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  TPO53最早文字的證據

  Evidence Of The Earliest Writing

  Although literacy appeared independently in several parts of the prehistoricworld, the earliest evidence of writing is the cuneiform Sumerian script on theclay tablets of ancient Mesopotamia, which, archaeological detective work has revealed, had its origins in the accounting practices of commercial activity.Researchers demonstrated that preliterate people, to keep track of the goods they produced and exchanged, created a system of accounting using claytokens as symbolic representations of their products. Over many thousands of years, the symbols evolved through several stages of abstraction until they became wedge- shaped (cuneiform) signs on clay tablets, recognizable as writing.

  The original tokens (circa 8500 B.C.E.) were three-dimensional solid shapes—tiny spheres, cones, disks, and cylinders. A debt of six units of grain and eight head of livestock, for example might have been represented by six conical and eight cylindrical tokens. To keep batches of tokens together, an innovation was introduced (circa 3250 B. C. E.) whereby they were sealed inside clay envelopes that could be broken open and counted when it came time for a debt to be repaid. But because the contents of the envelopes could easily be forgotten, two-dimensional representations of the three-dimensional tokens were impressed into the surface of the envelopes before they were sealed. Eventually, having two sets of equivalent symbols—the internal tokens and external markings—came to seem redundant, so the tokens were eliminated (circa 3250-3100 B.C.E.), and only solid clay tablets with two-dimensional symbols were retained. Over time, the symbols became more numerous, varied, and abstract and came to represent more than trade commodities, evolving eventually into cuneiform writing.

  The evolution of the symbolism is reflected in the archaeological record first of all by the increasing complexity of the tokens themselves. The earliest tokens, dating from about 10,000 to 6,000 years ago, were of only the simplest geometric shapes. But about 3500 B.C.E., more complex tokens came into common usage, including many naturalistic forms shaped like miniature tools, furniture, fruit, and humans. The earlier, plain tokens were counters for agricultural products, whereas the complex ones stood for finished products, such as bread, oil, perfume, wool, and rope, and for items produced in workshops, such as metal, bracelets, types of cloth, garments, mats, pieces of furniture, tools, and a variety of stone and pottery vessels. The signs marked on clay tablets likewise evolved from simple wedges, circles, ovals, and triangles based on the plain tokens to pictographs derived from the complex tokens.

  Before this evidence came to light, the inventors of writing were assumed by researchers to have been an intellectual elite. Some, for example, hypothesized that writing emerged when members of the priestly caste agreed among themselves on written signs. But the association of the plain tokens with the first farmers and of the complex tokens with the first artisans—and the fact that the token-and-envelope accounting system invariably represented only small-scale transactions—testifies to the relatively modest social status of the creators of writing.

  And not only of literacy, but numeracy (the representation of quantitative concepts) as well. The evidence of the tokens provides further confirmation that mathematics originated in people’s desire to keep records of flocks and other goods. Another immensely significant step occurred around 3100 B.C.E., when Sumerian accountants extended the token-based signs to include the first real numerals. Previously, units of grain had been represented by direct one-to-one correspondence―by repeating the token or symbol for a unit of grain the required number of times. The accountants, however, devised numeral signs distinct from commodity signs, so that eighteen units of grain could be indicated by preceding a single grain symbol with a symbol denoting “18.”  Their invention of abstract numerals and abstract counting was one of the most revolutionaryadvances in the history of mathematics.

  What was the social status of the anonymous accountants who produced this breakthrough? The immense volume of clay tablets unearthed in the ruins of theSumerian temples where the accounts were kept suggests a social differentiation within the scribal class, with a virtual army of lower-ranking tabulators performing the monotonous job of tallying commodities. We can onlyspeculate as to how high or low the inventors of true numerals were in the scribal hierarchy, but it stands to reason that this laborsaving innovation would have been the brainchild of the lower-ranking types whose drudgery it eased.

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  TPO53 熱帶雨林的土壤

  Rain Forest Soils

  On viewing the lush plant growth of a tropical rain forest, most people would conclude that the soil beneath it is rich in nutrients. However, although rain forest soils are highly variable, they have in common the fact that abundant rainfall washes mineral nutrients out of them and into streams.  This process is known as leaching. Because of rain leaching, most tropical rain forest soils have low to very low mineral nutrient content, in dramatic contrast to mineral-rich grassland soils. Tropical forest soils also often contain particular types of clays that, unlike the mineral-binding clays of temperate forest soils, do not bind mineral ions well. Aluminum is the dominant cation (positively charged ion) present in tropical soils; but plants do not require this element, and it is moderately toxic to a wide range of plants. Aluminum also reduces the availability of phosphorus, an element in high demand by plants.

  High moisture and temperatures speed the growth of soil microbes that decompose organic compounds, so tropical soils typically contain far lower amounts of organic materials (humus) than do other forest or grassland soils. Because organic compounds help loosen compact clay soils, hold water, and bind mineral nutrients, the relative lack of organic materials in tropical soils is deleterious to plants. Plant roots cannot penetrate far into hard clay soils, and during dry periods, the soil cannot hold enough water to supply plant needs. Because the concentration of dark-colored organic materials is low in tropicalsoils, they are often colored red or yellow by the presence of iron, aluminum: and manganese oxides; when dry, these soils become rock hard. The famous Cambodian temples of Angkor Wat, which have survived for many centuries, were constructed from blocks of such hard rain forest soils.

  Given such poor soils, how can lush tropical forests exist? The answer is that the forest's minerals are held in its living biomass—the trees and other plants and the animals. In contrast to grasslands, where a large proportion of plant biomass is produced underground, that of tropical forests is nearly all aboveground. Dead leaves, branches, and other plant parts, as well as the wastes and bodies of rain forest animals, barely reach the forest floor before they are rapidly decayed by abundant decomposers—bacterial and fungal. Minerals released by decay are quickly absorbed by multitudinous shallow, fine tree feeder roots and stored in plant tissues. Many tropical rain forest plants (like those in other forests) have mycorrhizal (fungus-root) partners whose delicate hyphae spread through great volumes of soil, from which they release and absorb minerals and ferry them back to the host plant in exchange for needed organic compounds. The fungal hyphae are able to absorb phosphorus that plant roots could not themselves obtain from the very dilute soil solutions, and fungal hyphae can transfer mineral nutrients from one forest plant to another. Consequently, tropical rain forests typically have what are known as closed nutrient systems, in which minerals are handed off from one organism to another with little leaking through to the soil. When mineralnutrients do not spend much time in the soil, they cannot be leached into streams. Closed nutrient systems have evolved in response to the leaching effects of heavy tropical rainfall. Evidence for this conclusion is that nutrientsystems are more open in the richest tropical soils and tightest in the poorest soils.

  The growth of organisms is dependent on the availability of nutrients, none of which is more important than nitrogen. Although there is an abundant supply of nitrogen in Earth’s atmosphere, it cannot be absorbed by plants unless it is “fixed,” or combined chemically with other elements to form nitrogencompounds. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria help tropical rain forest plants cope with the poor soils there by supplying them with needed nitrogen. Many species of tropical rain forest trees belong to the legume family, which is known for associations of nitrogen-fixing bacteria within root nodules. Also, cycads (a type of tropical plant that resembles a palm tree) produce special aboveground roots that harbor nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria. By growing above the ground, the roots are exposed to sunlight, which the cyanobacteria require for growth.Nitrogen fixation by free-living bacteria in tropical soils is also beneficial.

  TPO53 舊石器時代的洞穴壁畫

  Paleolithic Cave Paintings

  In any investigation of the origins of art, attention focuses on the cave paintings created in Europe during the Paleolithic era (c. 40,000-10,000 years ago) such as those depicting bulls and other animals in the Lascaux cave in France. Accepting that they are the best preserved and most visible signs of what was a global creative explosion, how do we start to explain their appearance? Instinctively, we may want to update the earliest human artists by assuming that they painted for the sheer joy of painting. The philosophers of Classical Greece recognized it as a defining trait of humans to "delight in works of imitation"—to enjoy the very act and triumph of representation. If we were close to a real lion or snake, we might feel frightened. But a well- executed picture of a lion or snake will give us pleasure. Why suppose that our Paleolithic ancestors were any different?

  This simple acceptance of art for art's sake has a certain appeal. To think of Lascaux as a gallery allows it to be a sort of special viewing place where the handiwork of accomplished artists might be displayed. Plausibly, daily existence in parts of Paleolithic Europe may not have been so hard, with an abundance of ready food and therefore the leisure time for art. The problems with this explanation, however, are various. In the first place, the proliferation of archaeological discoveries—and this includes some of the world's innumerablerock art sites that cannot be dated—has served to emphasize a remarkablylimited repertoire of subjects. The images that recur are those of animals.Human figures are unusual, and when they do make an appearance, they are rarely done with the same attention to form accorded to the animals. If Paleolithic artists were simply seeking to represent the beauty of the world around them, would they not have left a far greater range of pictures—of trees, flowers, of the Sun and the stars?

  A further question to the theory of art for art's sake is posed by the high incidence of Paleolithic images that appear not to be imitative of any reality whatsoever. These are geometrical shapes or patterns consisting of dots or lines. Such marks may be found isolated or repeated over a particular surface but also scattered across more recognizable forms. A good example of this may be seen in the geologically spectacular grotto of Pêche Merle, in the Lot region of France. Here we encounter some favorite animals from the Paleolithicrepertoire—a pair of stout-bellied horses. But over and around the horses' outlines are multiple dark spots, daubed in disregard for the otherwise naturalistic representation of animals. What does such patterning imitate?There is also the factor of location. The caves of Lascaux might conceivably qualify as underground galleries, but many other paintings have been found in recesses totally unsuitable for any kind of viewing—tight nooks and crannies that must have been awkward even for the artists to penetrate, let alone for anyone else wanting to see the art.

  Finally, we may doubt the notion that the Upper Paleolithic period was a paradise in which food came readily, leaving humans ample time to amuse themselves with art. For Europe it was still the Ice Age. An estimate of the basic level of sustenance then necessary for human survival has been judged at 2200 calories per day. This consideration, combined with the stark emphasis upon animals in the cave art, has persuaded some archaeologists that the primary motive behind Paleolithic images must lie with the primary activity of Paleolithic people: hunting. 

  Hunting is a skill. Tracking, stalking, chasing, and killing the prey are difficult, sometimes dangerous activities. What if the process could be made easier—by art? In the early decades of the twentieth century, Abbé Henri Breuil argued that the cave paintings were all about “sympathetic magic. ” The artists strived diligently to make their animal images evocative and realistic because they were attempting to capture the spirit of their prey. What could have prompted their studious attention to making such naturalistic, recognizable images?According to Breuil, the artists may have believed that if a hunter were able to make a true likeness of some animal, then that animal was virtually trapped.Images, therefore, may have had the magical capacity to confer success or luck in the hunt.

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