Humans Crafted Complex Tools Earlier Than Thought.doc

Humans Crafted Complex Tools Earlier Than Thought Once thought to have originated in Europe, a tool-making technique was in fact used by prehistoric Africans some 75,000 years ago. Prehistoric people in southern Africa developed a highly skilled way of shaping stones into sharp-edged tools long before Europeans did, suggested a study released recently. 最近发布的一项研究报告表明，居住在非洲南部的史前人类发明了远胜过欧洲旧石器时代的高超削石方法，此方法可把石头刮削成锋利的器具。 A technique known as pressure-flaking, which scientists previously thought was invented in Europe some 20,000 years ago, involves using an animal bone or some other object to exert pressure near the edge of a stone piece and precisely carve out a small flake. 这种技术被称为压制刮削法。科学家们早期认为此方法是20,000年前欧洲人发明的，主要使用动物骨头或其他一些物质施压于石头边缘以精确的雕刻出小石片。 Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder examined stone tools dating from the Middle Stone Age, some 75,000 years ago, from Blombos Cave in what is now South Africa. 美国博尔德科罗拉多大学的研究人员仔细检查了这些来自南非布龙保斯山洞的石器，它们可追溯到中石器时代，有些甚至可追溯到75,000年前。 The team found that the tools had been made by pressure flaking, whereby a toolmaker would typically first strike a stone with hammer-like tools to give the piece its initial shape, and then refine the blades edges and shape its tip. 该研究队发现这些石器是由压制刮削法制成的，石器制造者凭借此技术并用锤状的工具敲打石头直到石头的初步形态成型，然后再精炼叶片的边缘以及石器的顶端。 The technique provides a better means of controlling the sharpness, thickness and overall shape of two-sided tools like spearheads and stone knives. 此技术能够很好的控制石器的形状，薄度以及石器两面整体的形状，如矛尖、石刀。 Using the pressure flaking technique required strong hands and allowed toolmakers to exert a high degree of control on the final shape and thinness that cannot be achieved by percussion, Villa said. This control helped to produce narrower and sharper tool tips. 维拉说，“使用压制刮削技术时，石器制造者需具有粗壮有力的手，这样才能最大程度的控制好石器的最终形态以及薄度，简单的敲打是难以完成的。这种控制有助于铸造更窄、更锋利的刀具。” To arrive at their conclusion that prehistoric Africans could have been the first to use pressure flaking to make tools, the researchers compared stone point