摘要:
自20世纪50年代发现长阳人化石以来,迄今在鄂西-三峡地区已经发现了至少10处古人类化石地点,时代跨越了整个更新世时期,尤其以更新世中、晚期人类化石最为丰富。除人类化石外,在这一地区还发现了大量的古人类制作的石器、骨器、艺术品、装饰品等人类活动遗存,以及与古人类伴生的动物化石。近年的野外发掘及实验室研究证明鄂西-三峡地区更新世中期以来一直是古人类生存与繁衍昌盛的区域,该地区丰富的古人类资源对研究与中国古人类演化有关的一系列关键学术问题具有非常重要的价值。
Abstract:
Although a series of new discoveries in Africa have extended human history to about 7MaB.P. , in Eurasia, Pleistocene is still the key period for human evolution. For the past decade, the research advances in the Pleistocene human evolution have attracted paleoanthropologists to some hot research fields include: 1) the origin and evolution of Homo erectus; 2) human evolution and modern human origin in Late Pleistocene; 3) cultural development and behavior patterns of Late Pleistocene humans; 4) environmental influences on biological features and behavior patterns of humans. All these research fields are closely related to human evolution in East Asia, especially in China. For the past decades paleoanthropologists in China have made fragment achievements in those research fields, mainly focusing on descriptions of some sites but without much systematic and multidisciplinary analyses and a fossil gap during the period of 100~50kaB.P. hasnt been bridged yet. A region providing a whole set of information of human history during Middle to Late Pleistocene has been for years looked for in China. West Hubei and the Three Gorges region is a narrow region. Since the first discovery of human maxilla fragment in Changyang in 1957, at least 10 human fossil sites have been found in this region, including the famous Yunxian Homo erectus and the Longgupo sites. Besides human fossil sites, more than 30 sites with stone artifacts and other evidence showing human activities have also been located. Since 2000, our field surveys have discovered 4 new Late Pleistocene human fossil sites. Preliminary excavations in these sites have indicated that all the four sites have not only human fossils, but also stone artifacts and mammal fossils unearthed. Among the four sites, the Huanglong Cave and the Xinglong Cave are more important. The Huanglong Cave is located at Yunxi County, northwest of Hubei Province. During our test excavation at the Huanglong Cave in 2004, 5 human teeth, 20 stone tools and nearly 2000 mammal fossils have been discovered. Preliminary analysis and dating (U-series and ESR) have indicated that the age of the human teeth is around 100kaB.P. At the Xinglong Cave, besides 4 human teeth, stone artifacts, ivory engravings and other cultural remains have also been discovered. Biostratigraphic analysis and uranium series dating have shown that the age of the cave was about 100kaB.P. Field excavations and laboratory studies have indicated that since Middle Pleistocene West Hubei and the Three Gorges region has been resided by human beings. The rich paleoanthropological resources in this region will play important role in resolving some key problems of human evolution in China.