Dissertation Research: A Study of Zhoukoudian Locality 15

在Dr. John Olsen的指导下，高兴先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。他将对周口店15号重要遗址（ZL15）的考古资料进行分析，并对发掘的原始剖面进行清理，描述地层，收集资料进行地质和年代学分析。“周口店”包括一系列遗址，这些遗址可能跨越了最后一个冰河时代的主要部分，因此可能代表了50多万年的间隔。这些遗址的大部分考古工作早在第二次世界大战之前就开始了，最著名的是直立人颅骨化石，与动物遗骸和石器一起被发现。这些东亚原始人的材料最近引起了人们极大的兴趣，因为不确定它们所代表的谱系是在史前就已经终止了，还是与现在的亚洲人存在联系。在这种情况下，ZL15尤为重要，因为初步分析表明，它的最低水平在时间上与直立人的材料重叠，而最高水平可能是相当近的时间。因此，它可能会提供一个必要的桥梁。然而，该遗址丰富的文化和动物材料尚未得到研究，地质和年代学也没有使用现代技术进行处理。高先生将进行实地和实验室研究。在实地考察中，他将调查周口店山及其周边地区。他将清理ZL15剖面并收集沉积物、动物和植物（包括花粉）样本，这些样本将进行详细的分析，包括绝对定年、孢粉学分析以及土壤学和沉积学研究。对骨骼化石和洞穴化石进行铀系定年，对灰烬和燃烧物质进行裂变径迹定年，对牙齿化石进行氨基酸外消旋和电子自旋共振定年，将有助于确定各个层次的年龄。从现场回收了大约10,000块加工过的石头，高先生将对这些石头进行类型学和技术分析。在同事的帮助下，他还将研究这些动物遗骸，以确定有代表性的物种，并重建生存方式。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将为今天在人类群体中观察到的身体变化提供新的线索。它将增加我们对世界上一个鲜为人知的地区的史前史的了解，并为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。它还将协助培训一名有前途的科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. John Olsen, Mr. Xing Gao will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will analyze archaeological material collected from the very important site of Zhoukoudian Locality 15 (ZL15), and clean the original profile of the excavation to describe the stratigraphy and collect materials for geological and chronological analysis. `Zhoukoudian` includes a series of sites which together likely span a major part of the last Ice Age and therefore probably represent an interval of over half a million years. The majority of the archaeological work at these sites predates World War II and is best known for the fossil Homo erectus crania which were recovered in association with faunal remains and stone tools. This East Asian hominid material has recently been a subject lively interest because it is uncertain whether the lineage they represent terminated prehistorically or whether a link exists with current Asian peoples. In this context ZL15 is particularly important because preliminary analysis indicates that in its lowest level it overlaps with the Homo erectus material in time and that the uppermost level may be fairly recent in date. It thus may provide a needed bridge. However the abundant cultural and faunal materials from the site have not been studied and the geology and chronology has not been addressed using modern techniques. Mr. Gao will conduct both field and laboratory research. In the field he will survey Zhoukoudian Hill and the immediately surrounding area. He will clear the ZL15 section and collect sediment, faunal and floral (including pollen) samples which will be subject to detailed analysis including absolute dating, palynological analysis and pedological and sedimentological study. Uranium series dating on fossil bone and speleothems, fission-track dating on ash and burned materials and amino acid racemization and electron spin resonance dating of fossil teeth will help to determine the ages of the individual levels. Approximately 10,000 pieces of worked stone were recovered from the site and Mr. Gao will conduct typological and technological analyses of these. He will also, with the help of colleagues, study the faunal remains both to identify species represented and to reconstruct subsistence practices. This research is important for several reasons. It will shed new light on the basis for the physical variation observed among human populations today. It will increase our understanding of the prehistory of a little known region of the world and provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will also assist in the training of a promising scientist.