摘要:
湖北省郧西县白龙洞古人类遗址属于中更新世早期,发掘出表面带有痕迹的骨化石标本。使用肉眼裸视观察法、低倍显微观察法、高倍显微观察法、三维扫描数字模型技术等多种观测分析法进行综合研究,鉴定出痕迹种类包括人工改造痕迹和其他动物改造痕迹。人工改造痕迹包括锤击痕迹、切割痕迹、砍斫痕迹、戳刺痕迹等,其中锤击痕迹主要出现在骨器表面(用于骨器制造),其他痕迹则出现在多种骨骼部位的残片上(可能由狩猎、屠宰、分割和剥皮行为产生)。动物改造痕迹包括食肉目动物啃咬痕、偶蹄目动物踩踏痕、啮齿目动物啃咬痕等。其中制造啃咬痕的啮齿目动物中,可能包括有豪猪、竹鼠和鼠科动物等。人工改造痕迹的研究对认识当时人行为模式提供了具体证据,如当时人对洞穴占据使用形式、骨质工具制造与使用、狩猎与分食行为(狩猎工具与剥皮技巧)等。本研究对其他动物改造痕迹也作了必要分析,如豪猪与鼠科动物的不同啃啮形态等。该遗址研究、鉴定出的多种痕迹标本,以及多种鉴定、分析方法的使用等,显示出古人类遗址中痕迹标本的复杂性,以及多种研究方法的必要性。三维扫描数字模型技术,是国内在该领域研究方法中的首次使用。
Abstract:
Some fossil bones with surface marks were uncovered in Bailong Cave,a palaeo-anthropological site of the early stage of Middle Pleistocene.In this paper,human made marks and animal made marks were observed and identified with general photography,low-and high-power microscopy,as well as three dimensional scanning technology.Hammering marks,cut marks,chopping marks,and puncture marks were included in the human made marks.The hammering marks(with the aim of tool making)were mainly distributed on the surface of bone tools,while the other marks(perhaps generated by human behaviors such as hunting,butchering,disarticulating,and skinning)were mainly distributed on the surface of bone fragments.Animal made marks include tooth marks by carnivores,tramping marks by artiodactyls,and gnawing marks by rodents.According to faunal materials discovered from the site,carnivores responsible for the tooth marks may be hyenas and leopards;rodents that were responsible for gnawing marks may include Hystrix,Rhizomys,and Muridae.Research on human made marks reveals human behaviors such as the ways of troglodytism,the manufacture and use of bone tools,and hunting and food sharing(including hunting tools and skinning skills).The skill of skinning by distal bones of mammals presented in the marks was the earliest one so far in Chinese palaeo-anthropological records.And the punctures found on fossil bone surface,coincided with the tips of trihedron stone tools,were also the earliest puncture marks made with cuspidal tool recorded in the Chinese palaeo-anthropological sites.Essential analyses on animal made marks were also carried out,such as the morphology of gnawing marks caused by Hystrix and Muridae.Multifold mark samples suggested the complexity of marks in the palaeo-anthropological sites,proving the necessity of the use of integrated methods.Furthermore,the three dimensional scanning technology was first used in the field of surface mark research in China.Scanning technology can transform marks on fossil bone surface into magnified digital models,which could be rotated and observed carefully at observer's desire to distinguish morphological details,or even to determine the sequence by which the marks were made.Great efforts have been made in the last decades to establish concrete identifying criteria and effective examination methods to distinguish human made marks from animal made marks and other marks,and much progress has been made recently.However,according to the particularity in Chinese archaeological records such as different raw materials and technologies in tool making,there should be much difference in morphology of human made marks in Chinese records.By using some new technology and methods in this paper,we wish to present something valuable in the exploration of early human behavior patterns in China.