普岩石艺术最早记录50年代，随后几十年来研究者们一直对此进行了广泛研究。在洞穴中，存在有两种明显的艺术风格，可以追溯到更新世时期，即距今258万年年至11700年前。

　　印尼史前岩画可追溯至4万年前3.jpg

　　Hands in Pettakere Cave

　　派塔克洞穴中的手形图案

　　The first consists of human hand stencils made by spraying wet pigment around human hands that were pressed against the surfaces. Pleistocene humans likely placed pigment in their mouths in order to create such a spray. The less common style of cave art found at Maros-Pangkep is characterized by larger, naturalistic profile paintings of wild land mammals that were native to the island during the Pleistocene period.

　　最初的人类手形图案通过将手掌压在绘图面上，围绕手掌喷洒染料液进行制作。更新世时期的人类可能将染料液含在口中制造喷洒效果。马洛斯-庞格普地区的洞穴艺术品中较为少见的风格是绘制较大的野生哺乳动物的自然轮廓画，这些动物在更新世时期生活在该岛上。

　　Both motifs, primarily red in coloration, have typically been found on high roofs and elevated parts of rock walls that are difficult to access. They are often found close to site entrances, but archaeologists have also discovered specimens within deep, dark chambers. The subjects and placements found here often resemble those of European cave art of roughly similar age.

　　两种风格的作品基本上都采用了红色，通常发现于较难接触到的洞顶和岩壁的高处，一般都接近洞口。但考古学家在黑暗的洞穴深处也发现了一些样本。发现的样本和布置方式都与同时期欧洲洞穴艺术较为相似。

　　Archaeologists used uranium-series dating techniques to analyze coralloids associated with 12 human hand stencils and two figurative animal depictions from seven cave sites in the Maros-Pangkep caves. Coralloids are small nodes of calcite that form on the surfaces of limestone caves, including on top of and beneath the rock art found in

　　考古学家利用铀系列放射标定技术分析了从马洛斯-庞格普地区7个洞穴中12处手掌图案和2处动物图形的珊瑚点。珊瑚点是在石灰岩洞表面上形成的方解石小斑点，包括在岩石艺术品的顶部和底下发现的珊瑚点。

　　In cases where coralloid formed on top of paintings, uranium dates provide a minimum age for the underlying rock art. In some cases, however, painters created their art over the tops of coralloids that then continued to grow. Technicians were therefore able to provide both minimum and maximum ages for such motifs.

　　有些情况下，在图案的上面形成珊瑚点，铀判定能够给出下部母岩上图案的最低年份。然而，很多情况下，绘制者创作的图案覆盖到上面的珊瑚点，此后珊瑚点会继续生长。因此技术人员能够得出这些作品的最低和最高年份。

　　The earliest dated image at Maros-Pangkep is a hand stencil with a minimum age of 39,900 years ago, making it the oldest known hand stencil in the world. A nearby painting of a “pig-deer” was also dated to 35,400 years ago and is now among the oldest known figurative depictions in the world.

　　马洛斯-庞格普地区最早的图案是一幅手形图，最低年份在39900年前，这也成为目前世界上最古老的手形图。该图案附近的一幅“猪鹿”图也要追溯于35400年前，属于世界上已知的最古老的形象画之一。

　　This dating of rock art in Sulawesi has implications for our understanding of symbolic traditions in the wider region. Similar art styles have previously been discovered in Borneo and other locations in Southeast Asia, and rock art in northern Australia also features hand stencils and paintings of animals. Many of the excavated deposits associated with these motifs have been dated to as far back as 50,000 years ago, and evidence of ochre processing and hematite crayons have also been found in these areas.

　　标定苏拉威苏地区岩石艺术对于我们理解更广泛地区的象形传统具有较高意义。此前，在婆罗洲和东南亚其他地区也发现过相似风格的艺术作品。澳洲北部的岩石艺术也以手形图和动物绘画而见长。已发掘的很多与这些艺术品相关的沉积物能够追溯远到5万年前，在这些地区也发现了赤石和褐石作为染料的痕迹。

　　These new findings also provide us with new information regarding the origins of Paleolithic rock art, which has previously been dominated by a Eurocentric focus. Archaeologists have generally fallen into two camps regarding the origins of prehistoric cave art. Some argue that rock art originated in Europe and developed over thousands of years, resulting in the more sophisticated representations of animals at Lasceaux and Altamira 20,000 years ago.

　　这些新发现还为我们研究更新世岩石艺术提供了新的信息，而之前一直被欧洲的考古发现所主导。对于更新世洞穴艺术的起源问题，基本上考古学家们分化成两种阵营。有些人认为岩石艺术发源于欧洲，并且发展了数千年，形成了2万年前拉斯西奥斯和阿塔米亚洞穴中更加复杂的动物图案。

　　Others, including the authors of the Nature article, suggest that cave art developed more broadly, and some even go so far as to suggest that cave painting may have been widely practiced by the first wave of Homo sapiens who left Africa tens of thousands of years earlier.

　　另外一些人包括《自然》杂志上文章的作者在内，都认为洞穴艺术的发展更具广泛性，有些人甚至进一步认为或许数万年前离开非洲的第一波赫姆智人便已经普遍创作过洞穴图案。

　　One limitation of examining rock art is the survivability and deterioration of the motifs over time. The Nature article authors explain in their paper that, even in prehistoric times, rock art was already in an advanced state of deterioration. Local custodians have further reported that the loss of the art has accelerated in recent decades. Many pieces of rock art have undoubtedly disappeared over the millennia, leaving only remnants for archaeologists to analyze.

　　研究岩石艺术的限制之一便是经历时间洗礼这些作品的可延续性和受到的风化。作者在《自然》杂志的文章中解释到，即使在史前时代，岩石艺术品已经遭受较严重的风化。当地的保护者进一步报告称近几十年这些艺术品的损失越来越严重。几千年来，很多岩石艺术样本无疑已经消失了，只留下残迹令考古学家分析。

　　However, we do have evidence of the use of pigments as early as 400,000 years ago, which were also used in the practice of body painting. In 1999, archaeologists discovered more than 300 pieces of pigment in the Twin Rivers Cave in Zambia. The stratigraphic layer in which the pigments were found also contained Middle Stone Age artifacts and sediment dating to between 400,000 and 200,000 years ago. The pigments were found in a range of colors including brown, red, yellow, purple, blue, and pink that all derived from locally available minerals.

　　然而，我们确实掌握了早在40万年前人类利用染料的证据，也被用于人体彩绘。1999年，考古学家在赞比亚的双子河流域洞穴中发现300多个染料样本。发现染料的地层中还包含有中石器时代器物和沉积物，起始于40万至20万年间。发现的染料包含有棕色、红色、黄色、紫色、蓝色以及粉色，全部来自于当地的矿物质。

　　In an interview with National Geographic, Alistair Pike, one of the archaeologists who authored the Nature article, speculated on why prehistoric humans around the world started creating cave art. He explained that in the past one argument "was that when modern humans migrated to Europe, they competed with Neanderthals for caves, which led to a cultural change."

　　《自然》杂志上文章的作者之一，派克接受国家地理频道采访时，围绕着世界各地的史前人类开始创作洞穴艺术，思索他们为何会这样做。他解释道过去的一种观点认为“这源于现代人类移居到欧洲时，他们需要与当地穴居人竞争洞穴，因此导致了文化的变迁。”

　　"What's clear now is that the phenomenon happened elsewhere," he continued. "Once modern people left Africa, they might have faced a different environment and social situation [and] different puzzles. They may have had to live in larger groups to survive, which leads to a need for stronger socialization. One way to display rituals and symbols is with cave art."

　　“目前我们清楚了解了其他地区出现的现象，”他继续说道。“一旦现代人类离开非洲，他们或许要面对一个不同的环境和社会状态，要处理不同的难题。他们或许不得不为了生存而组成更大的居住群体，导致他们需要更高的社会化。办法之一便是通过洞穴艺术来举行仪式，展示象征符号。”

　　His interview also hints at just how similar prehistoric humans were to us today. "Certainly making hand stencils seems a universal human practice. Children love to make handprints, even today. We see them in cave art in different times and places everywhere," Pike stated. "It could just be that the urge to make cave art is universal."

　　采访中他还暗示史前人类与我们今天的做法会如此相似。“制作手形图案似乎肯定是人类的一种普遍行为。即使今天，儿童们也喜欢制作手形印记。在不同的时期不同地点的洞穴艺术中我都发现了这一点，”派克说道。“可能就是源于这种冲动使洞穴艺术成为普遍现象。”

　　He further states that similarities between cave art in Europe and Asia undoubtedly go much deeper. This "is why we need to find more cave paintings," he explained. In addition, we must obtain the resources and financial ability to perform similar tests on rock art motifs that we already know about. While we know of approximately 90 motifs on Sulawesi, there are, without a doubt, thousands or even tens of thousands around the world, both discovered and undiscovered, waiting to tell us more about our ancestors.

　　他进一步陈述到欧洲和亚洲洞穴艺术的相似性无疑会进一步加深。这是“为何我们需要发掘更多洞穴绘画的原因，”他解释到。此外，我们必须得到对已知的岩石艺作品开展类似研究的资源和资金。虽然我们研究了苏拉威苏的大约90块艺术作品，但毋庸置疑的是全世界仍存在数千乃至数万件岩石艺术作品，无论是已发掘出的还是为被发现的，都在等着我们去探求祖先留下的信息。