万物简史 第644期:永不安分的类人猿(2)

In the 1940s a Harvard paleontologist named Hallum Movius drew something called the Movius line, dividing the side with Acheulean tools from the one without. The line runs in a southeasterly direction across Europe and the Middle East to the vicinity¹ of modern-day Calcutta and Bangladesh. Beyond the Movius line, across the whole of southeast Asia and into China, only the older, simpler Oldowan tools have been found. We know that Homo sapiens went far beyond this point, so why would they carry an advanced and treasured stone technology to the edge² of the Far East and then just abandon³ it?

20世纪40年代，一个名为哈莱姆·莫维士的哈佛大学古生物学家画了一条被称为“莫氏线”的曲线，将使用阿舍利工具的地区和不使用该工具的地区分为两个部分。这条线沿东南方向跨越欧洲、中东，一直到现在的加尔各答和孟加拉国。在这条线以外，包括整个东南亚、中国在内的广大地区，只发现了年代更久也更简单的奥都成工具。我们知道，智人到达的地方远远超过这一地区，因此为什么他们携带的这样一种先进的宝贝石器，在快到远东时却扔掉了？

"That troubled me for a long time," recalls⁴ Alan Thorne of the Australian National University in Canberra. "The whole of modern anthropology⁵ was built round the idea that humans came out of Africa in two waves——a first wave of Homo erectus, which became Java Man and Peking Man and the like, and a later, more advanced wave of Homo sapiens, which displaced⁶ the first lot. Yet to accept that you must believe thatHomo sapiens got so far with their more modern technology and then, for whatever reason, gave it up. It was all very puzzling, to say the least."

“这个问题困扰了我很长一段时间，”堪培拉澳大利亚国立大学的艾伦·桑恩回忆说，“整个现代人类学建立在这样的观点之上：人类分两批走出非洲——第一批是直立人，后来他们变成了爪哇人、北京人等等。另一批是较晚的更为先进的智人，他们取代了直立人。然而，若要接受这种观点，你就必须相信，智人将比较现代的工具携带了这么长的距离，却不知因为何种原因把它们丢弃了。无论如何，起码说这是非常令人费解的。”

1 vicinity   

n.邻近，附近地区

参考例句：

• He told us there was no hotel in the vicinity.他告诉我们说附近没有旅馆。
• There's a factory in the vicinity of the school.学校邻近有个工厂。

2 edge   

n.边(缘)；刃；优势；v.侧着移动，徐徐移动

参考例句：

• Sight along the edge to see if it's straight.顺着边目测，看看直不直。
• She lived on the extreme edge of the forest.她住在森林的最边缘。

3 abandon   

vt.抛弃，离弃，遗弃；放弃

参考例句：

• We had no option but to abandon the meeting.我们别无选择，只有放弃这次会面。
• They abandon themselves to drinking.他们沉湎于饮酒。

4 recalls   

回忆起( recall的第三人称单数 )； 使想起； 使想到； 勾起

参考例句：

• The sight recalls the days of childhood to me. 那情景使我想起了童年。
• Moreover, extensive use of voluntary recalls can undercut agency accountability. 此外，大量利用自愿撤回会削弱行政机关的责任心。

5 anthropology   

n.人类学

参考例句：

• I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
• Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。

6 displaced   

移动( displace的过去式和过去分词 )； 替换； 移走； 撤职

参考例句：

• Gradually factory workers have been displaced by machines. 工厂的工人已逐渐被机器取代。
• He was displaced by another young man. 他已被另一个年轻人顶替。