Parfitt Simon A, Barendregt René W, Breda Marzia, Candy Ian, Collins Matthew J, Coope G Russell, Durbidge Paul, Field Mike H, Lee Jonathan R, Lister Adrian M, Mutch Robert, Penkman Kirsty E H, Preece Richard C, Rose James, Stringer Christopher B, Symmons Robert, Whittaker John E, Wymer John J, Stuart Anthony J
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London WC1H 0PY, UK.
Nature. 2005 Dec 15;438(7070):1008-12. doi: 10.1038/nature04227.
The colonization of Eurasia by early humans is a key event after their spread out of Africa, but the nature, timing and ecological context of the earliest human occupation of northwest Europe is uncertain and has been the subject of intense debate. The southern Caucasus was occupied about 1.8 million years (Myr) ago, whereas human remains from Atapuerca-TD6, Spain (more than 780 kyr ago) and Ceprano, Italy (about 800 kyr ago) show that early Homo had dispersed to the Mediterranean hinterland before the Brunhes-Matuyama magnetic polarity reversal (780 kyr ago). Until now, the earliest uncontested artefacts from northern Europe were much younger, suggesting that humans were unable to colonize northern latitudes until about 500 kyr ago. Here we report flint artefacts from the Cromer Forest-bed Formation at Pakefield (52 degrees N), Suffolk, UK, from an interglacial sequence yielding a diverse range of plant and animal fossils. Event and lithostratigraphy, palaeomagnetism, amino acid geochronology and biostratigraphy indicate that the artefacts date to the early part of the Brunhes Chron (about 700 kyr ago) and thus represent the earliest unequivocal evidence for human presence north of the Alps.
早期人类在走出非洲后对欧亚大陆的殖民是一个关键事件，但最早一批人类在欧洲西北部居住的性质、时间和生态背景尚不确定，一直是激烈争论的主题。南高加索地区在约180万年前就有人类居住，而西班牙阿塔普埃尔卡-TD6遗址（距今超过78万年）和意大利切普拉诺遗址（约80万年前）的人类遗骸表明，早期智人在布容-松山极性倒转（78万年前）之前就已扩散到地中海腹地。到目前为止，北欧最早无可争议的人工制品要年轻得多，这表明人类直到约50万年前才得以在北纬地区殖民。在此，我们报告了英国萨福克郡帕基菲尔德（北纬52度）克罗默森林床层组的燧石制品，这些制品来自一个包含各种动植物化石的间冰期层序。事件和岩石地层学、古地磁学、氨基酸地质年代学和生物地层学表明，这些制品可追溯到布容世早期（约70万年前），因此代表了阿尔卑斯山以北人类存在的最早明确证据。
