论文标题：Neandertal fre-making technology inferred from microwear analysis

期刊：Scientific Reports

作者：A. C. Sorensen, E. Claud & M. Soressi

发表时间： 2018/07/19

数字识别码：10.1038/s41598-018-28342-9

原文链接：https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28342-9?utm_source=Other_website&utm_medium=Website_links&utm_content=RenLi-Nature-Scientific_Reports-Anthropology-China&utm_campaign=SCIREP_USG_JRCN_RL_Neandertal_sciencenet_article_1st_Aug

微信链接：https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/b0TJwjpr9NUZvn-Qk-1oWQ

根据《科学报告》发表的一项研究Neandertal fre-making technology inferred from microwear analysis，尼安德特人像现代人类一样，知道如何使用石器取火。

已有研究表明尼安德特人会使用火，但他们是收集天然火种还是自己生火，仍然存在争议。研究人员在欧亚的许多智人遗址都发现了形状独特的燧石工具——用黄铁矿敲击燧石来生火的证据。但是，尼安德特人遗址一直未见此类工具。

双面燧石工具上的矿物痕迹。图片来源：Sorensen et al.

荷兰莱顿大学的Andrew Sorensen及同事研究了之前发现的尼安德特人做其他用处（如屠宰动物）的燧石工具，期望从中寻找到它们也曾被用来生火的迹象。研究人员在这些工具上面发现了矿物痕迹，表明它们被硬质矿物反复敲击。接着，作者使用8件燧石工具复制品执行若干涉及不同矿物材料的任务，包括利用黄铁矿生火。

不同的任务在燧石工具复制品上留下了不同的痕迹，作者经过分析后得出结论：生火产生的痕迹与之前发现的尼安德特人工具上的痕迹最为接近，这意味着尼安德特人会使用工具取火。

摘要：Fire use appears to have been relatively common among Neandertals in the Middle Palaeolithic. However, the means by which Neandertals procured their fire—either through the collection of natural fire, or by producing it themselves using tools—is still a matter of debate. We present here the first direct artefactual evidence for regular, systematic fire production by Neandertals. From archaeological layers attributed to late Mousterian industries at multiple sites throughout France, primarily to the Mousterian of Acheulean Tradition (MTA) technoculture (ca. 50,000 years BP), we identify using microwear analysis dozens of late Middle Palaeolithic bifacial tools that exhibit macroscopic and microscopic traces suggesting repeated percussion and/or forceful abrasion with a hard mineral material. Both the locations and nature of the polish and associated striations are comparable to those obtained experimentally by obliquely percussing fragments of pyrite (FeS2) against the flat/convex sides of a biface to make fire. The striations within these discrete use zones are always oriented roughly parallel to the longitudinal axis of the tool, allowing us to rule out taphonomic origins for these traces. We therefore suggest that the occasional use of bifaces as ‘strike-a-lights’ was a technocultural feature shared among the late Neandertals in France.

阅读论文全文请访问：https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28342-9?utm_source=Other_website&utm_medium=Website_links&utm_content=RenLi-Nature-Scientific_Reports-Anthropology-China&utm_campaign=SCIREP_USG_JRCN_RL_Neandertal_sciencenet_article_1st_Aug

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（来源：科学网）