Much like Isaac Newton imagined when he gave his famous “shoulders of giants” quote, our modern civilizations owe a great deal to those which came before us. While examples like the Sumerians or Egyptians are deeply ingrained in nearly everyone’s minds, there are a number of other civilizations which have been largely forgotten. Here are 10 of them.
正如艾薩克·牛頓在提出其“巨人的肩膀”名言時(shí)所設(shè)想的一樣，我們的現(xiàn)代文明也從先前的諸文明中獲益良多。雖然諸如蘇美爾或者埃及文明的例子已經(jīng)深入人心，但仍有為數(shù)不少的文明基本上是被忘卻了的。這里列舉10個(gè)如下。

Photo credit: Bhushan Kotakar
圖片引自： Bhushan Kotakar
10、Hattian Civilization
赫蒂文明

The Hattians were a civilization which inhabited the area of present-day Anatolia, Turkey from the 26th century to around the 18th century B.C. Believed to be the earliest urban settlers of the area, their existence can be traced to 24th-century Akkadian cuneiform tablets. Most archaeologists believe that they were indigenous to the area preceding the more famous Hittite civilization, which arrived in the 23rd century B.C. The two cultures slowly merged together, with the Hittites adopting a variety of Hatti religious beliefs and practices. Many of the largest Hittite settlements, such as Alaca Hoyuk and Hattusa, are believed to have originally been Hattian.
赫蒂文明位于今土耳其安納托利亞地區(qū)，存在于公元前26世紀(jì)至約18世紀(jì)。他們是該地區(qū)最早的城市居民，其存在的證據(jù)可追溯至公元前24世紀(jì)的阿卡德楔形文字石碑中。大多數(shù)考古學(xué)家認(rèn)為，赫蒂人比更為聞名的赫梯人更早存在于這一地區(qū)，后者于公元前23世紀(jì)來到這里。隨著赫蒂人采納了許多來自赫梯的宗教信仰和實(shí)踐習(xí)慣，兩大文明慢慢地融合在了一起。赫梯人的許多大型定居點(diǎn)，諸如阿拉卡·郝予克（Alaca Hoyuk）以及哈茲薩（Hattusa），確信最初曾是赫蒂人的。

While they had their own spoken language, no evidence of a written form of the Hatti language has ever been found. It’s likely that they were multilingual, perhaps to facilitate trade with their Assyrian partners. In fact, most of what we know about the Hattians comes from the widespread adoption of their culture by the Hittites. Their population probably existed as a majority for decades—if not centuries—while they were under the aristocratic rule of the Hittites, before they eventually faded away into obscurity.
雖然他們有自己的口頭語言，但并未發(fā)現(xiàn)過有關(guān)其文字語言的證據(jù)。他們有可能是多語言的，或許是為了促進(jìn)與其亞述（Assyrian）伙伴們之間的貿(mào)易往來。事實(shí)上，我們對(duì)赫蒂人的所知大部分來自于赫梯人對(duì)其文化的廣泛采用。赫蒂的人口數(shù)量或許曾在幾十年中占據(jù)多數(shù)——如果沒到上百年的話——然而卻是在赫梯貴族們的統(tǒng)治之下，直至最終在歷史的長(zhǎng)河中晦暗下去。 來源:可可英語 http://www.ccdyzl.cn/read/201407/312869.shtml