Early Neolithic in the Eastern Sahara

根据之前在埃及南部撒哈拉沙漠的工作，弗雷德·温多夫博士和他的同事们发现了令人惊讶的早期文化材料。在Gebel Nabta和Bir Kiseiba遗址的考古发掘中，发现了罕见的家畜骨头和偶尔出现的陶器碎片，它们的历史可以追溯到大约9500年前。大约8100年前的遗址已经发现了家用大麦的谷物，而家用绵羊或山羊也在7000年前的环境中被发现。不幸的是，这些发现是在对非常小的样本进行放射性碳定年的技术发展之前发现的，因为不可能直接确定它们的年代，所以对这些年龄的怀疑一直存在。因此，温多夫博士和他的同事将回到格贝尔纳布塔地区进行一个季节的实地调查，并进行一次精心控制的挖掘，以回收更多的材料。通过在撒哈拉沙漠多年的研究，温多夫博士和他的同事们对传统的考古学对文化发展的解释提出了挑战。在亚洲进行的深入研究得出的证据表明，新石器时代革命的许多标志——从狩猎和采集转向依赖家养动植物和使用陶器——首先发生在近东。从这个角度来看，北非是一个落后的地方，新石器时代的出现是从外部引入的。温多夫博士的研究表明，这个故事要复杂得多，有些元素，比如牛，最早出现在这个地区，而且很可能是在这个地区被驯化的。最重要的不是历史——什么最先出现在哪里——而是事件背后的过程。人类史前最重要的转变可能是从狩猎和采集到驯化动植物物种的转变。考古学家无法就导致这种变化的原因达成一致。一些人认为人口增长是原因，而另一些人则认为气候变化迫使人类和非人类以新的方式相互作用是罪魁祸首。由于温多夫博士和他的团队几十年来收集了大量的环境数据，至少在这个地区，有可能得出一个明确的答案。这项研究很重要，因为它增加了我们对复杂社会发展背后的过程的理解，比如我们自己的社会。

Based on previous work in the Sahara Desert of Southern Egypt, Dr. Fred Wendorf and his colleagues have discovered cultural materials of surprisingly early date. Archaeological excavations at the sites of Gebel Nabta and Bir Kiseiba yielded rare bones of domestic cattle and occasional potsherds dating to about 9,500 years in age. Sites dating to ca. 8,100 years ago have yielded grains of domestic barley, and domestic sheep or goat were recovered from contexts earlier than 7,000 years ago. Unfortunately, these finds were made before techniques had been developed for the radiocarbon dating of very small samples, and because it was not possible to date them directly, doubt has been case on these ages. Therefore, Dr. Wendorf and his colleagues will return to the Gebel Nabta region for one season of fieldwork and conduct a carefully controlled excavation to recover additional materials. Through many years of research in the Sahara, Dr. Wendorf and his colleagues have challenged traditional archaeological interpretations of cultural development. Intensive research in Asia had produced evidence that argued that many hallmarks of the Neolithic revolution - the shift from hunting and gathering to reliance on domesticated plants and animals and the use of pottery - first occurred in the Near East. From this perspective Northern Africa was a backwater and the Neolithic, when it appeared, was introduced from the outside. Dr. Wendorf's work suggests that the story is much more complex and that some elements, such as cattle, first appear and were probably domesticated in this region. What matters most is not the history - what first appeared where - but the processes which underlie the events. Possibly the single most important transition in human prehistory is the shift from hunting and gathering to the domestication of plant and animal species. Archaeologists cannot agree on what caused this change to take place. Some have argued that increased population is the cause, while others contended that climatic changes which forced human and non-human populations to interact in new ways are responsible. Because of the excellent environmental data collected over decades by Dr. Wendorf and his team, it may be possible to arrive at a definitive answer, in this region at least. This research is important because it increases our understanding of the processes which underlie the development of complex societies such as our own.