Archaeological Investigations in the Nihewan Basin

在国家科学基金的支持下，Schick博士和她的同事将在中国北部河北省泥河湾盆地进行一个季节的考古实地调查。这个地区拥有一些最早的考古证据，证明早期人类占领了东亚。许多早更新世和中更新世的遗址，年龄从大约100万年到50万年不等，已被确定，其中一些在过去二十年中被挖掘出来。泥河湾盆地特别重要，因为它的考古和古生物遗址都保存得很好，因此在这一人类进化和人口分散的重要时期，它的行为和环境重建具有巨大的潜力。希克博士和她的同事们在盆地内发现了一个新的区域，那里似乎有丰富的考古遗址。在为期2个月的实地调查期间，他们将调查这些遗址的分布、年代和背景。他们将进行系统的调查和试验挖掘，将这些事件与以前调查过的地点联系起来。这项工作还将把这些遗址整合到更大的地质和环境背景中，并允许重建这些早期人类使用的生存策略。这也将为今后更大规模的挖掘提供基础。考古学家知道，最早的原始人最早出现在非洲，后来才传播到世界其他地区。虽然人们挖掘了许多非洲遗址，以深入了解原始人的适应情况，但对于这些民族如何传播到其他大陆并适应他们所面临的截然不同的环境条件，人们知之甚少。希克博士和她的同事将进行的研究应该有助于解决这个问题。收集到的信息会引起许多考古学家的兴趣。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Schick and her colleagues will conduct one season of archaeological fieldwork in the Nihewan Basin, Hebei Province, northern China. This region holds some of the earliest documented archaeological evidence for early hominid occupation of eastern Asia. A number of sites from the Early and Middle Pleistocene, ranging from approximately 1.0 to 0.5 million years in age and been identified and several have been excavated within the past two decades. The Nihewan basin is particularly important because of the excellent conditions of preservation at both archaeological and paleontological sites and thus the great potential for behavioral and environmental reconstructions during this important time period of human evolution and population dispersal. Dr. Schick and her colleagues have located within the Basin a new area which appears rich in archaeological sites. During a 2-month field season they will investigate the distribution, chronology and context of these sites. They will conduct systematic survey and test excavation to tie these occurrences in with sites previously investigated. The work will also integrate the sites into the larger geological and environmental setting and allow reconstruction of the subsistence strategies these early humans employed. It will also provide the basis for future larger scale excavation. Archaeologists know that the earliest hominids first appeared in Africa and only later spread to other parts of the world. While many African sites have been excavated to provide insight into hominid adaptation, very little is known about how these peoples spread to other continents and adapted the very different environmental conditions which confronted them. The research which Dr. Schick and her colleagues will conduct should help to remedy this. The information collected will be of interest to many archaeologists.