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Archaeologists have made a discovery that may mean our school textbooks have to be rewritten. |
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考古學家獲得了一項發現，可能意謂著學校的教科書必須改寫。 |
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According to a paper published by the science journal Nature, the oldest stone tools made by our human ancestors have been discovered in northwestern Kenya, and they date back 3.3 million years -- about 700,000 years before the oldest tools previously unearthed. |
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根據一篇由科學期刊《自然》所發表的論文，在肯亞西北部找到了我們的人類祖先所製作的最古老的石器工具，時間可追溯到三百三十萬年前──比起先前出土的最古老的工具還早了七十萬年左右。 |
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"We have extended the archaeological record by almost a third," Jason Lewis, the coauthor of the paper, told CNN. "That's like finding cell phones back in the early 1900s." |
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「我們將考古記錄推前了將近三分之一，」該篇論文的共同作者傑森．路易斯向 CNN 表示：「這就像是在二十世紀初期發現了手機一樣。」。 |
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Previous evidence found in Ethiopia suggested that the oldest stone tools of the genus Homo, to which modern-day humans belong, dated back 2.6 million years. |
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The newly unearthed stone artifacts predate -- by a great margin -- the oldest humans, who are believed to have emerged 2.8 million years ago. |
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先前在衣索比亞找到的證據，顯示現代人所屬的人屬動物所製作的最古老的石器工具可追溯到兩百六十萬年前。新發現的石器物品則是比最古老的人類出現的時間還要久遠許多，據信最古老的人類出現於兩百八十萬年前。 |
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This has two implications: Either ancient human ancestors like the ape-like creature "Lucy" -- which lived around the same time as the artifacts -- made the tools, meaning humans are not the only ones able to craft sophisticated tools, or humans appeared earlier than currently thought, and their fossils are still waiting to be found. |
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這項發現有兩個含意：也許古人類祖先，像是類猿動物「露西」──牠們存活的時間約與那些人造物品相同──製造了這些工具，意思就是說不是只有人類才會製造精細的工具；要不然就是人類出現的時間比目前以為的還早，只是他們的化石仍等著被發現而已。 |
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The tools discovered include flakes -- sharp, edgy fragments that could be used for cutting -- along with the cores from which flakes were struck, and anvils, used to hold the cores when the flakes were chipped off. |
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發現的工具包括薄片──尖銳的碎片，可以用來切割──以及敲出那些薄片的核心石塊，還有鑿下那些薄片時用來承受核心石塊的石砧。 |
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"The stone tools are larger than what we are used to seeing from 2.6 million years ago, and are also lighter in color, which is striking to me, because normally stones found on the surface are darker," said Sonia Harmand, the Stony Brook University archaeologist and author of the paper. |
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「這些石器工具比我們以前看到的那些兩百六十萬年前的石器工具還大，顏色也比較淺，這點讓我很驚訝，因為在地表發現的石頭通常顏色比較深，」石溪大學考古學家暨該篇論文作者桑妮亞．哈曼表示。 |
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