福建漳平奇和洞发现的新石器时代早期人类头骨

2011年在福建漳平奇和洞发现的距今1万年左右的新石器时代早期人类遗骸"奇和洞III号",是迄今在福建地区发现的最早、最完整的古人类头骨,为探讨华南更新世晚期向全新世过渡阶段人类的体质特征及现代人群的形成与分化提供了重要的研究材料。本文对这件头骨进行了研究,奇和洞III号为35岁左右的男性个体,牙齿龋病严重,推测当时人类的经济模式主要以农耕为主。通过与更新世晚期柳江、山顶洞101号及14组新石器时代人类头骨的比较,发现奇和洞III号头骨兼有更新世晚期人类及新石器南、北方居民的混合体质特征:奇和洞III号头骨长而脑量大,似更新世晚期人类;其高而狭窄的面部、宽阔而低矮的鼻部,呈现出不同于南、北方人群的特殊体质特征。主成分分析显示,奇和洞III号与对比的新石器时代各组在头骨的测量数据上没有表现为明显的南、北地区间差异,但在头骨的测量指数或形状上存在时代和地区间的不同。本文研究为新旧石器过渡阶段人类体质特征的变异提供了进一步证据。

The Early Neolithic Human Skull from the Qihe Cave,Zhangping, Fujian

The early Neolithic human skull, Qihe III, found in Zhangping, Fujian Province, and dated about 10,000 years ago is described in this paper. Qihe III is the earliest and most complete human skull currently identified in the Fujian area; thus it is an important piece in the analysis of craniofacial variation of human physical characteristics of southern Chinese, and the formation and differentiation of modern human populations in the Late Pleistocene to Holocene transition. Qihe III belongs to a middle-age male about 35 years old. The individual suffers from a severe carious lesion. It is supposed that the people to which this skull belongs mainly relied on agriculture. Compared with crania from the Late Pleistocene of Liujiang, Upper Cave 101, and 14 Neolithic groups, the skull of Qihe shows mixed physical characteristics of the Neolithic southern and Neolithic northern populations, and of the Late Pleistocene. The Qihe III has a long head and a large cranial capacity similar to the Late Homo sapiens. His high and narrow face, medium orbital height, broad and low nasal shape, is unidentified as a southern or northern pattern. The results of principal components analysis of the cranial measurements show no significant differences were found between the Neolithic southern and northern groups. However in cranial index or cranial shape, the craniofacial morphology indicates spatial-temporal variation among Late Homo sapiens, Neolithic southern and Neolithic northern groups. Early Neolithic skulls show a large variation during the Late Pleistocene to Holocene transition.