【龙腾网】为何四大古代文明都不是起源于欧洲？
正文翻译
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.com 翻译：翻译熊 转载请注明出处
Why didn't any of the four ancient civilizations originate from Europe?
为何四大古代文明都不是起源于欧洲？
评论翻译
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.com 翻译：翻译熊 转载请注明出处
Joshua Moshiach, Executive Assistant (2013-present)
…because of this little guy, and itsevolution.
Wheat was a wild plant native tohighlands of the Anatolian Plateau. It took the hunter-gatherers of Anatolia afew thousand years to domesticate wheat.
At first, wheat was another wild plantthat people could eat. Then, people started to cultivate wheat, and the processof sextive breeding started.
Wild wheatwas a mountain plant that liked cold snowy winters and hot dry summer. It tookquite some time to grow this plant in Mesopotamia, where winters are warmer.Once a suitable breed was achieved, everything changed. Mesopotamia, Egypt andthe Indus Valley thrived with abundance of food, and the first civilizationswere born.
NorthernEurope wasn't suitable for wheat cultivation. European summers were wetter andcooler. The landscape was filled with forest. It took thousands of years forthe Northern Europeans to develop a breed of wheat good enough to compete withthe Mesopotamian wheat, and to cut all the forests for fields.
Joshua Moshiach, 执行助理 (2013至今)
因为这个小家伙，以及关于它的革命。
小麦原产于安纳托利亚高原的一种野生植物。安纳托利亚的狩猎采集者花了几千年才驯化了小麦。
起初，小麦是另一种人们可以食用的野生植物。然后，人们开始种植小麦，选择性育种的过程也开始了。
野生小麦是一种山地植物，喜欢寒冷多雪的冬天和炎热干燥的夏天。这种植物在美索不达米亚生长了很长时间，那里的冬天比较暖和。一旦找到合适的品种，一切都改变了。美索不达米亚、埃及和印度河流域因食物丰富而兴旺发达，第一批文明由此诞生。
（欧洲的森林采伐：左为公元前1000年，右为公园1500年，其中英格兰和威尔士的森林覆盖率从90%下降至17%）
而北欧不适合种植小麦。欧洲的夏天更加潮湿和凉爽。这里到处都是森林。北欧人花了数千年的时间才培育出一种足以与美索不达米亚小麦竞争的优质小麦品种，并将所有森林砍伐成农田。
Derek Kent, former Support Worker (2005-2016)
The oldest civilizations that I am aware ofare in order from the oldest : Mesopotamia, The Indus Valley, Egypt and TheMayan’s. Basically it boils down to climate, river systems and the fertility ofthe land. There are many others. At that time Europe was mostly forest. Youwill note that none of these civilizations was started in a forest. Europedoesn’t have a stable climate. It has seasons that are far more extreme. Theland was nowhere near as fertile. Plenty of game to hunt but not much free landon which to plant the crops necessary to feed a city.
You need an urban center, because thensome population can do things other than work to feed themselves. You get alarger leisured class with more free time to think. Elsewhere people are toobusy surviving to work out a writing system and civil code.
Derek Kent, 前护工(2005-2016)
我所知道的最古老的文明来自最古老的文明:美索不达米亚文明、印度河流域文明、埃及文明和玛雅文明。基本上可以归结为气候、河流系统和土地的肥沃程度。
还有很多其他的。那时欧洲大部分是森林。你会注意到这些文明都不是起源于森林。欧洲的气候并不稳定。它的季节要极端得多。而且这片土地远没有那么肥沃。可供狩猎的猎物很多，但可供种植农作物以养活城市自由土地却不多。
你需要一个城市中心，因为这样一些人就可以做一些工作以外的事情来养活自己。你会有更多的空闲时间去思考。在其他地方，人们忙于生存，无暇制定一套书写系统和民法典。
Jeff Verkouille, traveller, expat, student of the world,still learning...
If I remember correctly Jared Diamond hasa useful map in his text Guns Germs and Steel early on showing the spread ofdomesticated crops across Eurasia.
Given the starting point in the Tigrisand Euphrates river valleys the knowledge of agriculture and the crop varietiesnecessary for different local climates took awhile to spread outward.
Europeans were still largely herders whenSumeria, Egypt, and the Indus Valley civilizations were waxing and waning.China was, as always, its own unique civilization, creating its own path farfrom the other three who enjoyed robust trade among each other. China grew adifferent set of crops as well, with rice the principle grain, contrasting towheat in the Indus River Valley, Sumeria, and Egypt.
As the crops and the the knowledge ofagriculture expanded people began to settle down and build permanentstructures. Archeology digs reveal a predictable pattern of settlements, towns,and eventually cities radiating out from the Middle East over time anddistance, documenting the spread of civilization.
The eastern Mediterranean shoresprospered first, then islands across the sea, and finally colonies from theGreeks, Phoenicians and others appear in Africa and Italy and Spain. The reallatecomers were the northern Europeans, who would not be tamed until well intothe Middle Ages.
Now woven among the threads of thisconventional narrative are acknowledgements that various local exceptions cropup: Malta has ruins going back to the Neolithic and Stonehenge is but the mostfamous of northern European cultural remnants, not the oldest nor only. Soaspects of civilization did spread to Europe, and there is evidence forhomegrown local cultures with a fair degree of sophistication.
But if we’re talking written records andtechnology the big players are closer to the starting point in Iraq.
如果我没记错的话，贾里德·戴蒙德在他的著作《枪炮、细菌和钢铁》中有一幅有用的地图，显示了驯化作物在欧亚大陆的传播。
考虑到以底格里斯河和幼发拉底河流域作为起点，以及农业知识和不同地方气候所需的作物品种的原因，向外传播需要时间。
当苏美尔、埃及和印度河流域文明盛衰交替的时候，欧洲人基本上还是牧民。中国一如既往地拥有自己独特的文明，创造了自己的道路，与其他三个享有强劲贸易往来的国家截然不同。
中国也种植了一套不同的农作物，以大米为主要谷物，与印度河流域、苏美尔和埃及的小麦形成鲜明对比。
随着农作物和农业知识的扩展，人们开始定居下来并建造永久性的建筑。考古发掘揭示了一个可预测的模式：定居点，城镇，最终随着时间推移从中东辐射开来的城市，记录了文明的传播。
东地中海沿岸首先繁荣起来，然后是隔海相望的岛屿，最后来自希腊、腓尼基和其他国家的殖民地出现在非洲、意大利和西班牙。真正的后来者是北欧人，他们直到中世纪才被驯服。
如今，在这种传统叙事的脉络中，交织着对当地各种例外情况的承认:马耳他有可以追溯到新石器时代的遗迹，而巨石阵也只是北欧最著名的文化遗存，它既不是最古老的，也不是唯一的。
所以文明的各个方面确实传播到了欧洲，有证据表明本土文化具有相当程度的复杂性。
但如果我们谈论的是书面记录和技术，那都是离伊拉克最近的那些大玩家们。
Irene Fuerst
Not true. The Minoans traded with theEgyptians.
不对。米诺斯人曾与埃及人做生意。
Bill William, BS, MA, All but Dissertat Economics& History, All But Dissertation University of Florida, Economics; BA NM...
And the Minoans lived where? Besides,Egypt was ‘ancient’ even before the Minoans could write.
那米诺斯人生活在哪儿的？另外，甚至在米诺斯人能写字之前，埃及就很“古老”了。
Irene Fuerst
The Minoans lived on Crete. You knowthat. They were the first European Bronze Age civilization. Pictures of Cretansappear on Egyptian tombs. Egyptian civilization lasted for so long that othercultures could rise and fall and still be contemporaneous. In fact, the Induscivilization did that.
米诺斯人生活在克里特岛。你知道的。
他们是欧洲第一个青铜时代的文明。克里特人的图画出现在埃及的坟墓上。
埃及文明持续了如此之久，以至其他文化可以起起落落，但仍然是同时代的。事实上，印度河文明就是这种情况。
Bill William, BS, MA, All but Dissertat Economics& History, All But Dissertation University of Florida, Economics; BA NM...
If you were living on a Swiss lake in2000 BC would have been very cold and very hungry. The Helveti that JuliusCaeser intercepted were not traveling south to get an early seat at the Monacotables.
如果你生活在公元前2000年的瑞士湖边，你会感到又冷又饿。
…………
Irene Fuerst
You would have been cold and hungry formuch of Europe’s history.
在欧洲大部分历史里，你都会感到又冷又饿。
JasonAlmendra, Most Viewed WriterHistory 6Feb19/14May19 392k views
Europe north of the Alps has very toughclayey soil. There wasn't enough of a population to require writing. The easyto plow river valleys of the Huang basin, Mesopotamia, & Ancient Egyptgained larger populations to require a bureaucracy. Meso-America has freshwater cenotes. Europe's population only expanded when the horse collar wasintroduced from the Far East c.1000 AD.
阿尔卑斯山以北的欧洲有非常坚硬的粘性土壤。
人口不足以到需要书面语的程度。
易于耕作的黄河流域、美索不达米亚和古埃及的河谷的人口增加，需要一个官僚机构。
中美洲有淡水灰岩坑。
直到马项圈在公元1000年从远东传入欧洲，欧洲人口才开始增长。
Plamen Galabov, Self Employed Video producer andPhotographer (1990-present)
The climate and the natural resources arethe logical answer to your question. However can we consider the questioncorrect? Look at this one;
“Bulgaria's Varna Gold Treasure isconsidered the oldest processed gold in the world dating back to thetime of the Chalcolithic (Aeneolithic, Copper Age) Varna Culture(usually dated to 4400-4100 BC). It was discovered in 1972 in the socalled Varna Chalcolithic Necropolis”.
A little is known about the civilizationaround and from the lands now under the Black sea. The human history stillkeeps secrets. What we read and learn is based on the discoveries and knowledgesystemised in the last few centuries. Even discovered and well studied theEgyptian pyramids or the amazing creations of the South American civilization areenigma for the modern science.
Plamen Galabov,视频制作人和摄影师 (1990至今)
气候和自然资源是你问题的逻辑下的答案。然而，我们能正确地考虑这个问题吗?看看这个：
保加利亚的瓦尔纳黄金宝藏被认为是世界上最古老的加工黄金，可以追溯到铜器时代瓦尔纳文化时期(通常可以追溯到公元前4400-4100年)。它于1972年在所谓的瓦尔纳古石墓地被发现。
人们对周围的文明以及现在黑海海底的陆地所知甚少。人类的历史仍然是保密的。我们的阅读和学习是基于过去几个世纪的发现和系统化的知识。
即使发现并研究了埃及金字塔或南美文明的惊人创造，对现代科学来说也是一个谜。
Sanjog Patel
Europe’s ancient civilisation wasdestroyed and usurped by the Romans. Etruscans are responsible for the progressof Rome. And Grimaldi culture was whitewashed over the years. Civilisationsflourish under polytheism and then history gets rewritten by invadingmonotheistic dictatorship
欧洲的古代文明被罗马人摧毁和篡夺了。
伊特鲁里亚人对罗马的进步产生了影响。
…………文明在多神教的统治下繁荣昌盛，随后历史被入侵的一神教独裁统治改写。
David Montaigne, Historian, author on controversialtopics like pole shifts
Though my first thought was climate, mynext was that civilization grew best at the mouths and deltas of major rivervalleys like the Nile, the Tigris/Euphrates, the Indus, and the Yangtze…
There are theories that assume the risingocean levels thousands of years ago suddenly flooded what is now theMediterranean Sea and then the Black Sea, as waters crested over and theneroded away what is now the Pillars of Hercules/Strait of Gibraltar, and thenthe Bosporus. Any ancient civilization at the low end of southern Europe’s riverslies under these seas.
虽然我的第一个想法是气候的原因，但我随后觉得文明在尼罗河、底格里斯河/幼发拉底河、印度河和长江等主要河谷的河口和三角洲会发展得最好。
有理论认为，数千年前不断上升的海平面突然淹没了现在的地中海，然后是黑海，海水先是冲过，然后侵蚀了现在大力神/直布罗陀海峡的支柱，然后是博斯普鲁斯海峡。
任何位于南欧河流末端的古代文明都位于海洋之下。
