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  3. The Upper Paleolithic Revolution P1: The old stone age is the earliest period of human development and the longest phase of mank

The Upper Paleolithic Revolution P1: The old stone age is the earliest period of human development and the longest phase of mank

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问题 The Upper Paleolithic Revolution
P1: The old stone age is the earliest period of human development and the longest phase of mankind’s history. It was not till around 30 thousand years ago (or 30 "kya") that the archaeological record reveals the emergence of technical and social advances, which comprised new technologies, hunting techniques, human burials, and an artistic tradition of astonishing competency. This dramatic change was known as the Upper Paleolithic Revolution. It had been traditionally argued that the Upper Paleolithic Revolution was an archaeological phenomenon exclusive to Eurasia. The absence of equivalent evidence in other regions suggested that a fundamental change had occurred in human intellectual development around 40 kya in Europe. However, the recent discovery in the Blombos Cave in South Africa of a block of decorated ochre and then sets of shell beads, dated to around 77 kya, opened up the debate. This supports other evidence of more versatile stone implements and bone tools found in Africa from the same period. Now the Upper Paleolithic Revolution is regarded as the most noticeable evidence for the evolution of modern human behavior.
P2: Two further questions follow. First, what was happening to the human cognitive process during the 40,000 years or so from innovative usage of stone in the Blombos Cave to the flourishing of human creativity in Europe? Second, during the Pleistocene a series of momentous climatic events occurred—was climate change then a component? The question of whether the sudden transition seen in Europe was built on earlier developments in Africa has been addressed at length by anthropologists Sally McBrearty and Alison Brooks. They argue that the whole issue of the Upper Paleolithic Revolution stems from a profound Eurocentric bias and a failure to appreciate the depth and breadth of the African archaeological record. In fact, many South African archaeological sites show that the revolution occurred in Africa during the Middle Paleolithic—tens of thousands of years before they appeared in Europe. This is supported by evidence of using new stone tools like the blade and microlithic technology. Replication has shown that blades from the time required a high level of skill to make due to their shape, indicating a higher level of hominid complexity. At the same time, exploitation of aquatic resources began to prosper.
P3: Contrasted with this view of a spontaneous leap in cognition among ancient humans, some authors like Alison S. Brooks, primarily working in African archaeology, point to the gradual accumulation of modern behaviors, starting well before the 50,000 year benchmark of the Upper Paleolithic Revolution models. The extraordinary range of rock art in Australia adds great weight to the idea that artistic creativity was part and parcel of the intellectual capacity of modern humans that migrated out of Africa around 70 kya. For the time being, the emergence of Modern humans in sub-Saharan Africa, socio-economic dynamism that caused their expansion through the Nile Valley into the Near East, and then a migration along the southern route of Asia as far as Australia is the most plausible scenario, though it still leaves much to be desired from future archaeological research.
P4: The question of the sudden emergence of creative activity that appears to constitute the Upper Paleolithic Revolution falls to the ground. The obvious explanation is that the gap between African developments and the subsequent better-known European events is a matter of the limitations of the archaeological record. This does not altogether cover the question of why there was the sudden flowering of creativity at the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic in Europe. It may be that earlier creative efforts have either been lost in or have yet to emerge from the mists of time. Recent finds of decorative pierced shells dating from 43 kya or even earlier in caves in parts of western Asia near Europe may be examples of a process extending the evidence back in time. The changes in human behavior have also been attributed to the changes in climate during the period, which encompasses a number of global temperature drops. This meant a worsening of the already bitter climate which hence forced the ancestors of today’s Europeans to move into a largely unpopulated region, their sudden presence in the archaeological record appearing revolutionary.
P1: The Old Stone Age, the earliest period of human development and the longest phase of mankind’s history. ■ It was not till around 30 thousand years ago (or 30 "kya") that the archaeological record reveals the emergence of technical and social advances, which comprised new technologies, hunting techniques, human burials, and an artistic tradition of astonishing competency. ■ This dramatic change was known as the Upper Paleolithic Revolution. It had been traditionally argued that the Upper Paleolithic Revolution was an archaeological phenomenon exclusive to Eurasia. ■ The absence of equivalent evidence in other regions suggested that a fundamental change had occurred in human intellectual development around 40 kya in Europe. ■ However, the recent discovery in the Blombos Cave in South Africa of a block of decorated ochre and then sets of shell beads, dated to around 77 kya, opened up the debate. This supports other evidence of more versatile stone implements and bone tools found in Africa from the same period. Now the Upper Paleolithic Revolution is regarded as the most noticeable evidence for the evolution of modern human behavior.
According to paragraph 2, what do archaeologists want to know about the climate?
选项 A、Whether it was a reason that humans lived in caves
B、Whether it was stable throughout that period
C、Whether it changed in similar ways in Africa and Europe
D、Whether it was a factor in how the human cognitive process developed
答案D
解析 【事实信息题】文中提到两个问题，首先，4万年前左右人类的认知过程中发生了什么?其次，气候变化是一个影响因素吗?所以考古学家想知道气候是否影响人类认知过程的发展。
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