Name: 【Vox】亞馬遜的 「失落城市」是如何被發現的？ (How the “lost cities” of the Amazon were finally found)
Uploaded: 2022-08-01T21:01:30.000Z
Duration: 6 min 55 s

基礎被動語態

He was last heard from here deep in the Amazon Rainforest.

最後一次聽到他的消息是在亞馬遜雨林的深處。

In 1925, he was on his eighth expedition in the Amazon and he had one objective: to find the ruins of a lost city that he called Z.

1925年，他在亞馬遜開啟他的第八次探險，而這次他有一個目標：找到那座他稱之為Z的遺失之城。

The idea was based on rumors that had circulated for centuries that there was once large cities filled with people deep in the amazon.

這個想法來源於已經流傳好幾世紀的傳聞：曾經，在亞馬遜的深處，有一座人類居住的大型城市。

But Fawcett never found Z or any other city and for decades after his disappearance, experts believe that this rainforest was simply too hostile and too remote to ever have supported cities.

但在Fawcett消失的數十年後，他未曾找到Z或其他城市過，專家們相信這片雨林的環境根本太過險惡以及偏僻，以至於支撐不起城市的發展。

Until recently when scientists began finding these, these ditches and mounds are man-made and they're all over the rainforest.

直到最近專家們才找到了這些遍佈雨林的人為溝渠和墳塚。

Now, archaeologists think they finally know the answer to an ancient mystery "Where are the lost cities of the amazon?"

現在，考古學家們認為他們終於為那個遠古傳說「亞馬遜中的失落之城在哪？」找到了答案。

Here was the capital of the empire of the Incas, Cusco. Many fine massive walls built by the ancient inhabitants centuries before the Spaniards came, still stand...

這裡曾是庫斯科的印加帝國的首都。在西班牙人到達前數世紀，那些由古代居民建起的高牆依舊直直地聳立著。

In the 16th century, European colonizers poured into Central and South America, bringing with them soldiers, disease, and plans to conquer it.

16世紀，歐洲的殖民者湧入中美洲和南美洲，帶來了士兵、疾病、並計劃要征服這片土地。

They encountered many groups of indigenous people, some of whom had long ago built huge cities like Tenochtitlan founded by the Mexican people Around 1325 A.D.

他們碰到了許多原住民，而其中一些原住民很久以前就建造了像墨西哥人在公元 1325 年左右建立的特諾奇蒂特蘭那樣的大城市。

And Cusco founded by the Incas around 1200 A.D.

而庫斯科則是由印加人在西元1200年時建立的。

These cities were constructed with stone and featured well planned roads and neighborhoods.

這些城市以石頭來建造，並且以規劃完善的道路和住宅區而聞名。

The Europeans took over both of them, and by the middle of the 16th century were hearing rumors of another city where a great lord goes about continually covered in gold dust and washes it away at night.

而歐洲人將他們都佔領走了，在16世紀中葉，有一個傳聞這麼流傳著：有一個城市中住著一位聖人，他會以金粉覆蓋他的身體，並在夜晚時將那些金粉都洗去。

Those rumors eventually became the legend of El Dorado, a city made of gold hidden in the amazon rainforest.

而這些傳聞最終變成了黃金國的傳說：在亞馬遜雨林中藏著一座以黃金蓋的城。

These impressive cities made a golden city seem plausible.

這些令人印象深刻的城市讓黃金城的存在看起來似乎是有跡可循的。

So many Europeans set off in search of Eldorado, but they all failed.

因此，許多的歐洲人便出發前往埃爾多拉多，但他們都失敗了。

Most ended in starvation, disease, and death.

許多人以飢餓、疾病和死亡告終。

No one found a golden city, but they did record signs that one could exist spanish explorers claimed to see cities that glistened in white, great quantities of maize and town of disproportionate size and a chief with gold idols and very large towns to such an extent that they were astounded.

沒有人找到那座黃金城過，但他們確實記錄了可能存在的跡象，西班牙探險家聲稱看到了閃著白光的城市、數不勝數的苞穀、大到無法丈量大小的城市、擁有金像的酋長，以及讓他們感到震驚的巨大城鎮。

Explorations continued over the next 200 years or so, but by the 19th century, the legend of El Dorado had been dismissed as a myth.

在接下來的200年左右，探險還在繼續進行著，而到了19世紀，黃金城的傳說被認為只是有名無實的神話。

It wasn't until the early 20th century that these reports inspired a British explorer to revive the search.

直到20世紀初，這些報導才給予一位英國探險家靈感，讓他花了20餘年來重振這方面的研究。

For two decades, Fawcett scoured the amazon for remnants of an ancient city focusing on two areas.

Fawcett仔細探尋了一座古城的遺跡，並將重點關注在兩個區域。

The Western amazon in Bolivia and the southern amazon in brazil, but he couldn't find any of the things the early European explorers observed.

位於玻利維亞的亞馬遜西部以及位於巴西的亞馬遜南部，但他找不到任何早期歐洲探險家所觀察到的東西。

He met indigenous people, but described them in his letters as living in small groups and simple villages and he didn't find any sign of stone ruins.

他和當地原住民見面，但根據他在信中的描述，他們居住於簡單的小聚落，而他沒有發現任何石遺址的蹤跡。

They seemed to support what had become near consensus among experts at the time that this rainforest was too inhospitable to support large, complex societies, let alone cities.

這些原住民的存在似乎支持著許多專家先前所一致認同的觀點：這個雨林太不適居，無法支撐起大型複雜的社會，更別說是城市了。

Modern research estimates that around Fawcett's time, only a couple 100,000 people lived in the entire amazon rainforest.

現代學者估計在Fawcett的那個年代，整片亞馬遜雨林中只有100,000 人居住。

More racist theories at the time held that these indigenous people were too unsophisticated to build cities and others pointed to the amazon soil which appeared to be too infertile to support necessary large scale agriculture.

在當時更多種族主義者的理論主張這些原住民腦帶太不發達以至於無法建造出城市，而其他人則指出亞馬遜的土地太不肥沃，因此無法支持必要的大規模農業。

But Fawcett was determined to prove cities existed and in the final letter to his wife, Faucet assured her by writing you need have no fear of any failure.

而Fawcett依舊下定決心要證明這座城市的存在，在他最後一封寫給他太太的信上，Fawcett向他太太保證：你不要擔心會失敗。

Then he left his camp and was never seen again.

然後他便離開他的扎營，從此消失在世人面前。

The amazon was believed to have always been relatively empty, but it turns out Fawcett was looking in the right place just for the wrong thing.

世人已相信亞馬遜這個地方是空空如也，但事實上，Fawcett在一個正確的地方尋找錯誤的東西。

Fawcett錯過的一條線索是這裡的土壤。

In the 1960s, scientists discovered patches of extremely fertile soil analysis showed it contained much more nutrients than usual.

在1960年代，科學家們發現了一些格外肥沃的土壤，而數據分析顯示該土壤比一般土壤還包含更多的養分。

They called it terra preta or black earth and found lots of it in the amazon, especially along rivers.

他們稱其為亞馬遜黑土或黑鈣土，並在亞馬遜尤其是沿河區域附近發現了很多。

Further studies revealed that it was created by human waste or the intentional burning of the forest, which adds nutrients to the soil below.

進一步的研究揭露了這種土壤其實是由人為垃圾或是故意燃燒森林產生的，而土壤則因此吸收了養分。

Terra preta was evidence that large scale agriculture was possible in the amazon.

亞馬遜黑土是亞馬遜曾經可能存在大型農業的證明。

The next clue Fawcett missed would have also been hard to spot.

接下來另一個Fawcett錯過的線索在過去也很難被發現。

In the 1990s , along the Xingu River in brazil, a team of archaeologists led by University of Florida's Dr. Michael Heckenberger made a remarkable discovery.

在1990年代，沿著欣古河，由佛羅里達的大學教授Michael Heckenberger帶領的一眾考古隊獲得了了不起的發現。

Working with the local indigenous people, they investigated these very long ditches and after mapping them realized these ditches were signs of a large settlement.

和當地原住民一起合作，他們調查了一條非常長的溝渠，而在繪製地圖後，他們發現這些溝渠是一處大型定居點的徵兆。

They were remnants of carefully designed walls centered around a plaza and some were roads that lead to more settlements.

他們是許多環繞著廣場四周、設計良好的圍牆的遺跡，而其中有一些是通向更多定居點的路。

In fact, just this part of the amazon about the size of New Jersey was once a network of dozens of settlements that experts believe could have been home to at least 50,000 people between 1250s and 1650 A.D..

事實上，亞馬遜的這一部分就相當於新澤西州那麼大，它曾經是一個由幾十個定居點組成的居住網，而專家相信在西元1250到1650年間，它是約50,000民人口的居住地。

These settlements were designed to get the most out of the forest without depleting it.

這些居住點的設計方式是要在不耗盡森林資源的情況下來充分利用它。

There were delineated areas for gardens and orchards and deeply forested areas between the settlements used for keeping animals and medicinal plants.

過去曾有劃定好給花園和果園的區域，居住地之間還有茂密的森林用於飼養動物和種植藥草。

These were the lost cities of the amazon and there were many more.

這些過去都是亞馬遜的失落之城，而其他處還有更多。

Over the past few decades, experts have uncovered evidence of large settlements all over the Amazon.

在過去的幾十年裡，專家們已經在亞馬遜各處發現了大型定居點的證據。

A network of trenches here date back to 200-1200 A.D.,

這裡一處由溝渠形成的網路可以追溯回西元200到1200年，

and suggest settlements that could have supported 60,000 people, which is much bigger than many European cities at that time.

而那顯示了這些居住點能夠支撐起60,000戶人口，比當時許多的歐洲城市都大多了。

And in Bolivia, scientists recently used satellite technology to reveal remnants of U-shaped buildings on the top of pyramids 22 meters tall.

而在玻利維亞，科學家們最近使用了衛星科技發掘了在22公尺高的金字塔上的U形建築的遺址。

All these discoveries are leading experts to form a new consensus that the lost cities of the Amazon were once home to millions of people.

這些發現都引領著科學家們形成一個新的共識：亞馬遜的那些失落之城曾經是約數百萬人的家園。

Fawcett didn't find large populations of indigenous people because an estimated 80-95% had died from smallpox and measles spread by the first generation of European colonizers between the 16th and 17th centuries.

Fawcett並沒有找到大量的原住民人口是因為估計有 80-95%的原住民死於 16 至 17世紀時第一代歐洲殖民者帶來傳播的天花和麻疹。

And he didn't find stone ruins because unlike Cusco and Tenochtitlan, the amazon's indigenous people built with wood and earth, which decompose over time.

而他沒有發現任何的石遺址是因為不像庫斯科和特諾奇蒂特蘭，亞馬遜的原住民只能用木頭和泥土建造，而這兩種建材會隨著時間而分解。

What remained was an amazon full of dense vegetation and swaths of infertile soil that appeared to be untouched by humans.

僅存的只剩亞馬遜好像未曾被人類觸及過的茂密的植被和大片貧瘠的土壤。

When in fact, humans had been engineering it for centuries, these lost cities show how humans and the rainforest once co-existed.

事實上在過去的幾世紀，人類一直都致力於此，這些失落的城市展示了人類和熱帶雨林曾經是如何共存。

A relationship we're only just beginning to understand.

一段我們才剛剛開始理解的關係。

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【Vox】亞馬遜的「失落城市」是如何被發現的？ (How the “lost cities” of the Amazon were finally found)

massive

extremely

evidence

scale

【Vox】亞馬遜的 「失落城市」是如何被發現的？ (How the “lost cities” of the Amazon were finally found)

massive

extremely

evidence

scale

【Vox】亞馬遜的「失落城市」是如何被發現的？ (How the “lost cities” of the Amazon were finally found)