遇見左鎮人
Meet the Zoujhen Man
1970年發現的左鎮人頭蓋骨是最早在臺灣出土的人類化石。當年由化石收藏家郭德鈴、郭東輝父子在左鎮菜寮溪臭屈河床尋寶時發現，但無法確定是猿猴？還是人類化石？1971年12月，左鎮菜寮溪發現大型早坂中國犀化石，臺灣省立博物館與臺灣大學學者組隊到左鎮勘查，無意中在郭德鈴家中發現疑似人類頭骨化石，同時期收藏家潘常武先生也發現另外2件臭屈樣本，經由日本學者鹿間時夫、下田信男、馬場悠男以及臺灣大學林朝棨教授，藉由氟錳相對年代測定法，推測其年代為距今三萬至二萬年前，屬於晚更新世人類。化石爺爺陳春木也提供四件在左鎮岡子林所發現的人骨化石，交由臺灣大學進行研究，觀察這四件標本石化程度較低，另稱為岡子林樣本。但這些樣本皆採自河床上，而非考古地層中，因此，左鎮人化石的年代在學者間一直存有疑問。
Zuojhen Man parietal fragments discovered in the 1970s were the earliest fossil specimens of human unearthed in Taiwan. The fossil specimens were discovered by collector Te-Lin Kuo and his son, Dong-Hui Kuo, at the Cho-qu river floor around Tsai-liao River in Zuojhen. However, they were not able to confirm those were fossil specimens of monkeys or human. For the discovery of Hayasaka Rhino fossil along the Tsai-liao River in Zuojhen in December 1971, the Taiwan Provincial Museum and scholars of University of Taiwan formed a team to conduct survey in Zhojhen. They accidentally found possible specimen of human skull in Te-Lin Kuo’s collection. At the same period, the collector Chang-Wu Pan also discovered two pieces of Cho-qu fossil specimen samples. By Fluorine-Manganese relative dating method, Japanese scholars SHIKAMA Tokio, SHIMODA Nobuo, BABA Hisao, and Chao-Chi Lin, the professor of Department of Geology, Taiwan University, estimated the age of fossil specimens to be 30 to 20 thousand years ago, around late Pleistocene. There are also four pieces of human bones fossil discovered in Kang-lin, Zuojhen provided by CHEN Chun-mu. The four specimens, also called Kang-lin samples, were given to National Taiwan University for research and found that they were in lower fossilization. The Cho-qu samples and Kang-lin samples were all discovered on the riverbeds, instead of the rock strata where they buried; therefore, the dating of Zuojhen Man was an unsolved enigma in archaeology circle.
2012年國立臺灣博物館委託清華大學人類學研究所邱鴻霖教授重新進行研究，採樣臭屈樣本及岡子林樣本各一件，送至美國及澳洲研究室進行二次絕對定年法-碳十四分析，得到不同的研究成果！分析結果顯示化石年代僅距今約三千年，賦予了左鎮人在考古學上的全新意義。
In 2012, the National Taiwan Museum commissioned Chiu Hung-Lin, the professor of the Institute of Anthropology, National Tsing-Hwa University, to relaunch the research. The research team sent each one piece of Cho-qu samples and Kang-lin samples to the labs in the USA and Australia to apply the carbon-14 dating, the absolute dating method. The results came out different from previous studies. The analysis showed that the age of Zuojhen Man was only three thousand years ago from now and endowed Zuojhen Man a new significance in the archaeology study.
學者認為，我們仍不能排除未來在左鎮發現另一更早「左鎮人」的可能性。因為臺南左鎮菜寮溪一帶，過去發現了大量更新世中期九十萬到四十萬年前的大型哺乳類動物，包括早坂中國犀、劍齒象、草原猛獁象、梅花鹿、四不像鹿、野豬、水牛、虎、獼猴等重要化石群，在冰河時期因為避寒通過陸化的臺灣海峽遷徙而來，也許還有古代人類追逐動物來到臺灣。2015年澎湖海溝發現的「澎湖原人」的下顎骨化石，經測定介於45萬至19萬年前，我們也相信臺南左鎮一帶還有比三萬年前更早的人類存在，只是還沒有發現而已。未來，讓我們共同期待發現更早「左鎮人」的化石或遺跡。
The scholars believed that we would not rule out the possibility of the future discovery of earlier “Zuojhen Man” in Zuojhen. There was a great amount of middle Pleistocene large mammal fossils discovered in 900 to 400 thousand years ago in Tsai-liao River area. The mammal fossils include the Hayasaka Rhino, oriental stegodon, steppe mammoths, Formosan sika deer, Pere David's deer, boars, water buffaloes, tigers, macaques and others. Those animals escaped the cold and crossed the Taiwan Strait, which was the land, to Taiwan in the Ice Age, and perhaps some ancient human chased after animals and made their way to Taiwan as well. Penghu 1, the fossil jaw discovered in Penghu trench in 2015, dated around 4500 to 1900 thousand years ago. We believe that there are human fossils dated before 30 thousand years ago around Zoujhen, Tainan, but haven’t been discovered yet. We are looking forward to fossils and relic discoveries of earlier Zoujhen Man in the future.
