幾百年前我們的食物是什么樣子的?藝術(shù)史或許有答案

幾百年前我們的食物是什么樣子的?藝術(shù)史或許有答案

What happens when a plant geneticist and an art historian walk into a museum together?

如果一個植物遺傳學家和一個藝術(shù)歷史學家一起走進博物館會發(fā)生什么?

The fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts and seeds were once cultivated and improved over the millennia. Growers honed in on different textures, flavors, appearances and varieties that were more appealing for human consumption and agriculturally efficient.

水果、蔬菜、豆類、谷物、堅果和種子都經(jīng)過了幾千年的培育和改良。種植者們在不同的質(zhì)地、口味、外觀和品種上不斷磨練，使它們對人類消費和農(nóng)業(yè)效率更有吸引力。

But what did our food look like hundreds of years ago? For a few decades, plant geneticists have studied the historical genetic composition of modern foods in several ways, highlighting certain genetic mutations that were responsible for transformations in appearance.

但是幾百年前我們的食物是什么樣子的呢?幾十年來，植物遺傳學家以多種方式研究了現(xiàn)代食物的歷史基因組成，重點研究了導致外觀變化的某些基因突變。

These approaches haven't offered many answers for what some plant-based foods actually looked like, according to an article published Tuesday in the journal Trends in Plant Science.

根據(jù)周二發(fā)表在《植物科學趨勢》雜志上的一篇文章，這些方法并沒有為一些植物性食品的實際外觀提供很多答案。

So worldwide art collections, the old-time equivalents of the modern-day photograph, might serve as a massive historical database of how modern plant foods have fluctuated in their looks. And they're asking the public to send in what they find.

因此，世界各地的藝術(shù)收藏，就像現(xiàn)代的照片一樣，可以作為一個巨大的歷史數(shù)據(jù)庫，記錄現(xiàn)代植物的外觀是如何變化的。他們要求公眾把他們發(fā)現(xiàn)的東西送來。

"Images, and in this case artistic depictions, are a good way to provide that missing information," said study coauthor Ive De Smet.

該研究的合著者艾夫·德·斯邁特說:“圖像，以及在這種情況下的藝術(shù)描繪是提供缺失信息的好方法。”

"We are mainly interested in the story that, say, the modern orange carrot made from its humble beginnings as a weed, to its current popular form," he said.

他說:“我們主要對現(xiàn)代橙色胡蘿卜的故事感興趣，比如它從一種不起眼的野草發(fā)展到現(xiàn)在流行的形式。”

"Genomes of ancient plant-based foods can help us understand what this plant could have looked like," he continued. "This helps us pinpoint the appearance of certain characteristics on a timeline, the same way paintings can."

“古老植物性食物的基因組可以幫助我們了解這種植物可能看起來像什么，”他繼續(xù)說道。“這有助于我們在時間軸上確定某些特征的外觀，就像繪畫一樣。”

De Smet and co-author David Vergauwen, who is a lecturer on cultural history at Amarant, a Belgian cultural institution — have been friends since high school more than 30 years ago.

德·斯邁特和合著者、比利時文化機構(gòu)阿瑪蘭特的文化史講師戴維•維高溫30多年前從高中時代就成了朋友。

Attending the same university they studied disciplines that, until now, seemed worlds apart. But every now and then the friends "take a trip together to visit a region or city we cannot convince our wives to go to," De Smet said.

在同一所大學里，他們學習的學科直到現(xiàn)在看來都是天壤之別。但斯邁特說，這對朋友偶爾會“一起去旅行，去某個我們說服不了妻子的地區(qū)或城市”。

A few years ago, the duo stood in the Hermitage Museum in Russia, in front of a painting of fruits by the late Flemish painter Frans Snyders. Neither of them recognized the fruits, so the following question was whether the fruit had looked the same in the 17th century, or whether Snyders was merely a bad painter.

幾年前，兩人站在俄羅斯的隱士博物館里，面前是已故的弗拉芒畫家弗蘭斯·斯奈德的一幅水果畫。他們誰也沒認出這些水果來，所以隨之而來的問題是這些水果在17世紀看起來是不是一樣，還是斯奈德只是個蹩腳的畫家。

On a train to Tsarkoe Selo, another museum in Russia, that query sparked further discussion about whether other foods had similar stories. A multidisciplinary investigation was born.

在前往俄羅斯另一家博物館薩科奇塞洛的火車上，這個問題引發(fā)了關(guān)于是否其他食物也有類似經(jīng)歷的進一步討論。一項多學科的研究由此誕生。

With art as an aid, they've since made similar discoveries regarding the making of modern wheat, the cultivation of strawberries and the origins of watermelon.

在藝術(shù)的幫助下，他們在現(xiàn)代小麥的制作、草莓的種植和西瓜的起源等方面都有了類似的發(fā)現(xiàn)。