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A newly reinterpreted fossil muddies the waters of human history
一個最近被重新解釋的化石攪亂了人類歷史
Early human fossils are so rare that each new discovery may rewrite the textbooks.
早期人類化石非常稀有，每一個新發現都可能重寫歷史課本。
A chance find two years ago in Morocco, for example, pushed the origin of Homo sapiens back to at least 315,000 years ago,
例如，兩年前在摩納哥的一次偶然發現將智人的起源推回到至少31.5萬年前，
from a previous minimum of 260,000 years based on remains found in South Africa.
此前基于南非殘骸的發現，智人的起源是在26萬年前。
Now, as they report in this week's Nature, a group of palaeontologists
現在，正如他們在本周《自然》期刊的報道，一群古生物學家
have extended the known geographical range of early Homo sapiens from Africa to Europe.
將已知早期智人的地理范圍從非洲延伸至了歐洲。
Katerina Harvati of the University of Tuebingen, in Germany,
德國圖賓根大學的卡捷琳娜·哈瓦蒂
and her colleagues found the relevant skull fragment not in the ground, but in a museum in Athens.
和她的同事是在雅典的一家博物館，而非地下發現相關顱骨碎片的。
It was one of a pair of specimens dug up in the 1970s from Apidima, a cave in southern Greece.
這是20世紀70年代在希臘南部的一個洞穴Apidima中挖掘到的一對樣本之一。
Both were recognised as being human fossils of some sort, but had not been dated or properly analysed.
兩樣都被認為是某種人類化石，但還沒有確定年份或進行適當的分析。
Dr Harvati and her team have now done so, using techniques unavailable to the original finders.
哈瓦蒂和她的團隊現在已經這樣做了，他們使用了原始發現者們所不具備的技術。
One fossil is a reasonably complete, though fragmented, skull. Radioisotope dating shows it is 170,000 years old.
有一塊化石是相當完整的頭骨，雖然有裂痕。放射性同位素年份測定顯示它有17萬年的歷史。
Computer reconstruction reveals it to be an example of Homo neanderthalensis,
計算機重建顯示它屬于尼安德特人，
Neanderthal man, a species widespread in Europe until 40,000 years ago, when Homo sapiens took over.
尼安德特人是一個在歐洲廣泛分布的物種，直到4萬年前智人接管了歐洲。
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