Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in an anthropology class.

旁白：请听一段人类学的讲座。

Professor: So, we've been talking about early civilizations, how they developed, and early agriculture.

教授：我们一直在谈论早期文明，它们是如何发展起来的，以及早期的农业。

And it's believed that agriculture arose independently in a few areas of the world about ten thousand years ago, and then spread from those areas to the rest of the world.

人们认为农业是在一万年前、在世界上的几个地区独立出现的，然后再传播到世界其他地区。

Those cradles of agriculture include the Middle East, China and Southeast Asia, and parts of the Americas.

这些农业的发源地包括中东、中国和东南亚、以及美洲的部分地区。

Now, for many years archaeologists have speculated that agriculture also arose independently in another center, too--New Guinea, which is just north of Australia, in the South Pacific Ocean.

考古学家多年来一直推测农业也独立出现在另一个中心，New Guinea（新几内亚）。它位于南太平洋，在澳大利亚北部。

You can see it on this map.

大家可以在这张地图上看到它。

So, it had been assumed for a long time that New Guinea, that domesticated plants and animals, the practice of agriculture, generally, had been introduced from Southeast Asia about 3500 years ago, had come south essentially.

长期以来，人们一直认为，新几内亚人基本上是从别的地方南迁到新几内亚的。他们种植的植物和驯养的动物，农耕的方法，一般来说，是在大约3500年前从东南亚引进的。

Then in the 1960s and 70s, research was conducted at sites in New Guinea to explore the possibility of independent agricultural development.

到20世纪60-70年代，为了探索新几内亚农业独立发展的可能性，考古学家们在新几内亚的一些地方进行了研究。

But unfortunately, the evidence gathered at that time was inconclusive.

但不幸的是，当时收集的证据并不能证明什么。

For instance, although evidence was found of deforestation, you know, cutting down trees, from at least 7,000 years ago, that is long before we'd thought previously.

例如，尽管发现了森林采伐的证据，你知道，就是砍树，至少在7000年前，这时间比我们之前认为的早很多。

It was unclear whether the forest had been cleared by farmers to plant fields, or by hunter-gatherers, so they could hunt more easily.

但是仍不确定这些森林是农民为了种田而砍伐的，还是狩猎采集者为了方便捕猎而砍伐的。

And many plant remains like seeds and fruits don't preserve well in swampy soils, in humid environments like you often find in New Guinea.

而且，在新几内亚这样潮湿的环境中，很多植物遗骸，如种子和果实，无法在沼泽地中完好保存。

So really, the proof was limited.

因此，20世纪60-70年代收集的证据真的是有限的。

But, recent research has turned up some pretty convincing support.

但是，近期的研究得到了一些非常令人信服的证据。

A group of archaeologists returned to a site that had been previously examined, Kuk Swamp, which is in a mountain valley in the highlands of what is now Papua, New Guinea.

一群考古学家回到了曾被考察过的Kuk Swamp（库克沼泽地，库克早期农业遗址），位于现在的新几内亚Papua（巴布亚）高地中的山谷中。

Based on their findings, they identified a succession of phases of agricultural development in the wetlands there, with several of these phases predating the earliest known agricultural influence from Southeast Asia.

根据他们的研究结果，他们识别出了Kuk沼泽地农业发展的一系列阶段，而且其中几个阶段发生在新几内亚的农业受到东南亚最早的影响之前。

At the site in Kuk, they used an array of modern archaeological methods to analyze sediment samples from the soil.

在Kuk，考古学家使用一系列现代考古方法分析土壤中的沉积物样本。

From the oldest soil layer dating back 10,000 years, they found evidence of pits, stake holes and ditches.

从最古老的10000年前的土层中，他们发现了坑、桩孔和沟渠。

Now, these all indicate that crops were being planted.

这些都表明曾经有农作物被种植。

Plants are tied to stakes, and ditches are for... for drainage, a proof of a very early, first phase of agricultural development.

树桩用来绑植物，沟渠用于排水，它们都是农业发展的早期的第一阶段的证据。

The second phase, which they identify from a higher layer of soil, featured regularly distributed mounds.

考古学家确定了第二个阶段是因为在较高层的土层中有分布规律的土堆。

Mounds were constructed to plant crops that can't tolerate very wet soil, such as bananas, because remember Kuk is a swampy wetland, and bananas wouldn't ordinarily grow well there.

建土堆是为了种植像香蕉一样不能忍受湿地的农作物，因为Kuk是一块沼泽湿地，香蕉在那里通常不会长得很好。

And in the layers from Kuk's third phase, they found evidence of an extensive network of ditches and drainage channels, indicating a further refinement of wetland cultivation.

在Kuk第三阶段的土层中，考古学家发现了四通八达的排水系统存在的证据，这表明湿地种植方法得到了进一步改良。

Because they had more advanced techniques than were available to earlier researchers, the archaeologists also were able to identify actual plant remains - micro-fossils in the soil from banana plants, and... and also grains of starch from taro, on the edges of stone tools that date from about 10,000 years ago.

因为他们的研究技术比前辈们的更先进，他们还识别出了植物的遗骸 —— 土壤中有香蕉植物的微型化石，约10000年前的石器工具的边缘上有芋头淀粉的颗粒。

Finding the taro remains were very important, because it meant that it must have been planted there, brought from the lowlands, because taro doesn't grow naturally in the highlands.

芋头遗骸的发现意义重大：由于芋头的自然生长环境不是高地，这一发现意味着芋头是一定是从低地处带来并被种植在高地的。

And as for the bananas, researchers also found a high percentage of fossils from banana plants in sediment samples dating from about 7,000 years ago, proof the bananas were deliberately planted; because where bananas grow naturally the concentration of the plant fossils is lower.

至于香蕉，研究人员还在约7000年前沉淀物样本中发现了来自香蕉植物的高比例化石 这证明，香蕉是特意种植的，因为香蕉自然生长的地方植物化石的浓度较低。

Bananas don't naturally grow so densely.

而且野生香蕉的密度没有这么大。

As a matter of fact, recent genetic research--genetic comparisons of banana species, suggests that the type of banana grown in New Guinea was domesticated there and then brought to Southeast Asia.

事实上，最近的基因研究——香蕉物种的基因比较表明，新几内亚种植的香蕉类型是在那里驯化的，然后带到东南亚。

So, not sure where I'm going with this?

呃，不知道我接下来要讲什么吗？

Well, usually, we expect to see that certain social changes are brought about by the development of agriculture, structural changes in the society like rapid population growth, different social classes.

通常，我们预期看到的是：农业的发展会带来的某些社会变化，社会结构的变化，如快速的人口增长和不同的社会阶级。

But New Guinea, it's largely unchanged.

但新几内亚几乎没有改变。

It's remained an egalitarian and rural society, so what does that tell us about the usual assumption?

它仍然是一个平等的农业社会，那么关于一贯的假设它告诉了我们什么呢？