经济学人下载:最古老的希腊人(2)

The other fossil, the back half of a cranium turned out to be Homo sapiens.
其他化石，颅骨的后半部分，被证明是属于智人。

It is 210,000 years old, and thus the third-oldest known example of modern humanity. That is interesting.
其有21万年历史并且是已知第三古老的现代人类。这很有趣。

But what has excited attention is that it is also the oldest Homo sapiens specimen found outside Africa—
但令人兴奋的是，它也是在非洲以外发现的最古老的智人标本—

the continent where, according to all the available evidence, the species originated.
根据现有的所有证据，该物种起源于非洲大陆。

How Homo sapiens spread from Africa to dominate the world is a story that once looked simple, but is getting rapidly more complex.
智人如何从非洲扩散并主宰世界的，这个故事看似简单，但正在变得更加复杂。

Genetic data suggest most people alive today who are not African or of recent African descent
基因数据表明，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,
他们的祖先可以追溯到约6万年前开始的一次或几次“走出非洲”到亚洲的迁徙，

and thence spread to Australia, Europe and the Americas.
并从那里散布至澳大利亚、欧洲和美洲。

More detailed analysis, though, shows that on the way through these places
虽然更加详细的分析表明在穿越这些地方的途中，

some of those ancestral humans interbred with other human species, now extinct, including Neanderthals.
这些祖先中的一些人与其他现在已经灭绝的人类交配，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.
化石还表明早在6万年前，智人就在中东地区出现了。

Not, however, as long ago as the inhabitant of Apidima whose remains Dr Harvati has now analysed.
但与哈瓦蒂博士现在研究的Apidima居民残骸相比，也没有那么久远。

Why, having reached Greece, Homo sapiens did not continue to spread into the rest of Europe
为什么智人到达希腊后没有继续扩散到欧洲其他地方

and thus take it over 170,000 years earlier than happened in reality is a mystery—
而且还比实际发生的时间早17万年，这是一个谜—

perhaps one on which future fossil discoveries will shed a little light.
也许未来的化石发现能给我们带来一些启示。