评论
打印
Researchers have discovered the remains of medieval cities perched above the ancient Silk Road in the rugged mountains of southeastern Uzbekistan.
在乌兹别克斯坦东南部崎岖山峦中的古代丝绸之路上，研究人员发现了中世纪城市的遗址。
One of them is a sprawling, high-altitude metropolis that lay hidden for centuries, in a place where few expected to find signs of ancient civilizations.
其中之一是一座向外扩张的高海拔大都市，它已经在此静默了许多个世纪，鲜少有人预料到能在这片地方发现古代文明的迹象。
The discovery, made possible by new drone-based lidar technology, challenges long-held assumptions about urban life in the remote mountains of Central Asia more than a thousand years ago.
在新型无人机激光雷达技术的支持下，该发现动摇了长期以来考古界有关中亚偏远山地一千多年前的城市生活的猜想。
The groundbreaking research, led by National Geographic Explorer Michael Frachetti and Farhod Maksudov, director of Uzbekistan's National Center of Archaeology, reveals a bustling city that thrived between the 6th and 11th centuries.
国家地理学会探险家迈克尔·弗拉切蒂和乌兹别克斯坦科学院考古研究所所长马克苏多夫·法尔霍德领导了这项突破性的研究，研究发现了一座兴盛于6世纪到11世纪之间的繁华都市。
Situated at altitudes reaching up to 7,200 feet (comparable to Machu Picchu in the Peruvian Andes), this discovery sheds new light on the complexity, scale, and elevation of medieval societies along the Silk Road, the vast network of ancient trade routes that connected Europe and Eastern Asia.
它位于7200英尺的海拔高度（与秘鲁安第斯山脉上的马丘比丘相当），为我们了解丝绸之路沿线中世纪社会的复杂程度、规模与海拔高度提供了新的视角，而这些社会构成了巨大的古代贸易路线网，连接着欧洲与东亚。
The ruins of the ancient city of Tugunbulak cover nearly 300 acres, making it one of the largest regional settlements of its time, according to a paper published today in Nature and based on research funded by the National Geographic Society.
根据一项由国家地理学会资助、于10月23日在《自然》期刊发表的研究，图贡布拉克古城遗址占地近121万平方米，是同时期最大的人类定居点之一。
"Lidar showed us that there's a massive city there, hiding in plain sight," says Frachetti, associate professor of anthropology at Washington University, St Louis. "It allowed us to approach this huge landscape in a way that lets you appreciate the scope and scale of the place, with stunning detail."
“激光雷达发现，一座大型城市就在眼前平平无奇的风景之下。”在圣路易斯华盛顿大学担任人类学副教授的弗拉切蒂说，“该技术让我们在感叹于其规模之广、范围之大的同时，获取惊人的细节，以这种方式认识这片巨大的景观。”
About three miles away, a smaller, densely built city called Tashbulak was also surveyed by lidar, a remote sensing method that uses reflected light to create detailed 3-dimensional maps.
大约三英里外，激光雷达技术探测到了一座结构紧凑的更小的城市塔什布拉克。激光雷达是一种远程探测方法，能利用光的反射创建详尽的三维地图。
It's hard to picture cities of this size thriving in a snow-covered, wind-battered environment where even today, only a handful of nomadic herdsmen venture.
你很难想象冰雪覆盖、强风呼啸的环境里怎么会发展出如此规模的城市；即使在今天，也只有屈指可数的游牧部落在那里活动。
The long winters, steep cliffs, and rugged terrain made large-scale farming nearly impossible at such high altitude -- a fact that may explain why historians and archaeologists mostly overlooked this remote region for so long.
漫长的冬季、陡峭的山崖以及崎岖的地形都使得大规模农业几乎无法在如此海拔高度实现，这一事实也许能解释为什么在过去那么长时间里，历史学家与考古学家大多忽略了这个偏僻的地域。
But Frachetti's team believes these highland urban centers weren't just surviving, they were thriving—in ways that defy expectations of what medieval mountain societies were capable of.
但弗拉切蒂团队认为，这些高地上的城市中心那时并不是在艰难图存，而是在蓬勃发展，其繁荣的方式打破了学界对中世纪高山社会的可能性的想象。
Both Tashbulak and Tugunbulak feature multiple permanent structures and sophisticated urban designs, seemingly crafted to make the most of the mountainous terrain.
塔什布拉克与图贡布拉克两座古城都有多样的永久性建筑和精妙复杂的城市设计，它们的建造似乎都是为了最大化利用山区地形。
The high-resolution lidar images offer detailed views of the houses, plazas, fortifications, and roads that shaped the lives and economies of these highland communities.
高分辨率的激光雷达图像提供了房屋、广场、防御工事和道路的详细视图，这些结构塑造了高地社区的生活与经济。
The larger of the two, Tugunbulak, boasts five watchtowers linked by walls along the ridgelines, as well as a central fortress protected by thick stone and mud-brick walls.
两城中更大的图贡布拉克拥有五座由城墙连接、沿山脊分布的暸望塔，还有一座在石头与泥砖保护下的中央堡垒。
