MacDonald Katharine
Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Temperature (Austin). 2017 Jan 24;4(2):153-165. doi: 10.1080/23328940.2017.1284637. eCollection 2017.
Humans today live in a wide range of environments from the iciest to the hottest, thanks to diverse cultural solutions that buffer temperature extremes. The prehistory of this relationship between human distribution, cultural solutions and temperature conditions may help us to understand the evolution of human biological adaptations to cold temperature. Fire has long been seen as an important factor in human evolution and range expansion, particularly into temperate latitudes. Nevertheless, the earliest evidence for hominin presence in Eurasia, and middle latitudes in northern Europe, substantially predates convincing evidence for fire use in these regions. This review outlines the current state of knowledge of the chronology of hominin dispersal into temperate latitudes, from the earliest occupants to our own species, and the archeological evidence for fire use. Given continuing disagreement about this chronology and limitations to the archeological evidence, new, complementary approaches are worthwhile and would benefit from information from studies of current human temperature regulation.
如今，人类生活在从最寒冷到最炎热的各种环境中，这得益于多种文化手段来缓冲极端温度。人类分布、文化手段与温度条件之间这种关系的史前史，或许有助于我们理解人类对寒冷温度的生物适应性的演变。长期以来，火一直被视为人类进化和活动范围扩张的一个重要因素，尤其是在向温带地区扩张的过程中。然而，在欧亚大陆以及北欧中纬度地区，最早的古人类存在证据，要比这些地区确凿的用火证据早得多。这篇综述概述了从古人类最早进入温带地区到我们现代人类这一过程的年代学知识现状，以及用火的考古证据。鉴于在这一年代学方面仍存在分歧，且考古证据存在局限性，新的补充方法是值得尝试的，并且会从当前人类体温调节研究的信息中受益。
