时差N小时 穴居人远比我们想象的聪明(下)

（单词翻译）

Archaeologists¹ have found Neanderthal tools dating from around 100,000 years ago on the Greek² islands of Kefalonia and Zakynthos.

考古学家在希腊群岛中的凯利法尼亚岛和扎金索斯岛上发现了100,000年前尼安得特人使用的工具。

If Neanderthals were on those islands, scientists reason, they must have gotten there by boat.

科学家推断，如果尼安得特人曾在那些岛上生活，那么他们一定是乘船抵达的。

Now, it's possible that long ago those islands weren't islands, or that sea levels were low enough that Neanderthals could have crossed over to the islands by walking or even swimming.

当然，那些岛屿可能很久之前还不是岛屿，或者海平面很低，尼安得特人能够徒步或游到那些岛屿上。

But scientists have shown that the Mediterranean4 sea was at least 590 feet deep when Neanderthals lived in what's now modern Greece.

但是，科学家已经证实，尼安得特人居住在现代希腊的领土上时，地中海水深至少590英尺。

Plus, scientists have found pre-historic tools on the island of Crete that predate even Neanderthals.

此外，科学家已经在克里特岛上发现早于尼安得特人的史前工具。

So it seems that even more ancient proto-human species³ knew how to sail.

似乎更为早期的原始人类已经知道如何航海了。

In any case, although it's impossible to know for sure, it seems likely that Neanderthals were sailors long before modern humans built their first sea faring vessels⁴.

无论如何，虽然无法确定，不过尼安得特人很可能早在现代人造出第一艘船之前就已经开始航海出行了。