农民发现了失落已久的城市的线索，传说国王曾征服了神话中的迈达斯国王

农民发现了失落已久的城市的线索，传说国王曾征服了神话中的迈达斯国王

A happenstance discovery made by a Turkish farmer has led to the uncovering of an ancient city belonging to a king rumored to have defeated King Midas, a mythical Greek ruler whose infamous greed granted him the ability to turn anything he touched into solid gold.

一位土耳其农民偶然发现了一座古城，这座古城属于传说中击败迈达斯国王的国王，迈达斯是希腊神话中的统治者，他臭名昭著的贪婪使他有能力将他接触到的任何东西变成纯金。

An international team of researchers surveying a site in southern Turkey known as Türkmen-Karahöyük was tipped off by a local farmer who found a large inscribed stone while dredging an irrigation canal the previous winter.

一个国际研究小组在土耳其南部一个名为“土库曼-卡拉霍尤克”的地方进行调查。去年冬天，一位当地农民在挖掘灌溉渠时发现了一块刻有文字的大石头。

“We rushed straight there, and we could see it still sticking out of the water, so we jumped right down into the canal – up to our waists wading around,” said Assistant Professor of Anatolian Archaeology James Osborne in a statement. Osborne is an archaeologist with the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and was mapping the site as part of the Türkmen-Karahöyük Intensive Survey Project. The area is known to have been home to other famous ancient cities throughout the millennia.

安纳托利亚考古的助理教授詹姆斯·奥斯本在一份声明中说:“我们径直冲过去，看到它还露在水面上，所以我们就跳进了运河里——一直到我们的腰。”奥斯本是芝加哥大学东方研究所的一名考古学家，正在绘制该遗址的地图，这是土库曼-卡拉霍尤克强化调查项目的一部分。数千年来，该地区一直是其他著名古城的所在地。

“Right away it was clear it was ancient, and we recognized the script it was written in: Luwian, the language used in the Bronze and Iron Ages in the area.”

“很明显，它很古老，我们认出了它的文字:Luwian，这是该地区青铜和铁器时代使用的语言。”

The stone was extracted using the farmer’s tractor and transported to a Turkish museum for cleaning, photographing, and to be readied for translation.

这块石头是用农民的拖拉机挖出来的，然后运到土耳其的一家博物馆进行清洁、摄影，最后准备好进行翻译。

Scholars from the Oriental Institute translated the hieroglyphic markings written in Luwian, one of the oldest branches of Indo-European languages native to the Turkish region and read by alternating between right to left and left to right. Markings indicated that the message came from a king named Hartapu towards the end of the 8th century BCE – the same time as Midas’ mythical rule – and boasted of defeating the golden-handed kingdom of Phrygia. It's possible that Midas is based on a real 8th-century king called Mita.

东方研究所的学者们翻译了卢瓦扬语的象形文字标记，卢瓦扬语是原产于土耳其地区的印欧语系最古老的分支之一，阅读时从右到左、从左到右交替进行。标记表明，这条信息来自于公元前8世纪末一位名叫哈塔普的国王——与迈达斯的神话统治是同一时期——并吹嘘自己打败了金手佛里吉亚王国。迈达斯很可能是根据一个真实的8世纪国王米塔的故事改编的。

A stone slab uncovered from a nearby dig exemplifies the Luwian language. Oriental Institute

“The storm gods delivered the [opposing] kinds to his majesty,” reads the tablet.

碑文上写道:“风暴之神将(对立的)种类交给国王陛下。”

King Hartapu likely ruled the area surrounding Türkmen-Karahöyük, an ancient city that would have covered an expanse of around 120 hectares (300 acres) at its peak, making it one of the largest cities of the Bronze and Iron Age in Turkey. The tablet aligns with another hieroglyphic inscription previously discovered 16 kilometers (10 miles) south, which describes King Hartapu. Until now, experts had no indication of who the ancient ruler was.

国王哈塔普可能统治着土库曼-卡拉霍尤克周围的地区，一个古老的城市，在它的巅峰时期占地约120公顷(300英亩)，使它成为土耳其青铜和铁器时代最大的城市之一。碑文与之前在南方16公里(10英里)处发现的另一幅象形文字文字相符，描绘了哈塔普国王。直到现在，专家们还不知道这位古代统治者是谁。

“We had no idea about this kingdom. In a flash, we had profound new information on the Bronze Age Middle East,” said Osborne.

“我们对这个王国一无所知。刹那间，我们获得了有关青铜时代中东的深刻新信息。”奥斯本说。

Today, a large earthen mound covers what archaeologists believe was a large empire 3,000 years ago.

今天，一个大土丘覆盖着考古学家认为是3000年前的一个大帝国。

“Inside this mound are going to be palaces, monuments, houses. This stele was a marvelous, incredibly lucky find – but it’s just the beginning,” said Osborne, adding that his team plans to return this summer for further surveys and potential excavations.

“在这个土堆里将会有宫殿、纪念碑和房屋。这颗石碑是一个不可思议的、令人难以置信的幸运发现，但它只是一个开始。”

Full view of the archaeological mound at Türkmen-Karahöyük. At its height, the unknown city is believed to have covered about 120 hectares (300 acres). James Osborne