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Researchers say they have identified stone tools that might represent the oldest-known evidence of humans in Europe.
研究人员表示，他们已经发现了可能代表欧洲已知最古老人类证据的石器。
The recent research suggests that the human ancestors started settling Europe 1.4 million years ago.
最近的研究表明，人类祖先在140万年前就开始在欧洲定居。
That is hundreds of thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
这比之前认为的要早几十万年。
The stone tools were first discovered in the 1970s near the town of Korolevo, close to Ukraine's borders with Hungary and Romania.
这些石器最早是在20世纪70年代在科罗列沃镇附近发现的，该镇靠近乌克兰与匈牙利和罗马尼亚的边境。
But the tools' age had remained unclear.
但这些工具的年代仍不清楚。
The place of the find is important for understanding how humans first spread into Europe.
这一发现物的地点对于了解人类最初是如何扩散到欧洲的非常重要。
They moved into the area during warm periods, called interglacial periods.
他们在间冰期这一温暖的时期迁入该地区。
Those were times, in between Ice Ages, when huge amounts of ice covered Europe.
那是在两次冰河时期之间，大量的冰覆盖着欧洲。
The scientists used a method for estimating the age that identifies the effects of cosmic rays on some kinds of minerals.
科学家使用了一种估算年龄的方法，这种方法可以识别宇宙射线对某些物质的影响。
The new method placed the age of the sediment layer containing the stone tools at around 1.4 million years.
新方法确定了含有石器的沉积层的年龄在140万年左右。
The researchers believe that the maker of the tools was likely a human ancestor called Homo erectus.
研究人员认为，这些工具的制造者很可能是人类的祖先直立人。
That early human species appeared around 2 million years ago and spread across Africa, Asia and Europe before disappearing perhaps 110,000 years ago.
这种早期的人类物种出现在大约200万年前，在大约11万年前消失之前，他们扩散到了非洲、亚洲和欧洲。
"No bones were found at Korolevo, only stone tools. But the age suggests that Homo erectus was the only possible human species at the time. We know very little about our earliest ancestors. They used stone tools for butchery and probably used fire," said Roman Garba of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
捷克科学院的罗曼·加尔巴说：“在科罗列沃没有发现骨骼，只有石器。但这个年代表明，直立人是当时唯一可能的人类物种。我们对我们最早的祖先知之甚少。他们使用石器屠宰，可能还使用了火。”
Garba was the lead writer of the research published in Nature.
加尔巴是这篇发表在《自然》杂志上的研究论文的主要作者。
Homo erectus was the first member of our evolutionary lineage.
直立人是人类进化谱系的第一个成员。
Homo erectus had body proportions like our species, Homo sapiens, though with a smaller brain.
直立人的身体比例和我们智人一样，只是大脑更小。
The tools, made of volcanic rock, were made in a way that is called Oldowan.
这些工具是由火山岩制成的，制作方法被称为奥尔德沃。
While simple, they represent the beginning of human technology.
虽然简单，但它们代表了人类技术的开始。
Until now, the oldest-known evidence of humans in Europe was from about 1.2 million years ago from a place called Atapuerca in Spain.
到目前为止，已知的欧洲最古老的人类证据来自大约120万年前西班牙一个叫阿塔普埃卡的地方。
The Korolevo findings suggest how the first humans might have moved into Europe.
科罗列沃的发现表明了第一批人类迁入欧洲的可能方式。
Homo erectus fossils from 1.8 million years ago are known from a place in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia called Dmanisi.
180万年前的直立人化石是在格鲁吉亚高加索山脉一个叫德马尼西的地方发现的。
Garba said the evidence from Korolevo and Dmanisi suggests Homo erectus entered Europe from the east or southeast, moving along the Danube River.
加尔巴说，来自科罗列沃和德马尼西的证据表明，直立人从东部或东南部进入欧洲，沿着多瑙河迁徙。
It has been difficult to identify the age of places like Korolevo.
很难确定像科罗列沃这样的地方的年代。
The study dated the tools, left by their makers on a riverbed, by estimating when the layer holding the objects was buried under sediment.
这项研究通过估计存放这些工具的地层何时被埋在沉积物下的时间来确定这些工具的年代，这些工具是由制造者留在河床上的。
Mads Knudsen of Aarhus University in Denmark described how scientists were able to date the prehistoric tools.
丹麦奥胡斯大学的Mads Knudsen描述了科学家是如何确定史前工具的年代的。
He said cosmic rays from outer space are always passing through the Earth's atmosphere.
他说，来自外太空的宇宙射线总是穿过地球的大气层。
When they do, they create particles that are smaller than atoms, such as neutrons and muons.
当它们穿过地球的大气层时，它们会产生比原子更小的粒子，如中子和介子。
These particles are so small that they pass through all sorts of materials.
这些粒子非常小，可以穿透各种物质。
These particles react with minerals in rocks to produce radioactive nuclides, a class of atoms.
这些粒子与岩石中的矿物质反应产生放射性核素，这是一种原子。
The sediment was dated based on the ratio of two nuclides.
根据两种核素的比例确定了沉积物的年代。
This is possible because the two nuclides break down at different rates, through the process of radioactive decay.
这是可能的，因为这两种核素在放射性衰变的过程中以不同的速度分解。
Europe was later colonized by other human ancestor species including Homo heidelbergensis and Neanderthals.
欧洲后来沦为包括海德堡人和尼安德特人在内的其他人类祖先的殖民地。
Scientists say Homo sapiens evolved in Africa about 300,000 years ago.
科学家表示，智人大约在30万年前在非洲进化。
They arrived in large numbers in Europe around 40,000 to 45,000 years ago.
它们在大约4万到4.5万年前大量到达欧洲。
The researchers suspect evidence of human occupation in Europe that is even older than Korolevo will be found.
研究人员怀疑，未来将会发现比科罗列沃更古老的人类占领欧洲的证据。
"The question is not 'if' but 'when' we will find a site of similar or older age somewhere else in Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria or Serbia," Garba said.
加尔巴说：“问题不是‘会不会’，而是‘什么时候’我们会在乌克兰、罗马尼亚、保加利亚或塞尔维亚的其他地方找到类似或更古老的遗址”。
I'm John Russell.
约翰·拉塞尔为您播报。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
