水洞沟第12地点古人类用火研究

A Study of Fire-Use Activities at Shuidonggou Locality 12

水洞沟遗址第12地点在2007年的考古发掘中从距今约1.1万年前的灰烬层中出土大量破碎的石块。对这些石块的形态观察、大小统计和岩性分析表明它们是被人类选择、加热、利用而后破碎的。用同类石料所做的模拟实验表明,这些石块是在经历高温热烧后被浸入水中崩解破碎的,即它们是生活在遗址的先民用来烧水和烹煮液体食物的"烧石"。对遗址区地下水和地表水所做的水质检测分析显示,该地的生水中大肠杆菌含量严重超标,不能被直接食(饮)用,但煮沸后此项危害得以消除;生态环境资料表明当地晚更新世末以来生长着多种可被人类食用的植物,其中的一些可食性籽粒必须经过烹煮方可被享用。该地点的烧石是首次被确认和论证的旧石器时代先民复杂、间接用火的考古证据,对探讨该遗址古人群对特定环境的适应生存方略与聪明才智,以及古人类用火能力与方式的发展演化,具有重要的学术意义。

In 2007, over ten thousand cracked stone pieces were unearthed during a test excavation from a thick ashy layer at Locality 12 of the Shuidonggou Paleolithic site in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, North China. The cultural horizon yielding such fractured stone was dated to 11000--12000 BP by AMS and OSL methods. Morphological observations and lithologieal analysis of the broken stones indicated that they were the result of ancient human selection, transport, heating, and utilization. Experimental studies on similar lithic materials support the idea that such cracked pieces went through the process of repeated heating and water immersion. Therefore, it is presumed that these pieces were ＂cook stones＂ used by ancient humans to aid in the cooking of foods and boiling of water. Chemical tests on water samples collected from ground and underground sources near the site indicate a high intestinal Bacillus content, and thus natural water could not have been utilized directly without heat treatment. Paleoenvironmental studies point out that during the late Upper Pleistocene, many kinds of plant food resources were available to human groups living in the region, and that some of such plant foods, especially seeds, would be edible to humans only after being boiled or cooked. It is the first time that evidence of complex and an indirect way of fire use, i.e., hot-rock cookery, has been recognized from Paleolithic remains in China, and thus, such boiling stones provide valuable information for studying ancient human adaptative strategies and the development of human fire-use history.