First Europeans Exhibit on Display at NY's American Museum o

Broadcast: Jan 17, 2003

At the unveiling of the First Europeans exhibit, Ellen Futter, president of the American Museum of Natural History, offered reporters, 1)anthropologists and other scientists an enthusiastic introduction to the new show.

"We are here today because we cannot help but be fascinated by the mysteries of our own origins and informed by what they tell us, not only about our predecessors 2, but about ourselves," she said. "Who preceded us on Earth? Where did they live? What did they do? Were they like us at all? Were they human, at least as we understand it? And more to the point, what does it really mean to be human in our time and in ages before?"

Ongoing 3 2)excavations 4 in the hills and underground caves around Atapuerca, Spain may help provide some answers. Two sites especially, Gran Dolina and Sima de los Huesos, seem to have yielded the largest collection of human and "3)hominid" or "human-like" bones ever discovered. Most of these bones are between 300,000 to 800,000 years old.

Edward Summer, editor of a children's 4)paleontology magazine, who attended the exhibit, he said that the number and completeness of these remains 5 have been a boon 6 to anthropologists everywhere.

"Normally you have only a tiny number of isolated 7 5)specimens. It's hard to build a clear picture when you only have an 6)elbow here, a toe there, and an ear bone there," Mr. Summer said. "But when you get nearly a thousand hominid ancestors with nearly complete 7)skeletons, you can really get a lot of information."

While most anthropologists place humanity's origins in Africa, up to now, there has been little knowledge of early human communities in Europe, where many of those early humans are thought to have migrated. Ian Tattersall, a museum anthropologist 1 and the curator of the new show, said that's another reason the Atapuerca discoveries are so important.

"And these 8)fossils show that, in fact, the early exploration of Europe was a rather experimental procedure, with different kinds of hominids trying their luck in this new and very hostile environment for them to occupy," Mr. Tattersall explained. "These Atapuerca forms feature in human evolution. But they are not necessarily human as we understand ourselves today."

Adam Phillips:"In what sense would they be humans?"
Ian Tattersall:"They would be humans in the sense that they are very close relatives to ourselves. They would be human in the sense that that they belong to the genus Homo. We'd recognize them physically 9 as ourselves from a long way off. Whether we'd recognize them cognitively 10 when we got close up is another question."

Museum anthropologist Ken 11 Mowbray points to the well-preserved 800,000-year-old skull 12 of a small child, one of the top prizes the Gran Dolina site has yielded so far. The skull's features resemble our own, enough to call it a human of sorts, but its structure also differs enough from ours to warrant a separate species designation, Homo antecessor, or "9)forebear human."

"That's an incredible specimen 8," said Mr. Mowbray. "It has unique characteristics of having a very modern looking face but having very primitive-looking teeth. It was obviously a different species, nothing that has been seen before… It shows you how diverse our human history is and how far back that 10)diversity goes."

Many of the human bones found at Gran Dolina bear cuts and gouge 14 marks identical to those found on animal bones. This indicates that Homo antecessor might have practiced 11)cannibalism.

"These humans were taking their simple stone tools and bashing and cutting bones of animals that they had either killed or 12)scavenged," Mr. Mowbray said. "But they were also treating other humans the same way they did animals on the landscape."

Adam Phillips:" What does that tell you?"
Ken Mowbray:" Perhaps we haven't gone very far in 800,000 years."

Nearby, researchers discovered the so-called "Sima de los huesos" or "pit of the bones." It's a hole about 25-meters deep, containing 28 human or human-like skeletons, many over a half-million years old, along with several large animal bones. This makes Sima de las Huesos the largest repository of complete early human fossils ever found. Unlike the bones at Gran Dolina, these bones have not been cut or marked.

Also unlike the Gran Dolina site, which contained many stone tools, no stone tools were discovered at Sima de las Huesos during the almost eighteen years of excavations. Then, in 1998, workers uncovered one double-sided quartzite hand-ax so elegantly wrought 15 that it indicated a maker 16 with intelligence and skill far superior to other hominids from that early date. This Sima hand-ax is a centerpiece of the current exhibition.

"It is obviously beautiful. " Mr. Mowbray explained. "When you look at it, you see the rosy 17 glow to it and also the brown 13)patina. And it's a quartzite and in the right light, it sparkles, and it just speaks to you. And the 14)symmetry is just beautiful. I love looking at it and I am sure everyone else does as well. They had a rock and they knew they wanted to shape it a certain way and they did. Perhaps early humans tossed it into the pit as [a way of] paying respect to their brethren who had fallen into the pit or were tossed down there by their colleagues."

This pile of bones may have been intentionally 18 created, perhaps as a sacred or funerary spot. If so, this ancient site could mark the beginning of human foresight 19 and cognition on a par 13 with our own, said Juan Luis Arsuaga, the leader of the Sima dig.

"I can't prove it. All I can say is this behavior is symbolic 20. It has a meaning for the people who made it. It was not made for food or anything practical," he said. "This behavior was made because they had beliefs, and these beliefs were shared by the whole group, and probably were transmitted between generations. The evolution of the mind. In 15)paleoanthropology, this is the last 16)frontier."

Other notable finds on display sat the exhibit include the first fully 21 reconstructed skeleton of a 17)Neanderthal, a now-extinct human species which co-existed and probably competed with homo 18)sapiens before dying out.

The Neanderthal specimen, with its sloping forehead, protruding 22 brow and a short, brutish stance, is distinctly different from, but also eerily 23 similar, to what we modern Homo sapiens see in our mirrors every morning.

First Europeans: Treasures from the Hills of Atapuerca will be on display at the American Museum of Natural History through April 13.

This is Adam Phillips reporting.

1)    anthropologist[7AnWrE5pClEdVist]n. 人类学者, 人类学家

2)    excavation[7ekskE5veiFEn]n. 挖掘, 发掘, 挖掘成的洞, 出土文物

3)    hominid[5hCminid]n. 原始人类

4)    paleontology[7pAliCn5tClEdVi]n. 古生物学

5)    specimen[5spesimin, -mEn]n. 范例, 标本

6)    elbow[5elbEJ]n. 肘

7)    skeleton[5skelitEn]n. (动物之)骨架, 骨骼

8)    fossil[5fCsl]n. 化石

9)    forebear[5fC:bZE]n. 祖先, 祖宗

10)diversity[dai5vE:siti]n.  差异, 多样性

11)cannibalism[`kAnIbElIzLm]n. 嗜食同类, 食人

12)scavenge[5skAvindV]v. 以(腐肉)为食

13)patina[5pAtinE]n. 铜绿, 绿锈

14)symmetry[5simitri]n. 对称, 匀称

15)paleoanthropology[7pAliEu7AnWrE5pClEdVi]n. 古人类学

16)frontier[5frQntjE]n. 国境, 边疆, 边境

17)neanderthal[ni5AndEtB:l]adj. 穴居人的

18)sapiens[5sApiEnz]n. [拉](类似)现代人的