备注请放最后面 违者新闻文章删除
1.媒体来源:
外媒 THE NEW YORK TIMES
2.记者署名:
By Sabrina Imbler
3.完整新闻标题:
你骑的马可能是在俄罗斯南部制造的
(过于喜感的机器翻译，特予保留。)
4.完整新闻内文:
你骑的马可能是在俄罗斯南部制造的
The Horse You Rode In On May Have Been Made in Southern Russia
一篇全面的新论文测试了 273 种古马的基因组，以确定现代马的驯化时间和地点。
A comprehensive new paper tested 273 ancient horse genomes to pinpoint when
and where modern horses were domesticated.
中国内蒙古草原上的马。 法国古遗传学家 Ludovic Orlando 于 2016 年开始在欧亚大陆
收集考古样本，以积累庞大的数据集。
Horses of the steppes in Inner Mongolia, China. Ludovic Orlando, a French
paleogeneticist, began in 2016 collecting archaeological samples across
Eurasia to amass a huge data set.Credit...Ludovic Orlando
经过 萨布丽娜·伊布勒
2021 年 10 月 20 日
几千年来，欧洲和亚洲的草原是基因不同的马血统镶嵌的家园。但是一个单一的血统疾
驰而过，超越并取代了所有其他野马。这个驯化的血统成为我们现代想像中的马：修长的
腿、肌肉发达的背部和在风中闪闪发光的鬃毛。
几十年来，科学家们一直试图找出现代马首次驯化的时间和地点。
For thousands of years, the grassy plains of Europe and Asia were home to a
mosaic of genetically distinct horse lineages. But a single lineage galloped
ahead to overtake and replace all the other wild horses. This domesticated
lineage became the horse of our modern imagination: slender legs, a muscular
back and a mane that shimmers in the wind.
For decades, scientists had tried to sleuth out when and where modern horses
were first domesticated but had yet to find the smoking hoof they needed.
现在，在周三发表在《自然》杂志上的一篇论文中，科学家们终于解开了这个谜团。在收
集和测序了 273 个古马基因组并测序后，一个由 162 位作者组成的团队得出结论，现代
马大约在 4200 年前在俄罗斯南部的草原上被驯化，靠近伏尔加河和顿河的交汇处。
挪威北极大学特罗姆瑟校区古基因组学研究员彼得·海因茨曼（Peter Heintzman）并未
参与这项研究，他表示，这篇新论文目前尽可能地解开了家马起源之谜。“这是一项巨大
的努力，”海因茨曼博士说，并指出他们从“数百匹马”中收集了“数据墙”。
Now, in a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature, scientists have
finally solved the mystery. After collecting and sequencing 273 ancient horse
genomes, a team of 162 authors concluded that modern horses were domesticated
around 4,200 years ago in steppes around southern Russia, near where the
Volga and Don rivers intersect.
This new paper comes as close as currently possible to solving the mystery of
the origins of the domestic horse, according to Peter Heintzman, a
paleogenomics researcher at the Tromso campus of the Arctic University of
Norway, who was not involved with the research. “It’s a monumental effort,
” Dr. Heintzman said, noting that they collected a “wall of data” from “
hundreds of horses.”
法国图卢兹人类生物学和基因组学中心的古遗传学家和研究主任、该论文的作者
Ludovic Orlando 已经为这个问题辛勤工作了十年。
近年来，学者们在哈萨克斯坦草原上的一个博泰定居点定居，那里充满了马的骨头碎片和内衬
似乎是马奶的陶罐。这是马驯化的最早考古证据，并且作为现代马的发源地似乎很有希望
。
Ludovic Orlando, a paleogeneticist and research director of the Center for
Anthropobiology and Genomics of Toulouse in France and an author on the
paper, has toiled over this question for a decade.
In recent years, scholars homed in on a Botai settlement in the Kazakh
steppes that was brimming with horses’ bone fragments and clay pots that
were lined with what appeared to be mare’s milk. This was the earliest
archaeological evidence of horse domestication, and seemed promising as the
birthplace of modern horses.
但在 2018 年，包括奥兰多博士在内的一组研究人员在博泰对马骨的基因组进行了测序。
令研究人员惊讶的是，博泰马并没有产生现代马，而是普氏野马的直系祖先，普氏原野马
是一种粗壮的血统，最初被认为是地球上最后的野马。他们发现普氏原羚毕竟不是野生的
，而是家养的野生后代。因此，现代马的起源之谜仍未解开。“每次我都在期待什么，结
果都是错误的，”奥兰多博士说。
他说，为了解开这个谜团，“我们决定详尽无遗，真正到处寻找。”
But in 2018, a team of researchers including Dr. Orlando sequenced the
genomes of the horse bones at Botai. To the researchers’ surprise, the Botai
horses did not give rise to modern horses, but were instead the direct
ancestors of Przewalski’s horses, a stocky lineage originally thought to be
the last wild horses on the planet. They revealed Przewalski’s were not wild
after all, but instead the feral descendants of domestics. So the puzzle of
the origins of modern horses remained unsolved. “Every time I was expecting
something, it was wrong,” Dr. Orlando said.
He said that to solve the mystery, “we decided to be exhaustive and really
look everywhere.”
在这种情况下，任何地方都意味着整个欧亚大陆。从 2016 年开始，奥兰多博士从考古收
藏品和新挖掘物中收集了该地区的样本，基本上是他们可以拿到的每一块古代马骨。
为了将来保存这些遗骸，研究人员在古马的内耳、牙齿和其他骨骼上钻了小孔，以取回微
小的样本。
Everywhere, in this case, meant across Eurasia. Starting in 2016, Dr. Orlando
collected samples across the region from archaeological collections and new
digs, essentially every ancient horse bone they could get their hands on.
To preserve the remains for the future, the researchers drilled tiny holes
into the ancient horses’ inner ears, teeth and other bones to retrieve tiny
samples.
随着研究人员逐渐跨越时间和空间绘制马的基因组图，图片变得更加清晰。一年多以前，
他们能够确定准确的位置：现在俄罗斯境内的伏尔加河-顿河地区。
有了如此庞大的数据集，研究人员最终回答了额外的历史细节。他们发现现代马与其他古
代血统有两个明显的遗传差异——一个基因与温顺有关，另一个与更强壮的脊椎有关——
这可能促进了动物的传播。
As the researchers gradually mapped the horse genomes across time and space,
the picture became sharper. A little over a year ago, they were able to
pinpoint the precise location: the Volga-Don region in what is now Russia.
With such a gargantuan data set, the researchers ended up answering
additional horsy historical details. They found modern horses had two stark
genetic differences from other ancient lineages — one gene linked to
docility and another to a stronger backbone — which may have facilitated the
animals’ spread.
驯马改变了人类历史，使人们能够长途跋涉并开发新的战争技术。“每个人都想要这匹马
，”奥兰多博士说。
因此，该论文的基因发现“构成了我们对培育这些马的人类社会的理解的重大进展，”法
国国家科学研究中心的博士后研究员 Pauline Hanot 说，他没有参与这项研究。
Domestic horses transformed human history, allowing people to travel great
distances and develop new technologies of warfare. “Everyone wanted the
horse,” Dr. Orlando said.
Accordingly, the paper’s genetic findings “constitute major advances in our
understanding of the human societies which bred these horses,” said Pauline
Hanot, a postdoctoral researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific
Research who was not involved with the research.
该研究还推翻了关于马在早期人类历史中的作用的观点。例如，一个先前存在的理论表明
，大约 5000 年前，一个叫做颜那亚的牧民能够在马背上大量迁移到欧洲。但是新的基因
图没有发现任何证据；研究人员指出，牛，而不是马，可能是它们扩张的驱动因素。
这篇新论文还揭示了大约 3800 年前，随着青铜时代的辛塔什塔文化（Sintashta 文化）
传播到欧亚大陆，该文化拥有辐条轮战车。
The study also knocked down ideas about horses’ role in earlier human
history. For instance, one pre-existing theory suggested a pastoralist people
called the Yamnaya were able to migrate on horseback in massive numbers into
Europe around 5,000 years ago. But the new genetic map found no evidence; the
researchers point out oxen, not horses, could have been the driving factor of
their expansion.
The new paper also reveals domestic horses spread across Eurasia along with
the Bronze Age Sintashta culture, which possessed spoke-wheeled chariots,
around 3,800 years ago.
在驯服了所有这些马匹数据后，奥兰多博士有了一个新的爱好：他开始参加骑马课程。
像所有其他人一样，他骑着家马——在俄罗斯南部驰骋的古老动物的后代。
“我不敢接近普氏原羚的马，”奥兰多博士说。“他们杀狼。我跑得没那么快。”
After taming all of this horse data, Dr. Orlando has taken on a new hobby: He
started taking riding lessons.
Like all other humans, he rides domestic horses — descendants of the ancient
animals that galloped in southern Russia.
“I would not dare approach a Przewalski’s horse,” Dr. Orlando said. “They
kill wolves. I am not that fast of a runner.”
5.完整新闻连结 (或短网址):
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/science/horse-domestication-russia.html
6.备注:
难怪哥萨克人的骑兵能在战争史上持续作战这么久
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1k1hQQNfpg
同场加映TED短片：17世纪哥萨克战士的日常
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33cP54FcERA