關于卡霍基亞神秘的“失落的文明”，我們可能錯了

關于卡霍基亞神秘的“失落的文明”，我們可能錯了

Nestled on the banks of the Mississippi River, the forgotten city of Cahokia was once a bustling metropolis, the largest and most cosmopolitan hub north of Mexico, home to the Mississippian indigenous culture.

坐落在密西西比河岸邊，被遺忘的城市卡霍基亞曾經是一個繁華的大都市，墨西哥北部最大和最國際化的中心，是密西西比土著文化的故鄉(xiāng)。

Today, no one knows what happened to it. Tens of thousands of its inhabitants are merely said to have 'disappeared', leaving behind their giant earthen mounds, spread across 13 square kilometres (5 square miles).

今天，沒有人知道它發(fā)生了什么。據說，成千上萬的當地居民“消失了”，留下了巨大的土丘，分布在13平方公里(5平方英里)的土地上。

By the mid 1300s, long before white settlers arrived on the continent, archeologists say it was virtually abandoned.

到了14世紀中期，在白人定居者到達這塊大陸之前很久，考古學家說這塊土地實際上已經被遺棄了。

A fresh analysis of ancient human faeces has now weaved a wholly different story.

一項對古代人類糞便的新分析現在編織了一個完全不同的故事。

The Cahokia area, it reveals, was only forsaken briefly. By the time Columbus sailed the ocean blue, the metropolis - which was located in modern-day Illinois near what is now St. Louis - was already being repopulated, and by 1650, the number of its residents had surged to a whole new high.

報告顯示，卡霍基亞地區(qū)只是被短暫地遺棄了。在哥倫布航行到藍色海洋的時候，這個位于今天的伊利諾斯州，靠近現在的圣路易斯的大都市已經重新開始了人口的增長，到1650年，它的居民數量已經激增到一個新的高度。

The story of Cahokia was a lot more complex than, 'Goodbye, Native Americans. Hello, Europeans,' and our study uses innovative and unusual evidence to show that, says anthropologist AJ White from the University of California Berkeley.

卡霍基亞的故事要比‘再見，印第安人’復雜得多。來自加州大學伯克利分校的人類學家AJ White說:“歐洲人，你們好。”

The widespread abandonment of Cahokia between 1450 and 1550 CE is a time known as the 'vacant quarter'. Over the years, archaeological investigations have indicated several contributing factors to this slump, including conflict, population movement, flooding, drought, climate change, and the over-exploitation of resources.

公元1450年至1550年，卡霍基亞被廣泛廢棄，這段時期被稱為“空置區(qū)”。多年來，考古調查表明了導致這種衰退的幾個因素，包括沖突、人口流動、洪水、干旱、氣候變化和資源的過度開發(fā)。

But while many have remained focused on the Cahokia collapse, few have researched what happened after.

然而，盡管許多人仍專注于卡霍基亞核事故，但很少有人研究事故發(fā)生后的情況。

Widespread acceptance of the vacant quarter hypothesis has perpetuated the "myth of the vanishing Indian", the authors argue, even though historical accounts suggest Mississippian culture never collapsed completely.

作者認為，盡管歷史記載表明密西西比文化從未完全崩潰，但對空季假說的廣泛接受使“印第安人消失的神話”得以延續(xù)。

One would think the Cahokia region was a ghost town at the time of European contact, based on the archeological record, says White.

“根據考古記錄，人們會認為卡霍基亞地區(qū)在與歐洲接觸時是一個鬼城。”懷特說。

But we were able to piece together a Native American presence in the area that endured for centuries.

“但我們能夠拼湊出一個在該地區(qū)存在了幾個世紀的印第安人。”

As well as using historical, climatic and ecological data, the team decided to supplement their work with faecal evidence. After all, wherever humans live, we defecate.

除了使用歷史、氣候和生態(tài)數據外，研究小組還決定用糞便作為補充。畢竟，不管人類住在哪里，我們都會隨地大小便。

Certain molecular signatures in human poop, called stanols, can be washed into lakes and other basins by the rain, which means the more stanols you find in ancient sediments, the more people who likely lived nearby.

人類糞便中的某些分子特征被稱為stanols，它們可以被雨水沖進湖泊和其他盆地，這意味著你在古代沉積物中發(fā)現的stanols越多，附近的居民可能就越多。

Not far from Cahokia's famous mounds in the state of Illinois, archaeologists dug up two sediment cores from opposite sides of Horseshoe Lake.

在離卡霍基亞著名的伊利諾斯州土丘不遠的地方，考古學家從馬蹄湖的兩邊挖出了兩個沉積物巖心。

The results suggest that after hitting a low point, the population in this area began to resurge again in 1500 CE, indicating that any lack of growth was short-lived.

結果表明，在達到最低點后，該地區(qū)的人口在公元1500年再次開始回升，這表明任何增長的缺乏都是短暫的。

Only in 1700, well after European arrival, did fecal stanol ratios begin to show a decline.

直到1700年，也就是歐洲人到達后很久，糞便中stanol的比例才開始下降。

It is important to note that the depopulation of Cahokia in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries was not the end of an indigenous presence in the Horseshoe Lake watershed, despite a lack of archaeological evidence and research emphasis on Mississippian occupations, the authors write.

作者寫道:“重要的是要注意到，12至14世紀卡霍基亞的人口減少并不是馬蹄湖流域土著存在的終結，盡管缺乏考古證據和對密西西比人職業(yè)的研究重點。”

By acknowledging a repopulation following the Mississippian decline, we move closer to a narrative of native persistence over disappearance.

“通過承認密西西比人口減少后的再種群，我們更接近于一種自然持續(xù)而非消失的敘述。”

The timing of it all is pretty remarkable, too. During the population increase, other native populations in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean were in serious decline from violence and foreign diseases spread by European colonists.

這一切發(fā)生的時間也相當驚人。在人口增長期間，美國、加拿大和加勒比地區(qū)的其他土著人口由于歐洲殖民者傳播的暴力和外來疾病而嚴重減少。

Far from the coast, the inhabitants of Cahokia were likely shielded for a time, although not forever. Today, many claim the Illinois tribe is no more, but White and his colleagues argue "regional depopulation and relocation do not equate to cultural extinction".

在遠離海岸的地方，卡霍基亞的居民可能有一段時間受到了保護，盡管不是永遠。今天，許多人聲稱伊利諾斯州的部落已經不復存在，但懷特和他的同事們認為“區(qū)域人口減少和遷移并不等同于文化滅絕”。

In a previous study using ancient human poop samples, published last year, White found evidence of droughts and floods that might have contributed to Cahokia's fluctuating population in the 1300s.

在去年發(fā)表的一項研究中，懷特利用古代人類糞便樣本發(fā)現了干旱和洪水的證據，這可能是導致卡霍基亞14世紀人口波動的原因。

Cultures can be very resilient in face of climate change but resilience doesn't necessarily mean there is no change. There can be cultural reorganization or decisions to relocate or migrate, explained anthropologist Sissel Schroeder at the time.

“面對氣候變化，文化可以很有彈性，但彈性并不一定意味著沒有變化。”人類學家Sissel Schroeder解釋道。

Disappearing completely is another matter. Through warfare, disease, removal, environmental change, and political upheaval, Cahokia might have persisted for much longer than we thought.

完全消失是另一回事。通過戰(zhàn)爭、疾病、遷移、環(huán)境變化和政治動蕩，卡霍基亞可能比我們想象的持續(xù)時間要長得多。