科学家发现5000年人类骑马的首个证据

Researchers have found the earliest direct evidence for horseback riding. The evidence comes from 5,000-year-old human skeletons in central Europe.
研究人员发现了骑马最早的直接证据。这些证据来自于5000年前中欧地区的人类骨骼。

The research study was published last week in the publication Science Advances.
这项研究上周发表在《科学进展》杂志上。

Horseback riding was a development that changed history. It was "the fastest a human could go before the railroads," said David Anthony. He is a co-writer of the study and an archaeologist at New York's Hartwick College.
骑马是一项改变历史的发展。大卫·安东尼表示，这是人类在铁路出现前最快的出行方式。他是这项研究的共同作者，也是纽约哈特威克学院的考古学家。

The researchers examined the bones of more than 200 ancient people in museum collections in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The bones came from the period known as the Bronze Age between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago. The researchers looked for signs of "horse rider syndrome."
研究人员研究了保加利亚、波兰、罗马尼亚、匈牙利以及捷克共和国博物馆收藏的200多具古人类骨骼。这些骨头来自于3000年到5000年前的青铜时代。研究人员在寻找“骑马综合症”的痕迹。

Martin Trautmann, another writer of the study, explained the condition. He said there are six markers that show whether a person rode an animal. They include wear marks on the hips, thigh bone and pelvis, said Trautmann, an anthropologist at the University of Helsinki in Finland.
该研究的另一位作者马丁·特劳特曼解释了这种情况。他说，有6种痕迹可以显示一个人是否骑过动物。芬兰赫尔辛基大学人类学家特劳特曼表示，这些痕迹包括臀部、大腿骨和骨盆处的磨损痕迹。

The researchers identified five humans who likely rode horses. They are estimated to have lived between 4,500 and 5,000 years ago. They belonged to a Bronze Age people called the Yamnaya.
研究人员找到了5名可能骑过马的人。据估计，他们生活在4500到5000年前。他们属于青铜时代的亚姆纳亚人。

Alan Outram is an archaeologist at Britain's University of Exeter. He was not involved in the research, but he praised the methods the scientists used. He said, "There is earlier evidence for harnessing and milking of horses, but this is the earliest direct evidence so far for horseback riding."
艾伦·奥特拉姆是英国埃克塞斯大学的考古学家。他没有参与这项研究。但他赞扬了这些科学家采用的方法。他说：“目前有骑马和挤奶的早期证据，但是这是迄今为止关于骑马最早的直接证据。”

Domesticating wild horses on the plains of Eurasia was a process, not a single event, the researchers said. Archaeologists have previously found evidence of people drinking horse milk. There have also been signs of horses controlled by harnesses dating back more than 5,000 years. But that does not mean humans rode the horses.
研究人员表示，在欧亚大陆平原驯化野马是一个过程，而不是一次单一事件。考古学家此前发现了人类饮用马奶的证据。还有迹象表明，5000多年前就有马被马具控制。但这并不意味着人类骑过这些马。

The Yamnaya culture developed in what is now part of Ukraine and western Russia. The Yamnaya are important because of their expansion across Eurasia in only a few generations. They moved west to Hungary and east to Mongolia, said University of Helsinki archaeologist and study co-writer Volker Heyd. "The spread of Indo-European languages is linked to their movement, and they reshaped the genetic make-up of Europe," Heyd said.
亚姆纳亚文化是在现乌克兰和俄罗斯西部的部分地区发展出来的。亚姆纳亚人之所以重要，是因为他们仅在几代人的时间内就扩张到欧亚大陆。赫尔辛基大学考古学家、研究合著者沃尔克·海德说，他们向西迁移到匈牙利，向东迁移到蒙古。“印欧语言的传播与它们的迁移有关，它们重塑了欧洲的基因结构，”海德说。

Their relationship with horses may have partly made this movement possible, the researchers suggested.
研究人员表示，他们与马的关系可能在一定程度上使得这种迁移成为可能。

David Anthony, the Hartwick College archaeologist, said, "Horses expand the concept of distance – you begin to think about places previously out of reach as being reachable."
哈特威克学院考古学家安东尼表示：“马扩大了距离的概念，你一开始认为以前无法到达的地方其实是可以到达的。“

That does not mean the Yamnaya people were warriors on horseback. The horses they rode were likely not used in battlefield situations, Anthony said. But horses may have helped the Yamnaya more effectively send communications, build alliances and control the herds of cattle that were important to their economy.
这并不意味着亚姆纳亚人是骑兵。安东尼表示，他们骑的马可能不会在战场上使用。但是马可以帮助亚姆纳亚人更有效地通讯、建立联盟并控制对其经济至关重要的牛群。