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The other fossil, the back half of a cranium turned out to be Homo sapiens.
其他化石，顱骨的后半部分，被證明是屬于智人。
It is 210,000 years old, and thus the third-oldest known example of modern humanity. That is interesting.
其有21萬年歷史并且是已知第三古老的現代人類。這很有趣。
But what has excited attention is that it is also the oldest Homo sapiens specimen found outside Africa—
但令人興奮的是，它也是在非洲以外發現的最古老的智人標本—
the continent where, according to all the available evidence, the species originated.
根據現有的所有證據，該物種起源于非洲大陸。
How Homo sapiens spread from Africa to dominate the world is a story that once looked simple, but is getting rapidly more complex.
智人如何從非洲擴散并主宰世界的，這個故事看似簡單，但正在變得更加復雜。
Genetic data suggest most people alive today who are not African or of recent African descent
基因數據表明，如今大部分的非非洲或非近非洲后裔的人
can trace their ancestry to one or a few "out of Africa" migrations that began about 60,000 years ago into Asia,
他們的祖先可以追溯到約6萬年前開始的一次或幾次“走出非洲”到亞洲的遷徙，
and thence spread to Australia, Europe and the Americas.
并從那里散布至澳大利亞、歐洲和美洲。
More detailed analysis, though, shows that on the way through these places
雖然更加詳細的分析表明在穿越這些地方的途中，
some of those ancestral humans interbred with other human species, now extinct, including Neanderthals.
這些祖先中的一些人與其他現在已經滅絕的人類交配，包括尼安德特人。
Fossils also show that Homo sapiens was present in the Middle East well before 60,000 years ago.
化石還表明早在6萬年前，智人就在中東地區出現了。
Not, however, as long ago as the inhabitant of Apidima whose remains Dr Harvati has now analysed.
但與哈瓦蒂博士現在研究的Apidima居民殘骸相比，也沒有那么久遠。
Why, having reached Greece, Homo sapiens did not continue to spread into the rest of Europe
為什么智人到達希臘后沒有繼續擴散到歐洲其他地方
and thus take it over 170,000 years earlier than happened in reality is a mystery—
而且還比實際發生的時間早17萬年，這是一個謎—
perhaps one on which future fossil discoveries will shed a little light.
也許未來的化石發現能給我們帶來一些啟示。
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