-
人类的古老文明
:
被历史遗忘的十个文明古国<
/p>
Much like Isaac Newton
imagined when he gave hisfamous
“
shoulders of
giant
s
”
quote
, our
moderncivilizations owe a great deal to those
which camebefor
e us. While examples
like the Sumerians orEgyptians are deeply
ingrained
in
nearly everyone
’
sminds,
there are a number of other civilizations
whichhave
been largely forgotten. Here
are 10 of them.
正如艾萨克
·
牛顿在提出其
“
巨人的肩膀
”
名言时所设想的一样，我们的现代文明也从先前的
诸文明中获
益良多。
虽然诸如苏美尔或者埃及文明的例子已经深入人心，
但
仍有为数不少的
文明基本上是被忘却了的。这里列举
10
个如下。
Photo
credit
:
Bhushan Kotakar
图片引自：
Bhushan Kotakar
10
、
Hattian
Civilization
赫蒂文明
The Hattians were a civilization which
inhabited the area of present-day
Anato
lia, Turkey fromthe 26th century
to around the 18th century B.C. Believed to
be the earliest
urban
settlers ofthe area,
their existence can be traced to
24t
h-century Akkadian cuneiform
tablets. Mostarchaeologists believe that they
w
ere
indigenous
to the area preceding the more famous
Hittitecivilization, whi
ch arrived in
the 23rd century B.C. The two cultures slowly
merged together,
withthe Hittites
adopting a
variety
of Hatti
religious beliefs and practices. Ma
ny
of the largest Hittitesettlements, such as Alaca
Hoyuk and Hattusa, are bel
ieved to have
originally been Hattian.
赫蒂文明位于今土耳其安纳托利
亚地区，存在于公元前
26
世纪至约
1
8
世纪。他们是该地
区最早的城市居民，
其存在的证据可追溯至公元前
24
世纪的阿卡德楔形文字石碑
中。大多
数考古学家认为，赫蒂人比更为闻名的赫梯人更早存在于这一地区，后者于公元
前
23
世纪
来到这里。
随着赫蒂人采纳了许多来自赫梯的宗教信仰和实践习惯，
两大文明慢慢地融合在
了一起。赫梯人的许多大型定居点，诸如阿拉卡
·
郝予克（
Alaca Hoyuk
）以及哈兹萨
（
Hattusa
），确信最初曾是赫蒂人
的。
While they
had their own spoken language, no
evidence
of a written form
of
the Hatti languagehas ever been
found. It
’
s likely that they
were multilingual,
perhaps to
facilitate
trade with
theirAssyrian partners. In fact, most of
what
we know about the Hattians comes
from the
widespread
adoption
of their cu
lture by the Hittites. Their
population
probably existed
as a
majority
for
dec
ades
—
if not
centuries
—
while they were
under the aristocratic rule of
theHittit
es, before they
eventually
faded away into
obscurity
.
虽然他们有自
己的口头语言，
但并未发现过有关其文字语言的证据。
他们有可
能是多语言的，
或许是为了促进与其亚述（
Assyrian<
/p>
）伙伴们之间的贸易往来。事实上，我们对赫蒂人的
所知大部分来
自于赫梯人对其文化的广泛采用。
赫蒂的人口数量或许曾在几十年中占据多数
——
如果没到上百年的话
——
然而却是在赫梯贵族们的统治之下，
直至最终在历史的长河中
晦暗下去。
Photo
credit
: Rod Waddington
图片引自：
Rod Waddington
9
、
Zapotec
Civilization
萨博特克文明
While most people are familiar with the
Aztecs and the Maya of Mesoamerica,
the
people knownas the Zapotec remain relatively
obscure
. Among the first
p
eople in the area to use
agriculturaland writing systems, they also built
one of
the earliest recognized cities
in North America
—
Monte
Alban. Founded in the
fifth century
B.C., the city was home to a maximum of
25,000citizens and last
ed for over
1,200 years. In Monte Alban, a privileged class
made up of priests
,warriors, and
artists ruled over the lower classes.
相较于许多人对中美洲
阿芝特科（<
/p>
Aztecs
）及玛雅（
Maya
）的熟悉来说，一支称为
萨博
特克
（
Zapotec
）<
/p>
的文明显得生涩了许多。
他们不仅是这一地区最早进行农业耕作、
使用书
写系统的文明之一，同时也修建了北美地区最早的城市<
/p>
——
Monte Alban
。
[
译者注：地理
划分上
“
中美洲
”
只是一个地区的概念而算不
上一个
“
洲
”
。
Zapotec
文明及其中心城市
M
onte Alban
位于今墨西哥南部，在地理上属于
“
中美
”
范畴，但按
“
七大洲
”
概念则属北美
]
该城建于公元前
5
世纪
，最多可容纳
2
万
5000
名市民，存续超过
1
千
2
00
年之久。在
MonteAlban
城，由牧师、战士及艺术家组成的特权阶级统治着其他相对低级的阶层。
Like many of the
civilizations of Mesoamerica, the Zapotecs
subjugated the su
rrounding areasthrough
a mix of
warfare
,
diplomacy
, and
tribute
. The
sud
den downfall of their cultureseemed
to have no reason, and their largest city
was mostly left
intact
, though it
was
eventually
ruined by
years of abandon
ment. Some scholars
believe that a failure of theireconomic system may
have
pushed the Zapotecs to find work
elsewhere. The rest of
the
population
grou
ped together into various city-
states, which proceeded to fight each other
(as
well as outside forces) until they
were no more.
同中美洲地区许许多多的其他文明一样，
萨博特克也通过包括战争、
外交和进贡在内的方式
征服
了周边地区。
这支文明的衰落看起来毫无缘由，
而且他们最大的
城市也基本上是完好地
遗留了下来，
虽然由于多年的弃置，
最终还是损毁了。
一些学者认为，
他们失败
的经济体系，
或许使得萨博特克人不得不到其他地区寻找工作。
余下的人口组成了大量的城邦，
并且相互
交战（同时也与外部势
力交战）直至灭亡。
Photo
credit
: Michel wal
图片引自：
Michel wal
8
、
Vinca
Civilization
温卡文明（长春花文明）
Europe
’
s biggest
prehistoric
civilization,
the Vinca, existed for nearly 1,500
y
ears. Beginning inthe 55th century
B.C., they
occupied
land
throughoutSerbi
a and Romania. Named
after apresent-day village near the Danube River,
wh
ere the first discoveries were made
in the 20thcentury, the Vinca were a
meta
l-working people, perhaps even the
world
’
s first civilization
to usecopper (they
also excavated the
first mine in Europe).
欧洲最大的史前文明，温卡，存续近
1500
年之久。从公元前
55
世纪开始，他们占据了遍
及叙利亚和罗马尼亚的土地。首次发现于
20
世纪，并以发现地，多瑙河附近一当代小镇的
< br>名字命名。
温卡人是一个从事金属加工的民族，
他们或许
是世界上最早使用铜的文明
（他们
同样采掘出了欧洲的第一桶矿
产）。
Though the Vinca people
had no officially recognized form of writing,
example
s of proto-
writing,
symbols
which
don
’
t actually express
language, have been
found on various
stone tabletswhich date as far back as 4000 B.C.
In
additio
n
, they
were
artistic
and fond of
children;archaeologists have found various
t
oys, such as animals and rattles,
buried among the otherartifacts. They were
also
extremely
organized
—
the
houses of the Vinca civilization
had
specific
l
ocations for trash, and the dead were
all buried in a central location.
虽然温卡人
的存在无法从文字、类文字图样、甚至那些算不上语言的符号中得到正式承认，
但的确发
现有许多的石碑可以作证其存在，
这些石碑可追溯至公元前
40
00
年。
另外，
他们
< br>充满艺术气息并且喜欢孩子，
考古学家发现了许许多多的玩偶，
< br>如动物和摇铃，
这些玩偶与
其他手工制品埋在一起。
他们还非常的有组织性
——
温卡文明的房屋
都有特定的垃圾丢弃点，
并且死去的人全都被埋在一个中心地点。
Photo
credit
: Rama
图片引自：
Rama
7
、
Hurrian
Civilization
胡里安文明
Another civilization which influenced
the Hittites was the Hurrian people, who
lived throughoutthe Middle East during
the second millennium B.C.
It
’
s proba
ble
that they were around evenearlier than that:
Personal and place names w
ritten in the
Hurrian language were found inMesopotamian records
dating bac
k to the third millennium
B.C. Unfortunately, very few artifactsof their
civilizat
ion exist; most of what we
know about them comes from the writings of
other
cultures, including the Hittites,
Sumerians, and Egyptians.
另一个对赫梯人产生过所影响
的，
是胡里安文明。
胡里安人分布于中东地区，
生活在公元前
的第二个千年里（译注：即指公元前
20
00~
公元前
1000
年）。他们或许
在更早的时代就
出现了：
以胡里安语书写的人名和地名被发现存
在于美索不达米亚的历史资料中，
后者可追
溯至公元前的第三个
千年。
不幸的是，
只有非常少量的胡里安文明手工制品存在于世
；
我们
对他们的所知主要源于
包括包括赫梯、苏美尔以及埃及在内的其他文明的记载。
One of their largest cities is known as
Urkesh and is located in northeastern
S
yria. Urkesh isalso where the earliest
known text in Hurrian, a stone tablet
an
d
statue
known
as the Louvrelion, was found. Long believed to be
mainly
no
madic
,
scholars now believe that the Hurriansmay have had
a much bigger
i
mpact
than
previously
thought, mostly
due to the way theirlanguage differe
d
from other Semitic and Indo-European tongues.
However, by the end of the
second
millennium B.C., nearly all ethnic traces of the
Hurrians had disappear
ed, with only
theirinfluence on the Hittites left behind.
胡里安人最大的城市之一是沃克什（
Urkesh
）
，坐落在今叙利亚北部。沃克什亦是胡里安
最早的文本
——
一个石碑和被称为罗浮狮的雕像
——
的发现
地。
长期以来人们认为胡里安人
以游牧为主。
< br>如今，
学者们认为胡里安人所产生过的影响或许比我们原想的更大，
主要基于
其语言与其他闪米特和印欧语系语言差异的形式。无论如何，在公元
前第二个世纪的末尾，
胡里安民族的踪迹几乎全部消失，只剩他们对赫梯人的影响流传下
去。
Photo
credit
: Ji-Elle
图片引自：
Ji-Elle
6
、
Nok
Civilization
诺克文明
Named after the area in Nigeria in
which artifacts of their culture were first di
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