Paleoanthropological Investigation of the Pestera cu Oase, Romania

最近的人类学研究证明，现代人类在10万年前出现在撒哈拉以南非洲，然后在5万年前传播到欧亚大陆和非洲其余地区。 他们在37，000至30，000年前遍布欧洲，在此期间，他们遇到并吸收了欧洲尼安德特人的人口。 然而，最早的现代欧洲人的人类化石证据一直很稀少，而且要追溯到32，000年前。 在此背景下，2002年和2003年在罗马尼亚西南部的佩斯特拉古绿洲发现的早期现代人类化石，直接追溯到大约35，000年前，为了解这些最早的现代欧洲人的生物学和行为提供了新的证据。 Pestera cu Oase的研究将包括洞穴内容的详细地质学，古生物学，年代学和考古学文献，该洞穴主要用作更新世洞熊的冬眠洞穴，并包含洞熊，人类和各种其他哺乳动物的化石遗骸。 由此，除了恢复更多的人类化石外，研究还将回答有关人类如何进入洞穴的问题，他们与冬眠的熊的关系，以及他们在多大程度上使用洞穴作为仪式和丧葬地点。 它将记录这些最早的现代欧洲人的生物学，根据迄今为止发现的材料，他们与活着的人类有很大的不同。 此外，正在进行的对这些化石的研究直接关系到最早的现代人类的生物学性质，以及为什么在200万年的成功适应之后，古代人类（如尼安德特人）在相对较短的时间内被现代人类取代。罗马尼亚正在科学和经济上崛起，以参与更大的欧洲和全球社会。 在佩斯特拉湖进行的国际合作研究将以几种方式促进这一点。 它将促进罗马尼亚、美国和其他欧洲学者之间的科学交流。 它将涉及对罗马尼亚博士生的实地和实验室培训，这些博士生没有资源在罗马尼亚以外进行培训。 它将通过合作和提供所需的设备和用品，加强罗马尼亚科学院和克卢伊-纳波卡的Babes-Bolyai大学实验室的科学基础设施。 这将有助于保护罗马尼亚丰富的洞穴系统的宝贵和不可替代的洞穴环境，其中大多数目前受到商业开发，不受控制的旅游业和污染的威胁。 这将有助于对罗马尼亚宝贵的古生物宝藏进行适当的管理和随后的分析。 此外，2003年首次公布的Pestera cu Oase化石引起了全球（和罗马尼亚）媒体的关注，因此它有助于提高罗马尼亚和其他地方对其自然资源的认识。 这只会有助于保护这些资源并使其适当地提供给公众。 在佩斯特拉古奥斯的实地研究将加强国际合作的所有这些方面。

Recent anthropological research has documented that modern humans emerged in sub-Saharan Africa prior to 100,000 years ago, and then after 50,000 years ago spread into Eurasia and the remainder of Africa. They spread across Europe between 37,000 and 30,000 years ago, during which time they encountered and variably absorbed populations of European Neandertals. However, the human fossil evidence for those earliest modern Europeans has been scarce and postdates 32,000 years ago. In the context of this, the 2002 and 2003 discoveries of early modern human fossils in the Pestera cu Oase in southwestern Romania, directly dated to about 35,000 years ago, provide novel evidence for understanding the biology and behavior of these earliest modern Europeans. The research at the Pestera cu Oase will consist of the detailed geological, paleontological, chronological and archeological documentation of the contents of the cave, which served primarily as a hibernation cave for Pleistocene cave bear and contains the fossil remains of cave bear, humans, and a variety of other mammals. From this, in addition to the recovery of additional human fossils, the research will answer questions about how the humans came to be in the cave, what their relationships were with the hibernating bears, and the extent to which they used the cave as a ritual and mortuary locality. It will document the biology of these earliest modern Europeans, who, on the basis of the material found so far, differ significantly from living humans. Moreover, ongoing study of these fossils relates directly to questions regarding the biological nature of the earliest modern humans and why, after two million years of successful adaptations, archaic humans (like the Neandertals) were replaced by modern humans in a relatively short period of time. Romania is in the process of emerging scientifically and economically to participate in the larger European and global community. The international collaborative research at the Pestera cu Oase will promote this in several ways. It will foster scientific exchanges between Romanian, American and other European scholars. It will involve field and laboratory training of Romanian doctoral students, who do not have the resources to otherwise train outside of Romania. It will enhance the scientific infrastructure of laboratories of the Romanian Academy and Universitatea Babes-Bolyai in Cluj-Napoca, through collaboration and providing needed equipment and supplies. It will help to conserve the valuable, and irreplaceable, cave environments of the abundant cave systems in Romania, most of which are currently threatened by commercial exploitation, uncontrolled tourism and pollution. It will facilitate the proper curation and subsequent analysis of the valuable paleontological treasures of Romania. Moveover, the initial announcement in 2003 of the Pestera cu Oase fossils received global (and Romanian) media attention, and as such it is helping to increase awareness in Romania and elsewhere of their natural resources. This can only help with the process of conserving those resources and making them appropriately available to the public. The field research at the Pestera cu Oase will enhance all of these aspects of international collaboration.