Name: 【多元文化】中南美洲三大古文明到底有多狂？(History Summarized: The Maya, Aztec, and Inca)
Uploaded: 2019-06-02T21:01:10.000Z
Duration: 11 min 40 s

Let's cover the great civilizations of the New World, from the time before the Old World made the New World New by killing most of the New World and reconstructing it to be way more Old World-y.

我們來看看新世界的文明，回到「舊世界」(意指歐洲) 將新世界的人都殺光並且用舊世界方法重建之前。

Anyway, three great civilizations: the Inca, the Aztec, and the Maya.

總之，三大文明是：印加、阿茲特克和馬雅。

Okay, next problem: what's the difference between them?

好，下一個問題：它們有哪些差別？

Because before I started researching this video, I honestly couldn't tell you either.

我在開始研究做這部影片前，我其實也回答不出來。

Because so often their stories are only told in so far as they relate to the Spanish conquest of the Americas.

因為他們的故事往往從西班牙殖民美洲說起。

So we hear a lot about human sacrifices and smallpox, but not so much anything else and they all kind of blends together.

所以我們聽聞了人類獻祭和天花，除此之外就所知不多，它們全攪和在一起。

But these societies were highly complex and had their own histories long before the Conquistadors showed up.

但早在西班牙征服者來之前，他們的社會就有了高度複雜的發展，也有自己的歷史。

And they were also completely unique and distinct from each other.

The Maya have been around on the Yucatan Peninsula for basically ever and were subsistence farmers for almost the whole time.

馬雅文明基本上都在猶加敦半島，歷史上幾乎都靠自給農業。

But their great cities mostly disappeared before the Spanish ever arrived.

但他們的大城市大多在西班牙人到來前就消失了。

The Aztec empire was born from a triple alliance of city-states in Central Mexico.

阿茲特克王國誕生於墨西哥中部三個城邦的結盟。

And they built up an amazing capital city in Tenochtitlan.

他們在特諾奇提特蘭蓋了令人驚奇的首都。

Unlike the Maya, the Aztecs only lasted for about a hundred years before the Spanish wiped them out.

和馬雅不同，阿茲特克在被西班牙人完全毀滅前還維持了大約一百年。

And finally, the Inca were from South America, not Mexico.

最後，印加文明來自南美洲，而非墨西哥。

And they lived almost entirely in the western coastal mountains for over a century before the Spanish showed up.

他們生活在西海岸的山脈上，持續到西班牙出現的前一個世紀。

So we're dealing with a decent amount of variety here, and it's part of what makes it really cool.

所以這些文明其實很多元，這就是為什麼它們很酷。

So before we jump into this, we should also take a look at what sources we're working with.

在我們開始之前，我們也應該看一下我們有哪些參考來源。

Archeology in most cases is pretty good, but in this specific instance, we're also lucky enough to have decent written accounts.

大多時候考古學都能排上用場，但在這一個例子，我們很幸運擁有完善的文字記錄。

The Maya and the Aztecs both had pictographic writing, although it took us a good long while before we could actually translate any of it.

馬雅和阿茲特克都有象形文字，雖然我們花了很多時間才終於成功解讀。

First we figured out numbers in the Mayan calendar.

我們首先解開了馬雅曆法上的數字。

And then in the mid and late 1900s we were able to translate more of the Maya script, and discovered that their writing system was syllabic rather than alphabetic.

然後在 19 世紀中晚期，我們成功破譯更多的馬雅文字，發現他們的書寫系統為音節文字，而非字母文字。

And, lucky for us, it turns out that a lot of the texts contain dynastic records.

而且辛運的是，我們發現其中記錄了很多王朝歷史。

So the Maya actually recorded their own history!

所以馬雅人寫下了他們的歷史！

The reason we still have a lot of Mayan writing is because a lot of it was written on surfaces like: temple walls, ceramics, and the occasional staircase.

我們之所以還有很多馬雅文字記錄，是因為許多都寫在像是廟宇墻壁、陶器和階梯上。

The Aztec writing system is a trickier topic though, since the Aztecs weren't quite around for long enough to create a fully fleshed out writing system.

不過阿茲特克的文字就比較棘手了，因為阿茲特克人的存在時間不夠久，來不及發展完整的書寫系統。

From the surviving codices we have, we know that they certainly liked writing.

從存活下來的手抄本看來，他們肯定很喜歡書寫。

But I say "surviving" because Spanish "Christians" burned almost all of their texts before, incidentally, also murdering almost everybody.

我會說「存活下來」是因為西班牙基督徒將幾乎所有文獻都燒毀了，還順道殺了當地幾乎所有人。

Which, by the way, anyone in any situation who decides that burning information is a good idea is just being a dick.

說到這點，順帶一提，任何情況下決定燒毀文獻的人都是個混蛋。

Luckily, we still know a decent amount about the Aztecs on account of Spanish writings about them.

幸好根據西班牙人的記載，我們還是知道了許多關於阿茲特克的事。

Meanwhile, the Inca themselves didn't actually have a writing system.

不過印加人倒沒有實際的文字。

They instead had this really cool thing called a "khipu."

則是用這個叫做「奇普」的很酷的東西。

A collection of knotted cords of different lengths and colors used to record and convey information.

一系列不同長度和顏色的結繩用來記錄並傳達訊息。

Khipus contained all sorts of numerical information, like dates and events and whatnot.

奇普包含了各種數字記錄，像是日期、事件，諸如此類。

But we still mostly can't decipher them, so it's a mystery.

但我們大致上還無法解讀它們，所以還是個謎。

Our other information on the Inca comes, again, mostly from the Spanish.

我們其他關於印加的知識同樣大多來自西班牙人。

So are the Spanish accounts of these civilizations biased and/or more likely to portray things in a more negative or exoticized light?

西班牙人對這些文明的記錄究竟是否帶有偏見？是否可能用比較負面或是外來的眼光來描述？

But they're the best we have so they'll have to do.

但我們現存的就只有那些記錄了，所以只能這樣。

Now that we've got that sorted, let's go one by one and look at some proper history.

現在我們分清楚了，我們來一個個看它們的歷史。

The Aztec and the Inca are actually relative latecomers to the party, as they really only came along in the centuries immediately prior to the Spanish arrival.

阿茲特克和印加文明相對起來是三個之中比較晚的，它們出現的時間只比西班牙人到來前早一個世紀。

Those two are contemporaneous with the Renaissance!

它們兩個和文藝復興時期同時代！

So it is super inaccurate to label those two as way ancient, like we subconsciously tends to do.

所以將它們歸類為古老文明其實是很不精確的，雖然我們潛意識會這樣認為。

不過馬雅文明就非常非常古老了。

But not quite as crazy ancient as the Olmec Civilization, the first fancy civilization in all of Mesoamerica, which flourished for two thousand years between 1500 BC and about 400 AD.

但還是沒有比奧爾梅克文明古老，這是中美洲的第一個高度發展文明，存在於大約西元前 1500 年至西元 400 年，近 2000 年！

While we have a fair amount of Olmec art and statuary thanks to our old pal archaeology, they're still decently mysterious, which makes sense given how old they are.

雖然多虧考古學我們有很多的奧爾梅克雕刻藝術，他們還是帶有非常濃厚的神秘色彩，看在他們的古老程度，這是合情合理的。

Slightly less old than the Olmecs is the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan, which is similarly shrouded in mystery and uniquely cool for how huge and well designed it was.

比奧爾梅克文明再近一點的是墨西哥中部的特奧蒂瓦坎文明，同樣非常神秘，而且城市設計的規模和複雜度讓它顯得特別酷。

Its most famous building, the Pyramid of the Sun, was built in the first century AD.

它最有名的建築「太陽金字塔」建於西元一世紀。

But aside from the building remains in the city, we really don't know a lot about it like, who built it or who lived there.

但除了現存的城市建築本身，其他的我們就不知道了，像是誰建的還有誰住在這裡。

The presence of some shattered statues points to evidence of some variety of popular uprising near the end of the city's life.

可見一些被破壞的雕像，有可能是該文明毀滅前不久一些動亂的證據。

And it was probably the inspiration for most of the subsequent Mesoamerican culture as we understand it now.

它有可能激發了那些我們現在已知、接續出現的美洲文明。

Agriculture in the Yucatan Peninsula developed in the second millennium BC.

猶加敦半島的農業發展於西元前 2000 年。

And by about 500 BC, they had huge and awesome cities.

到了大約 西元前 500 年，他們有巨大壯觀的城市。

In the centuries following 250 AD, the Maya were out in full force: building giant monuments covered in writing, connecting cities with trade, and just generally being an awesome civilization.

到了西元 250 年後，馬雅文明卯足了全力：建造表面刻滿文字的巨型紀念碑、透過貿易連結城市，基本上就是一個非凡的文明。

This is impressive because it's just kind of cool, but also because it was really hard to live in the Yucatan Peninsula.

這不止很酷很令人印象深刻，尤其猶加敦半島的環境其實非常難生存。

It's an exposed coral reef that's basically impossible to farm conventionally.

它是一座曝露的珊瑚礁島，基本上無法進行一般農業耕作。

So they had to practice slash and burn agriculture where they slash down vegetation and then burn it to infuse the soil with enough nutrients to sustain crops for a few years, before moving on to another plot of land and letting the old forestry grow.

所以他們必須實施刀耕火耨的農業技術，也就是先砍下植被、將它們燒成灰燼、撒進土壤施肥，才有足夠的營養能夠維持幾年的作物耕種，之後再前往另一處土地，讓舊的耕地重新生長植被。

Adding to the trickiness, rivers don't really form in limestone, so the only naturally available sources of water were sinkholes called "cenotes".

更棘手的是，石灰石不含水，所以他們唯一的天然水源來自一種稱為 cenote 的滲穴。

So a lot of really intricate hydraulic engineering went into making the Yucatan livable.

所以許多複雜的水力工程使猶加敦半島變得適宜居住。

And if that all sounds labor-intensive, it's because it is!

那些聽來要耗費許多人力吧，沒錯！

It's a minor miracle that the Maya were able to build the kinds of settlements they did with such inhospitable land.

馬雅人能夠在如此不適合居住的土地達到這樣的殖民成就，真的是一個奇蹟。

So while the Maya spent the centuries between 250 and 900 AD trying not to die of hunger and thirst on a regular basis, they were practicing their religion which is really interesting in how heavily cyclical it is.

當馬雅人在西元 250 至 900 年間努力解決饑渴問題時，他們也有宗教活動，他們的宗教帶有濃厚的週期性，非常有趣。

They believe that the world went through cycles of creation and destruction.

他們相信世界經歷創造和毀滅的循環。

And most of their deities have some hand in the cyclicality of the universe.

還有他們大多數的神祗能影響宇宙週期。

The Maya also thought that no beginning or end was definite, and that when someone died, they went on a journey through the underworld and the heavens before showing back up on earth.

馬雅人也相信，沒有任何開始或結束是註定的，當某人死亡，他們會踏上前往地下世界和天堂的旅程，然後再返回人間。

Which may serve to explain why they were so chill with sacrifice.

這或許解釋了為何他們對獻祭如此淡然。

The sacrificing was also predominantly a priestly measure to delay the rebirth of the world and the collapse of the world as they knew it.

大多情況下，獻祭是神職人員用來延遲世界再生或毀滅的措施。

But while their mythology may have thought that nothing has an end, history had other plans for the Maya.

雖然他們的神話認為萬事沒有終結的一天，歷史則對馬雅人另有規劃。

A series of droughts contributed to a gradual decline of Maya culture in the southern Yucatan Peninsula.

一系列的乾旱導致位於南猶加敦半島的馬雅文明衰退。

Cities were mostly abandoned due to a likely mix of too many people and too little water.

有可能是因為人口太多、用水卻太少，城市大多數都被棄置了。

In the centuries after, the Maya gravitated towards the northern Yucatan where water was more consistently available.

在接下來幾世紀，馬雅人傾向於居住在猶加敦半島北部，那裡水源比較穩定。

Cities like Chichen Itza and Mayapan became the dominant urban centers in the later centuries.

奇琴伊察和馬雅潘這些城市成為後來幾世紀的主要市中心。

Even still, those cities also gave way in the twelfth and fifteenth centuries respectively.

即便如此，那些城市也分別在 12 及 15 世紀邁入衰敗。

So by the time the Spanish showed up in the sixteenth century, there wasn't much left to conquer.

所以當西班牙人在 16 世紀到來時，沒什麼可供掠奪的了。

The Aztec to the northwest had a much faster history.

西北方的阿茲特克文明就有比較短的歷史。

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a series of independent city-states begin cropping up around the Texcoco Lake Valley in what is today Central Mexico.

在 12、13 世紀，一些獨立的城邦開始出現在特斯科科湖的附近，也就是今日的墨西哥中部。

One such group of people the Mexica as they called themselves, settled into an island in the middle of the lake and founded of the city of Tenochtitlan in 1325.

其中自稱為 Mexica 的一群人定居在湖中的一個小島，然後在 1325 年建立了特諾奇提特蘭城。

The city and the culture developed and spread over the next century as trade increased and cultural and religious influence grew.

隨著貿易增加、文化及宗教的影響日漸深遠，該城與其文化在下一個世紀發展並傳播。

In 1428, the Mexica formed an alliance with two other nearby peoples.

在 1428 年，Mexica 人和其他兩個臨近部落結盟。

And the newfangled Aztec Empire began to expand their territory and conquer their neighbors.

阿茲特克帝國開始以嶄新之姿擴建領土、征服鄰近部族。

This wasn't terribly bothersome for them because their warriors were really skilled.

這對他們而言並不費事，因為他們的戰士技巧卓越。

Not only did they conscript all adult males for fighting, but they used warriors from allies and conquered territories too.

他們不僅徵召所有成年男性參戰，也會利用同盟和已征服部落的戰士。