试论早期人类占据河湾盆地的时代

A Tentative Discussion on the Age of the Ancient Human Occupation of the Nihewan Basin

随着泥河湾盆地旧石器时代早期遗址的发现越来越多 ,何时人类开始成为泥河湾盆地的主人已逐渐成为旧石器考古学家、古人类学家以及第四纪地质学家共同面临的一个重要问题。根据目前泥河湾盆地旧石器考古学证据 ,结合新生代环境研究的进展 ,就这一问题进行了研究。认为早期人类对温带泥河湾地区的占据可能是旧大陆直立人地理大扩张发生在中国地区的一例 ,其时间可能发生在早更新世末期气候转型期间 ,具体时间为 1.2～ 1.0MaBP左右。

The Nihewan Basin, where many early Pleistocene Paleolithic sites have been unearthed,could play an important role in understanding the history of human evolution and the speed of Human's Paleolithic culture diffusion in China. It could also serve as a good example of exploring how ancient human beings coped with the temperate areas even in the early Pleistocene. However, since the first early Paleolithic site Xiaochangliang was found in 1978, no agreement has yet been reached on the problem when human beings began to inhabit the Nihewan Basin. As more and more early Paleolithic sites have been uncovered,this question needs to be reconsidered seriously. In this paper,the opinions voiced by different researchers on the dates of the early Paleolithic sites are listed and the causes of the existence of different opinions are analyzed. In the end, an age of 1.2～1.0 Ma B P was proposed for the Human's first occupation of the Nihewan Basin based on synthesizing the paleoenvironment and the 'Homo erectus's geographic expansion'which occurred worldwide at about the same time.