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Straddling Virginia and North Carolina is an area that was once described as the "most repulsive of American possessions."
横跨弗吉尼亚和北卡罗莱纳，有个地方曾被称为“最令人嫌弃的美国领土”。
By 1728, it was known as the Great Dismal Swamp.
到了1728年，这里被称为迪斯默尔大沼泽（大苍凉沼泽）。
But while many deemed it uninhabitable, recent findings suggest that a hidden society persisted in the Swamp until the mid-1800′s.
尽管许多人认为这里不适宜居住，近期的调查结果表明，这个沼泽中曾经有过一个大隐隐于市的社会，这个群落一直延续到19世纪中叶。
So, who lived there? And what happened to them? People long suspected that communities had settled in the Swamp, but the historical record was spotty.
那么谁曾经生活在那里？发生了什么事？许久以来，人们怀疑沼泽里有人居住，但鲜有任何有关的历史记录。
It wasn't until 2003 that the first systematic archaeological foray finally launched.
直到2003年，我们才开始了第一次系统性的考古行动。
But, despite having been extensively drained over the years, the wetland still presented many practical challenges.
但就算附近的湿地在过去几年逐渐干涸，探索这片湿地依旧是个不小的挑战。
Researchers had to penetrate thorny thickets, wade through waters studded with sinkholes, and braved the threats of dangerous animals.
研究人员需要穿越荆榛满目的树丛，跋涉充满沟壑的水潭，斗胆直面凶险的野兽。
After several months, they finally found islands in the Swamp's interior. These formations quickly revealed traces of centuries-old secrets.
几个月后，他们终于找到了沼泽内部的小岛。这些地形立马揭露了世纪秘密的踪迹。
Archeologists found buried markings that appear to have been left by raised log cabins, fire pits, and basins that may have collected drinking water.
考古学家们发现了埋藏的痕迹，看似是垫高的小木屋、火坑和饮用水蓄水池的遗迹。
They identified what seems to have been a palisade wall and excavated more than 3,000 artifacts,
他们发现了类似栅栏的建筑，出土了3000多件文物，
including weaponry, stone tools, and fragments of ceramic pipes and vessels.
有武器、石器和陶管、容器的碎片。
These discoveries, combined with previous findings, helped tell a story that reaches far back in time.
结合过去的发现，这些新发现完述了一个可以溯源过去的故事。
Indigenous American people began regularly inhabiting or visiting the area around 11,000 BCE, before it was even a swampland.
美洲原住民在大约在公元前11000年时就定期去到和暂住该区域了，那时候这里甚至还不是沼泽。
A second era of occupation began much later. In the early 1600′s, more Indigenous people came seeking refuge from colonization.
然而，过了很久才有第二批人居住。17世纪初期，这里成了更多原住民逃离外来殖民的避难所。
And later that century, it seems that Maroons -- or people escaping from slavery -- began entering the area.
同一个世纪的后期似乎又有一批人涌入了这地区，他们是马龙人，也就是黑人逃奴。
In fact, the team's findings support the theory that the Great Dismal Swamp was home to the largest Maroon settlement in all of North America.
考古队的发现正巧证明了一个理论：迪斯默尔沼泽是北美最大的逃奴居住地。
Because their success and survival depended on staying hidden from the outside world, these Swamp communities were largely self-sufficient.
因为只有藏于外界才能生存，沼泽里的居民基本上自给自足。
Based on primary sources, historians believe that people cultivated grains and created homes, furniture, musical instruments, and more from the Swamp's available resources.
第一手资料表明，历史学家认为这些人种植谷物，建造房屋、家具、乐器等，最大化利用了沼泽里一切可用的资源。
These organic materials had probably already decomposed by the time archaeologists came to investigate.
不过在考古学家来访之前，这些有机材料可能早就分解了。
But researchers were able to find more durable objects,
但是研究人员有幸找到了更结实耐久的物品：
like ceramic and stone items that were likely left by ancient Indigenous people then reused and modified by others later on.
比如陶瓷和石器，它们似乎被古代的原住民留下，然后经由后人改造、重新使用。
Around the turn of the 19th century, it seems the relationship between the Swamp's community and the outside world changed.
即将步入19世纪时，沼泽居民和外界的关系似乎发生了变化。
Lumber and manufacturing companies began encroaching on the Swamp's interior.
木材和制造业公司开始进军沼泽里。
They brought thousands of free and enslaved workers to live in the Swamp and made them harvest wood, excavate canals, and drain fields.
他们给沼泽带来了数以千计奴隶和自由人的工人，要他们砍伐林木、开掘河道，还排干了田地。
Certain findings suggest that the Swamp's hidden communities might have switched to a more defensive mode during this period.
一些调查结果表明，隐秘的沼泽居民们在这个时候似乎已经开始有所防备。
But researchers also observed more mass-produced objects from this time, indicating that trading was taking place.
不过因为研究人员也发现此时有了更多大规模炮制的产品，显示双方可能也有贸易往来。
Researchers think that the secret Swamp communities dispersed during or soon after the American Civil War, by the end of which slavery was abolished in the United States.
研究人员认为隐秘的沼泽居民社区四散的时间是在在美国内战期间或结束不久后，那时美国废奴了。
Some people may have stayed in the Swamp until they passed away or left to settle elsewhere.
或许有些人留在沼泽终其一生，或许另外的人择地迁居。
Most of what we know about these hidden communities has come to light after archeologists excavated sections of a single island.
在考古学家发掘出其中一个岛屿的躯块后，这些隐秘居民的故事终于被曝光于大众。
However, there may have been hundreds of habitable islands dotting the Swamp's interior at the time.
然而，当时的沼泽里可能有数百个可居住的岛屿。
Between 1600 and 1860, many people lived in these hidden settlements.
1600年至1860年间，有许多人曾栖身在这些隐世居所。
Some probably lived their entire lives within the Swamp and never saw a white person or experienced racial persecution in broader American society.
有些人甚至一辈子都在沼泽里度过，没有见过白人，也没有经历过美国社会的种族迫害。
Generations of Black Maroons and Indigenous Americans resisted slavery and colonization by creating an independent society in the heart of the Great Dismal Swamp.
一代又一代的逃亡黑人和美洲原住民，通过在大沼泽的中心建立一个独立的社会，来抵抗奴隶制和殖民化。
They fostered a refuge in what might seem like the unlikeliest of places -- but one that was more hospitable than what lay outside.
他们把自己的避难所建立在看似最荒凉的地方，但这地方远比外面的世界更友好、更怡人。
Today, this area offers a partial record of that secret, self-reliant world, imagined and built for survival and the preservation of freedom.
如今，这个地方不完全地记录了一个秘密，自给自足的世界，一个为生存和自由的存续而创造的世界。
