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Earliest known human-made fire uncovered in the UK

研究人员在英国发现了已知最早的人类取火痕迹

文字稿

Pallab Ghosh, BBC correspondent
"The ability to create and control fire changed everything for humans. It provided warmth at will. It enabled us to cook and eat meat which enlarged our brains. It meant that we were no longer a species clinging on for survival. We could invent, and we could create, and we could go on to become the advanced species we are today. All of this by bashing rocks together. And it happened here in the forests of Barnham in Suffolk."

帕拉布·戈什 BBC 通讯员
“生火和控制火的能力彻底地改变了人类的一切。它提供了想要就能得到的温暖。它让我们能把肉做熟再吃，这让我们的大脑变得更大。它意味着我们不再是一个艰难求生的物种。我们得以进行发明创造，得以继续发展成如今这个高级物种。所有这些都来自于击打石头。而这个行为就曾发生在萨福克郡巴纳姆的这片森林中。”

Archaeologists found fragments of this mineral here, that changed the world forever.

考古学家在这里发现了这种矿物的碎片，这种矿物永远地改变了世界。

Dr Rob Davis, British Museum
"It's the internal surface of this that you can use by striking a flint to create sparks."

罗伯·戴维斯博士大英博物馆
“你可以用燧石敲击这种矿石的内部表面来制造火花。”

Professor Nicholas Ashton, British Museum
"Right. Are you going to give it a go?"

尼古拉斯·阿什顿教授大英博物馆
“好。你要来试一试吗？”

Dr Rob Davis, British Museum
"I'm going to give it a go."

罗伯·戴维斯博士大英博物馆
“我来试一试。”

Iron pyrite, also known as 'fool's gold' – it sparked a new golden beginning for humanity. Under the tree tops, an incredible secret remained buried until now.

黄铁矿，也被称为 “愚人金”，它为人类点燃了黄金般的新开端。在这些树冠下，一个惊人的秘密被埋藏到了今日。

Professor Nicholas Ashton, British Museum
"So this is the area where we discovered this heated sediment, and you can tell it's heated because normally the clay is quite yellowy orange and this was a distinct red."

尼古拉斯·阿什顿教授大英博物馆
“这就是我们发现被加热过的沉积物的区域。你能看出它被加热过是因为通常黏土的颜色是橙黄色的，但这片区域的土明显泛红。”

Pallab Ghosh, BBC correspondent
"This is where they were gathered around?"

帕拉布·戈什 BBC 通讯员
“这就是早期人类聚集的地方？”

Professor Nicholas Ashton, British Museum
"Yes, so this is where the hearth was, you can imagine early humans gathering around this fire and developing the very early use of language."

尼古拉斯·阿什顿教授大英博物馆
“是的，这里就是火塘所在的地方，你可以想象早期人类就聚集在这里的火焰周围，然后开始使用并逐渐发展出非常早期的语言。”

Pallab Ghosh, BBC correspondent
"An incredibly special place."

帕拉布·戈什 BBC 通讯员
“真是一个无比特别的地方。”

Professor Nicholas Ashton, British Museum
"Incredible."

尼古拉斯·阿什顿教授大英博物馆
“绝对是。”

Nick Ashton and his team found three crucial clues in this scientific detective story.

尼克·阿什顿和他的团队找到了这个科学侦探故事中的三个关键线索。

As well as the fire, a hand axe on the left, and next to it a tiny piece of iron pyrite, all in the same spot.

除了生火的痕迹以外，左侧有一把手斧，旁边有一小块黄铁矿，全都出现在了同一个地点。

Compelling evidence that the fire was deliberately created more than 400,000 years ago, 350,000 years earlier than previously thought.

这些有力的证据表明火在 40 万年前就曾被有意识地制造出来，这比先前人们认为的时间早了 35 万年。

A replica skull of the people living in Britain at the time shows that they were not of our species but a different kind of human.

一个当时生活在不列颠的人的头骨复制品显示，他们并不属于我们这个物种，而是另一种人类。

Professor Chris Stringer, Natural History Museum
"What's interesting is that the shape of the skull, little details on the skull, suggests that she was probably a very early Neanderthal. Even 400,000 years ago, the Neanderthals were beginning their evolution. So we think those fires at Barnham were being made by early Neanderthals."

克里斯·斯特林格教授伦敦自然史博物馆
“有趣的是这个头骨的形状和头骨上的微小细节表明她很可能是一名非常早期的尼安德特人。甚至在 40 万年前，尼安德特人就开始进化了。所以我们认为巴纳姆的火是由早期的尼安德特人制造的。”

The discovery here, published in the journal Nature, begins a new search for where else different groups of humans, including our own species, Homo Sapiens, learnt to use a technology that made us the inventive and innovative people we are today.

这个发现被发表在了《自然》期刊中，它开启了一项新的搜寻工作，寻找不同的人类种群，包括我们自身所属的物种，智人，学会使用一种技术的其它地点，也正是这个技术使我们成为了如今富有创造力和创新性的人类。