Surprising new insights into the minds of this extinct human species suggest they may have been far more cultured than their outdated brutish reputation once suggested. But getting into the minds of a long-dead species is no easy task.

惊人的新发现揭示了这种已经灭绝的人类物种的思维可能比他们一度被认为的落后和野蛮的声誉要高得多。但是，理解一种已经死亡的物种的思维并不容易。

sometime between 135,000-50,000 years ago, hands slick with animal blood carried more than 35 huge horned heads into a small, dark, winding cave. Tiny fires were lit amidst a boulder-jumbled floor, and the flame-illuminated chamber echoed to dull pounding, cracking and squelching sounds as the skulls of bison, wild cattle, red deer and rhinoceros were smashed open.

大约在13.5万到5万年前的某个时候，满是动物血的手将35个以上的巨大有角头颅带进了一个又小、又暗、又弯曲的洞穴。在岩石堆积的地面上点燃了小小的火堆，火光照亮的空间回响着沉闷的敲击声、破裂声和咔嚓声，因为野牛、野牛、红鹿和犀牛的头骨被砸开了。

This isn't the gory beginning of an ice age horror novel, but the setting for a fascinating Neanderthal mystery. At the start of 2023 researchers announced that a Spanish archaeological site known as Cueva Des-Cubierta (a play on "uncover" and "discover") held an unusually large number of big-game skulls. All were fragmented but their horns or antlers were relatively intact, and some were found near to traces of hearths.

这不是一部冰河时代恐怖小说的血腥开始，而是一个有趣的尼安德特谜团的背景。2023年初，研究人员宣布西班牙考古遗址Cueva Des-Cubierta拥有异常大量的大型狩猎动物头骨。所有头骨都被碎裂，但它们的角或鹿茸相对完整，有些还发现在炉灶的痕迹附近。（Cueva Des-Cubierta是一座位于西班牙格拉纳达省的洞穴，是一个著名的旅游景点。它有一个长约4公里的地下迷宫，里面有许多石钟乳石和地下河流。）

While caves in the upper Lozoya Valley, about an hour's drive north of Madrid, had been known about since the 19th Century, the Des-Cubierta site was only found in 2009 during investigation of other cavities on the hillside. As researchers slowly uncovered the layers inside, a startling picture of the cave began to emerge. The skulls, they argued, pointed to something beyond the simple detritus of hunting and gathering. Instead, they saw the skulls as symbolic – perhaps even a shrine containing trophies of the chase.

虽然位于马德里以北一个小时车程的上洛佐亚山谷的洞穴自19世纪以来就已知晓，但Des-Cubierta遗址仅在2009年研究了山坡上的其他洞穴时才被发现。随着研究人员缓慢地揭开里面的层，一个惊人的洞穴图景开始浮现。他们认为，这些头骨指向了超越简单的狩猎和采集的废物的东西。相反，他们将头骨视为象征 - 也许是一个包含追逐战利品的神殿。

If correct, it would raise a tantalising prospect – Neanderthals were capable of the kind of complex symbolic concepts and behaviours that characterise our own species.

如果正确，这将提出一个令人垂涎的前景 - 尼安德特人能够像我们自己的物种一样具有复杂的象征概念和行为。

But can we really suggest Neanderthals, a hominin species that became extinct around 40,000 years ago, developed rituals centred on the skulls of their prey? Other discoveries highlight varied aspects of their culture, and some have even suggested Neanderthals produced forms of what we might call art. But the answers are far from clear.

但我们真的可以认为，已经在大约4万年前灭绝的古人类物种尼安德特人发展了以猎物头骨为中心的仪式吗？其他发现突出了他们文化的各个方面，甚至有人认为尼安德特人生产了我们可能称之为艺术的形式。但答案远非明确。


Getting into the minds of ancient people, never mind those of a different kind of human altogether, is one of the great challenges of archaeology. Ever since the first Neanderthal remains were identified in the 19th Century, how they lived and what they thought has been a fundamental and evocative question motivating those who study them. Yet despite immense leaps in archaeology over the past 160 years, the answer remains complicated and sometimes problematic, partly because of our own preconceptions.

了解古代人的想法，更不用说完全不同种类的人类，是考古学面临的一项巨大挑战。自从19世纪第一个尼安德特人遗骸被确认以来，他们的生活方式和思想一直是研究他们的人们最基本和最具感染力的问题之一。然而，尽管过去160年考古学取得了巨大的飞跃，但答案仍然复杂且有时存在问题，部分原因是因为我们自己的先入为主。

Neanderthals have always represented a philosophical foil to Homo sapiens – that is, to us. Initially they were the only other sort of human that we knew had existed on Earth, and even as other ancient hominin species have been discovered, they retained a special place as "the other", a kind of mirror with which to compare ourselves.

尼安德特人一直是智人的对手。最初，他们是我们所知道的地球上存在的唯一其他类型的人类，即使其他古代人种被发现，他们仍然保持着“其他”的特殊地位，一种与我们相比较的镜子。

And those comparisons initially were all in our favour. The fact that Neanderthals disappeared around 40,000 years ago, after surviving for hundreds of millennia in western Eurasia, was long taken as evidence that there must have been something to explain why they "deserved" their extinction (in a scientific if not a moral sense). Consciously or not, researchers looked for evidence that Neanderthals were less successful, a beta-version of humanity destined to be replaced by our superior form. And one of the most obvious elements they focused on reflected the very thing which we believed distinguished our species from all other life on Earth: cognition.

最初的比较都是对我们有利的。尼安德特人在欧亚大陆西部生存了数百万年后，在大约4万年前消失，这一事实长期被视为证据，说明必须有某些原因来解释他们“应该”灭绝（在科学上，而不是道德上）。无论有意识还是无意识，研究人员都在寻找证据，证明尼安德特人不太成功，是人类的测试版，注定要被我们更优秀的形式所取代。他们关注的最明显的一个元素反映了我们所认为的将我们的物种与地球上所有其他生命区分开来的东西：认知。

What is cognition? In simple terms, it's how we think – our mental processes and abilities, from working out problems to our imagination. It also includes imbuing symbolic meaning in actions, obxts or places.

认知是什么？简单来说，它是我们的思考方式-我们的思维过程和能力，从解决问题到我们的想象力。它还包括赋予行动、物体或地点符号意义。
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If the research team excavating at Des-Cubierta are right, then it appears Neanderthals were capable of at least some of these higher forms of cognition.

如果在Des-Cubierta挖掘的研究团队是正确的，那么看起来尼安德特人至少能够进行一些这些更高层次的认知。

Of course, Neanderthals aren't here to ask what they're thinking, and we can't travel back into the past to observe them. What we do have, however, is 21st Century archaeology and modern science to help us reconstruct as much as possible about Neanderthal life.

当然，尼安德特人不在这里，我们无法询问他们在想什么，我们也无法穿越到过去观察他们。然而，我们所拥有的是21世纪的考古学和现代科学，以帮助我们尽可能地重建尼安德特人的生活。

To start with the basics, Neanderthals are one of our closest-known relatives, and we last shared a common ancestor somewhere between 550,000 and 800,000 years ago, which is very recent indeed in evolutionary terms. On that basis alone, we should expect Neanderthals in many ways to be very similar to us, including brainpower. Their skulls point to cerebral volumes at least as large as our own.

首先，尼安德特人是我们最亲近的亲戚之一，我们和他们一个共同的祖先在55万到80万年前之间，这在进化的时间尺度上非常近。仅仅基于这一点，我们应该期望在许多方面尼安德特人与我们非常相似，包括大脑能力。他们的头骨指向脑容量至少与我们自己一样大。

But there's more to minds than brain size. While big, Neanderthal brains were apparently a bit different. Their overall shape – inferred from the inner form of their skulls – was different. This this might, therefore, mean potentially varied brain function due to how different regions of the brain seem lixed to particular functions, such as analytical thought or memory.

但是，思维不仅仅与大脑大小有关。尽管尼安德特人的大脑很大，但它们显然有些不同。从他们头骨内部形状推断出来的整体形状是不同的。因此，这可能意味着由于大脑不同区域似乎与特定功能（如分析思维或记忆）相关联，因此可能存在不同的大脑功能。

From stone and even glue technology to hunting skills, bit by bit as we found out more about them, the gaps between our species have narrowed
We can also find clues at the genetic level. For example, recent research has found that tiny changes in two genes involved in neurological development have marked impacts on the human brain. One, called NOVA1, affects how neurons grow and their electrical activity, while another, TKTL1, appears to significantly increase the amount of neurons and how many folds the brain has. Neanderthals carried slightly different versions of these genes. When researchers inserted a Neanderthal NOVA1 gene into human stem cells to grow so-called "mini-brains" – in reality, clumps of differentiated cells – they found it led to altered neuron growth and the connections between them when compared with our own species. Similarly, the Neanderthal version of TKTL1 – which differed from our own by a single amino acid – may have led them to have a smaller neocortex than modern humans. This is the part of the brain involved in higher cognitive brain functions such as reasoning and language. However, some researchers have suggested that millions of modern humans may also carry the "Neanderthal version" of this gene, raising further questions about how different the brains of these extinct relatives really were.

从石头甚至胶水技术到狩猎技能，随着我们对它们的了解越来越多，我们的物种之间的差距已经缩小了。我们还可以在基因水平上找到线索。例如，最近的研究发现，神经发育中涉及的两个基因的微小变化对人类大脑有显著影响。其中之一称为NOVA1，影响神经元的生长和电活动，而另一个TKTL1则似乎显著增加了神经元数量和大脑折叠的数量。尼安德特人携带了这些基因稍微不同的版本。当研究人员将尼安德特人的NOVA1基因插入人类干细胞中生长所谓的“小脑”时，实际上是分化细胞的块，他们发现，与我们自己的物种相比，它导致了神经元生长和它们之间的连接的改变。同样，TKTL1的尼安德特人版本——与我们自己的版本相比仅有一种氨基酸的差异——可能使他们的新皮质比现代人类小。这是大脑中涉及推理和语言等高级认知大脑功能的部分。然而，一些研究人员已经提出，数百万现代人可能也携带这个基因的“尼安德特版本”，进一步引发了关于这些已灭绝亲戚的大脑有多不同的问题。

Bones and DNA are only one way to explore what Neanderthal minds were really like. For example, recent research on their hearing has backed up the idea that Neanderthals were communicating vocally in their everyday lives. And it is archaeology, the nearest thing to a time machine, that can show us what they actually did, and therefore what they were probably talking about. Advances in archaeology over the past three decades have produced something of a renaissance in what we know, inexorably undermining preconceptions that Neanderthals were somehow lacking. From stone and even glue technology to hunting skills, bit by bit as we found out more about them, the gaps between our species have narrowed. Today there are relatively few areas that remain as clear differences.

骨骼和DNA只是探索尼安德特人思维真正本质的一种方式。例如，他们的听力最近的研究支持了尼安德特人在日常生活中通过语音进行交流的想法。而考古学是最接近时光机的事物，它可以展示他们实际上做了什么，因此可以推断他们可能在谈论什么。过去三十年考古学的进步已经产生了我们所知道的一些复兴，不可避免地削弱了尼安德特人缺乏某些方面的观念。从石头甚至胶水技术到狩猎技能，随着我们对它们的了解越来越多，我们的物种之间的差距已经缩小了。今天，还有相对较少的领域存在明显的差异。

One facet of behaviour where researchers have long looked for differences is the Neanderthals' capacity for abstract, aesthetic and symbolic thought. We have known since the middle of the 19th Century that ancient humans who lived very shortly after the Neanderthals had vanished were producing spectacular paintings of animals inside caves, finely carved figurines, and they also buried their dead with grave goods like shell beads. Despite more than a century of archaeological discoveries, we have not yet found anything truly comparable amongst Neanderthals. What has been uncovered, however, suggests their lives went beyond a simple, survival-based perspective.

研究人员长期以来一直在寻找尼安德特人抽象、审美和象征思维能力方面的差异。自19世纪中叶以来，我们已经知道，生活在尼安德特人消失后不久的古代人类正在洞穴内绘制动物壮观的画作，精美的雕刻人像，并且他们还将死者埋葬在带有贝壳珠宝等物品的墓穴中。尽管考古学发现已经超过一个世纪，但我们尚未在尼安德特人中找到任何真正可比的东西。然而，已经被发现的东西表明，他们的生活超越了简单的生存观点。

One example of this is incising or engraving. Although many obxts, mostly bone, have been shown through later microscopic study to have been naturally scratched or gouged, there are a number that clearly were intentionally made. One is from Les Pradelles, France, where a small piece of a hyena's thigh bone was found, bearing a series of nine parallel incisions, each about five millimetres long. It dates to around 70,000 years ago, and careful microscopic study found that the same stone tool was used, with the maker working from left to right, and progressively applying more pressure until the final line, probably because they changed the angle or shifted their hold on the tool. At the base of two of the lines further sets of minute marks had been engraved, likely again with the same tool.

一个例子是刻画或雕刻。尽管许多物品，主要是骨头，经过后来的显微镜研究发现是自然划痕或划痕，但有一些明显是有意制作的。其中之一来自法国的普拉代勒，发现了一小块鬣狗股骨，上面刻有一系列九个平行的划痕，每个长约五毫米。它的年代可以追溯到大约70,000年前，仔细的显微镜研究发现，使用了同样的石器，制作者从左到右工作，并逐渐施加更多的压力，直到最后一条线，可能是因为他们改变了角度或移动了工具的持握。在两条线的底部，还刻有进一步的微小标记，可能再次是用同一种工具刻的。


What the Les Pradelles marks mean is not clear. It has been suggested that they may represent a notation or tally of some kind, but alternative interpretations exist, and there may be an aesthetic motivation here too – the secondary marks are so small that perhaps feeling them might have been as important as seeing.

普拉代勒标记的意义不明确。有人认为它们可能代表某种记号或记数，但也存在其他解释，这里可能也有审美动机——次要标记太小了，也许感觉它们可能与看到它们同样重要。

So far, the most complex graphic engraving found in a Neanderthal context comes from a German site called Einhornhöhle (Unicorn cave). In this case, the bone is dated to around 51,000 years old, and came from the toe of a Megaloceros (giant deer). In addition to some of its edges being altered, with bone apparently shaved or carved off, one of the curved sides of the bone has 10 individual linear engravings. Four of these run along the base in parallel and are angled diagonally, but the other six are more complex with two sets of three intersecting each other, angled between 92-100 degrees. The effect is a repeating chevron pattern, and while once again assessing any precise meaning is impossible, the Einhornhöhle piece seems less likely to be a simple tally marker.

到目前为止，在尼安德特人的背景下发现的最复杂的图形雕刻来自德国一个名为Einhornhöhle（独角兽洞穴）的遗址。在这种情况下，骨头的年龄约为5.1万年，来自一只巨鹿的脚趾。除了它的一些边缘被改变，骨头显然被刮掉或刻掉，骨头的一个弧形侧面有10个单独的线性刻痕。其中4个沿着底座平行运行，并有对角线的角度，但另外6个更复杂，有两组3个相互交错，角度在92-100度之间。其效果是一个重复的雪佛龙图案，虽然再次评估任何精确的含义是不可能的，但Einhornhöhle作品似乎不太可能是一个简单的计数标记。（Einhornhöhle是德国的一个洞穴，位于巴伐利亚州的霍恩斯滕。这个洞穴是一个受欢迎的旅游景点，因其美丽的石钟乳石和地下河流而闻名。）
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Engraved obxts, or in the case of the Gorham's Cave in Gibraltar where a "hashtag" has been etched into a raised section of the stone floor itself, are rare among Neanderthal artefacts. Less than 10 clear examples exist. But there is more abundant evidence that Neanderthals had an interest in colour. Mineral pigments, in colours ranging from black through red, orange, yellow and even white have been found at over 70 sites. In some contexts, there is not only significant amounts, such as the more than 450 pieces of pigment from layers at Pech de l'Azé, in the Dordogne, southern France, but also clear evidence that these pieces were being processed and used. Some show scratching and grinding marks, while others have traces from being rubbed across softer things. Sometimes Neanderthals seem to have even sexted particular mineral outcrops for the intensity of the pigment, and remarkably, also combined and mixed them: red with yellow to produce orange.

在尼安德特人的文物中，刻字的物品，或者在直布罗陀的戈勒姆的山洞中，一个 "标签 "被刻在石头地板的一个凸起部分，都是非常罕见的。只有不到10个明确的例子。但有更多的证据表明尼安德特人对颜色有兴趣。在70多处遗址中发现了矿物颜料，其颜色从黑色到红色、橙色、黄色甚至白色。在某些情况下，不仅有大量的颜料，如法国南部多尔多涅省Pech de l'Azé的450多件颜料，而且还有明确的证据表明这些颜料正在被加工和使用。有些显示出刮擦和研磨的痕迹，而其他的则有被摩擦过软物的痕迹。有时，尼安德特人似乎甚至根据颜料的强度来选择特定的矿物露头，而且值得注意的是，他们还将它们组合和混合：红色与黄色产生橙色。

While we can only guess what most of the colour was being used for – and one type of black pigment, manganese dioxide, can also act as a chemical firelighter – there are some remarkable discoveries of "painted" obxts. They include an orange mix combined with sparkly iron pyrite (fool's gold) on a shell and red pigment on the outer surface of a small fossil shell. Another mixture of pigment was also found on an eagle's talon, one of eight from Krapina, Croatia. And tantalisingly, there is also some evidence from the collapsed cave of Combe Grenal, near Domme in France's Dordogne, that the Neanderthals who lived there seem to have preferred different colours over time. The pigments found at the site changed through the layers, and while there is no obvious explanation for changes in local mineral source availability, there is a rough correlation with changes in stone tool types, which might point to different cultural traditions in pigment use.

虽然我们只能猜测大部分颜色的用途--有一种黑色颜料，即二氧化锰，也可以作为化学点火剂--但也有一些引人注目的 "彩绘 "物品的发现。它们包括在一个贝壳上的橙色混合物与闪光的黄铁矿（愚人金）相结合，以及在一个小贝壳化石的外表面的红色颜料。在一只鹰的爪子上也发现了另一种混合颜料，这是克罗地亚克拉皮纳的八只鹰中的一只。诱人的是，在法国多尔多涅省Domme附近的Combe Grenal坍塌的洞穴中也发现了一些证据，生活在那里的尼安德特人似乎随着时间的推移喜欢不同的颜色。在该遗址发现的颜料随着时间的推移发生了变化，虽然对当地矿物来源的变化没有明显的解释，但与石器类型的变化有大致的关联，这可能表明在颜料使用方面有不同的文化传统。