科学美国人打包.pdfVIP

Earlyhumansbeganusingfireaboutamillionyearsago.Butit’sbeenunclear

whenwebegantocontrolfireforouruse,akeyadvanceinthedevelopment

ofcultureandcivilization.

Now,archaeologistsreportthediscoveryofthemostancientknownhearth

formakingandusingfire.Thehearthappearstobe300,000yearsold.

ScientistsfoundevidenceofwoodashinthecenterofQesemCaveinIsrael.

Theyremovedachunkofsedimentandhardeneditinthelab,sotheycould

slicelayersandevaluatethemunderthemicroscope.

Theyfoundburntbones,flint,woodashandbitsofburntclay.There’s

charredflintandanimalbonesnearthehearth,alongwithflinttoolsfurther

awayusedforactivitiessuchasbutchering.TheresearchisintheJournalof

ArchaeologicalScience.[R.Shahack-Grossetal.,Evidencefortherepeated

useofacentralhearthatMiddlePleistocene(300kyago)QesemCave,

Israel]

Theinvestigatorssaythelargehearthwasusedrepeatedlyovertimefora

largegroupofpeople.Itscentralizedlocationanddivisionoflaborareas

suggestssocialstructureandspatialplanning.

Thefindinghelpsdelineateaturningpointinhumansocialandcognitive

development.Thisandothersuchhearthswerecruciblesthathelpedforge

modernhumanity—andeventuallyus.

Someweedsarestrongenoughtoresistweed-killingproductscalled

herbicides.Butresearchersarefindingnaturalwaystodealwithunwanted

plants.

大约一百万年前，早期人类开始使用火。但尚不清楚我们何时开始控制火以供自己使用，这是文化和文明发展的一个关键进步。

现在，考古学家报告发现了已知最古老的生火和用火炉。这个炉子似乎有30万年的。

科学家在以色列Qesem发现了木灰的。

他们取出一块沉积物，在中将其硬化，这样他们就可以切开各层并在显微镜下进行评估。

研究人员表示，这个大炉灶在很长一段时间内被一大群人反复使用。它的集中位置和区域的分工表明了社会结构和空间规划。

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