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Give us the tools 给我们工具

Antarctic rocks can help sort stone tools from natural lookalikes

南极岩石可以帮助我们区分石器与天然石块。

That will help archaeologists who study the Palaeolithic

从而，帮助那些研究旧石器的考古学家

Antarctica is somewhere archaeologists might be thought to have little business. After all, human beings did not reach it until 1821. Yet a study published in Antiquity by Metin Eren of Kent State University, in Ohio, argues it is worth their attention for precisely that reason.

A challenge faced by those archaeologists who study the Stone Age, particularly the Palaeolithic (which is the bulk of hominid history, including species such as Homo neanderthalensis and Homo heildelbergensis), is discerning whether things which might be stone tools, are, indeed, such. There are many cases when a rock identified as having been worked deliberately by hominid hand has subsequently been reclassified as a naturally produced object.

2. 研究石器时代，尤其是旧石器时代的考古学家面临很大困难，他们难以辨别看似石器的真实性。（旧石器时代是原始人存在一大段历史时期，这里有尼安德特人以及海德堡人。）很多时候，一块认定为原始人手工精心制作的石块后来又重新鉴定为大自然天成的。

Dr Eren and his colleagues thought it might thus be useful to assemble a library of tool-like rocks from a place where there was no chance that they could have been chipped at by humans or their ancestors. They turned to Antarctica because, not only was it reached only 200 years ago, but it also supports a variety of processes, including glacial erosion, frost cleaving and river transport, which might batter rocks into tool-like shapes.

3. 艾伦博士和他的同事认为也许通过建立工具形状天然石块数据库会有所帮助。天然石块需要来自那些人类及其祖先不可能人工加工的地方选取。他们将眼光投向南极大陆，直到200年前人类才抵达这里，而且这有各种自然力的作用，诸如冰川侵蚀、霜冻分化，河流冲刷等。这里都可能将岩石变成石器的形状。

Rather than visit the continent itself, they knocked on the doors of the Polar Rock Repository in Columbus, Ohio's capital, where thousands of Antarctic rock samples are stored. They used the repository's database to find specimens made of stuff—especially basalt, chert (of which the most familiar type is flint) and obsidian—that hominids had a penchant for working into tools before the development of bronze and iron. They then studied these in detail and identified 14 which they thought could easily have duped archaeologists into believing they had been made deliberately.

4. 研究人员并未亲赴南极大陆，他们访问了俄亥俄首府哥伦布的极地岩石博物馆，这里保存着成千上万的南极岩石样本。研究人员在数据库汇中找出玄武岩和燧石样本（这些石材是最常见的打火工具），以及黑曜石，原始人进化到青铜铁器之间，喜欢用来黑曜石制作石器。之后，研究人员进行细致研究，找到14件很容易让考古学家误认为的人造器物。

They argue in their paper that these specimens should form the core of a reference collection, with which doubtful discoveries could be compared. They also hope to add to this collection by similarly plundering the trove belonging to the British Antarctic Survey, in Cambridge. That would certainly help professional archaeologists. For amateurs who might be curious as to whether the “tool” pictured at the top of this article is natural or artificial: it is a real tool, from Spain, made 350,000 years ago by Homo heilbergensis.

5. 研究人员发表论文中支出这些样本是主要的参照物，可以同发掘物做对比研究。他们还希望对位于英国剑桥的英国南极调查所的库藏做类似研究，以丰富其参照库。此举无疑将有益于专业考古学家。对于考古爱好者而言，他们对于这一篇论文封面照片中的工具是自然天成还是人工打造，很感兴趣。这是一件来自西班牙的石器，来自35万年前的海德堡人。

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline "Give us the tools" (Mar 1st 2023)