Archaeological Investigations in the Nihewan Basin

在国家科学基金的支持下，希克博士和她的同事们将在中国北部的河北泥河湾盆地进行为期一季的考古田野工作。这一地区拥有一些最早有文献记载的考古证据，证明早期原始人类占领了东亚。发现了一些早、中更新世遗址，年代从大约100万年到50万年不等，在过去20年里发掘了几处遗址。泥河湾盆地特别重要，因为它在考古和古生物遗址都有很好的保存条件，因此在这个人类进化和人口扩散的重要时期，行为和环境重建的潜力很大。希克博士和她的同事们在该盆地内找到了一个新区域，该区域似乎拥有丰富的考古遗址。在为期两个月的野外考察季节中，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测试挖掘，以将这些事件与之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采用的生存战略。这也将为今后更大规模的挖掘提供依据。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。虽然许多非洲遗址已经被挖掘出来，以提供对原始人适应的洞察，但对于这些人如何传播到其他大陆，以及如何适应他们所面临的非常不同的环境条件，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纠正这一点。收集到的信息将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.