Ancient remains¹ uncovered in Ukraine represent some of the oldest evidence of modern people in Europe, experts have claimed.

专家宣称，乌克兰出土的古残骸是欧洲存在现代人的最古老的证明。

Teeth were among the ancient human remains found at the cave site
Archaeologists found human bones and teeth, tools, ivory（乳白色的，象牙的） ornaments² and animal remains at the Buran-Kaya cave site.

The 32,000-year-old fossils bear cut marks suggesting they were defleshed as part of a post-mortem ritual.

Details have been published in the journal PLoS One.

Archaeologist Dr Alexander Yanevich from the National Ukrainian Academy of Science in Kiev discovered the four Buran-Kaya caves in the Crimean mountains in 1991.

Since then, roughly two hundred human bone fragments have been unearthed³（发掘，破获） at the site.

Among the shards⁴ of human bones and teeth, archaeologists have found ornaments fashioned from ivory, along with the abundant remains of animals.

The artefacts（人工制品） made by humans at the site allowed archaeologists to tie the ancient people to a cultural tradition known as the Gravettian.

This culture came to span the entire European continent and is named after the site of La Gravette in France, where this stone age culture was first studied.

Researchers were able to directly date the human fossils using radiocarbon techniques. The shape and form of the remains told the the scientists they were dealing⁵ with modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens).

Eastern promise

One thing that intrigued⁶（使迷惑，使好奇） researchers was the scarcity⁷ of human long bones (bones from the limbs) in the caves.

The site yielded countless⁸ limb bones from antelope⁹（羚羊） , foxes and hares.

But the human remains consisted of vertebrae（脊椎） , teeth and skull¹⁰ bones no larger than 12cm.

What is more, the positions of cut marks found on the human fragments were distinct from those found on the animal bones.

And while the bone marrow¹¹ had been removed from butchered animals, it had been left alone in the case of the human remains at the site, explained co-author Sandrine Prat from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris.

She suspects this demonstrates that human bones were processed differently from those of animals. Human flesh was removed as part of ritual "cleaning", not to be eaten.