古希腊的艺术家们给远在千里之外的另一个大陆上发现的猴子作画

古希腊的艺术家们给远在千里之外的另一个大陆上发现的猴子作画

Ancient Greek artwork depicting monkeys endemic only to regions of Africa have long mystified archaeologists. How might artists have seen non-human primates found thousands of miles away, and what does that tell us about the ancient world? Now, an analysis of two Minoan frescoes attempts to answer those very questions.

长期以来，只有非洲地区才有猴子的古希腊艺术作品一直让考古学家感到困惑。艺术家们是如何看到几千英里之外发现的非人类灵长类动物的呢?这又告诉了我们关于古代世界的什么信息呢?现在，对两幅米诺斯壁画的分析试图回答这些问题。

Madison Dapcevich

The first is an incredibly detailed piece of art discovered at the 3,600-year-old settlement of Akrotiri, Thera, in which a small, black-faced monkey is seen climbing in a “landscape context”. With a white band on the animal’s forehead and coupled with long arms and legs, the painting is so accurate that researchers were able to identify the species as vervet monkeys, which are endemic to East Africa. On the nearby island of Crete, other blue-painted primates are depicted with a narrow waist, thick chest, and a hairless nose indicative of one of several subspecies of baboons, all of which are also only found in Africa. But if neither primate is native to the Mediterranean, how would ancient artists have known to paint them?

第一个是在有3600年历史的阿克罗蒂里村落发现的一件令人难以置信的精细艺术品。在这幅画中，一只黑脸小猴子在“风景背景”中攀爬。这幅画在动物的前额上有一条白色的带子，再加上长长的胳膊和腿，这幅画是如此的精确，以至于研究人员能够确定这是一种非洲东部特有的长尾猴。在附近的克里特岛上，其他蓝色的灵长类动物也被描绘成腰细、胸厚、鼻子无毛，这表明它们是狒狒的几个亚种之一，而所有这些亚种也只在非洲发现。但是，如果这两种灵长类动物都不是地中海的本土物种，古代的艺术家怎么知道要把它们画出来呢?

B. Urbani/Antiquity

“Both primate groups were probably originally represented at Minoan sites after having been observed in the African mainland,” write the authors in the journal Antiquity, noting that the artist either saw the monkeys directly or spoke with someone who had. The paintings provide a new understanding of Minoan frescoes and the interconnectedness of the ancient world, contributing to evidence that ancient Greeks had contact with people, or at the very least wildlife, of Africa.

两位作者在《古物》杂志上写道:“这两种灵长类动物在非洲大陆被发现后，很可能最初都出现在米诺斯文明遗址。”他们指出，艺术家要么直接看到了这些猴子，要么与曾经见过猴子的人交谈。这些壁画提供了对米诺斯壁画和古代世界相互联系的新理解，为古希腊人与非洲人有过接触，或至少与野生动物有过接触提供了证据。

Of course, monkeys aren’t blue. The researchers add that cultural perception influences how colors are categorized, so it could be that the artist thought of blue as more of a grey. Other Minoan artwork depicts grey objects, such as fish scales, also as a blue coloring. However, it could be that the color was borrowed from the ancient Egyptians who used blue in “sacred contexts”, a notion that is further evidenced by other pieces of Minoan artwork associating baboons with the gathering of flowers “as well as using swords and playing music on lyre-like instruments.”

当然，猴子不是蓝色的。研究人员补充说，文化感知会影响颜色的分类，所以有可能艺术家认为蓝色更像是灰色。其他米诺斯艺术作品描绘的灰色物体，如鱼鳞，也是蓝色的。然而，这种颜色可能是从古埃及人那里借用来的，古埃及人在“神圣的环境”中使用蓝色，这一概念在米诺派艺术的其他作品中得到了进一步的证明，这些作品将狒狒与采集鲜花联系在一起，“还用剑和竖琴一样的乐器演奏音乐”。

Minoan societies flourished during the Bronze Age from about 3,000 BCE to 1,100 BCE. The culture is largely characterized by its unique art and architecture that spread to other cultures around the world. The findings “strongly suggest” that Minoans were familiar with at least two species of cercopithecid monkeys, furthering the idea that Mediterranean societies may have been extensively interconnected with the rest of the world.

约公元前3000年至公元前1100年的青铜器时代，米诺斯社会繁荣昌盛。文化的主要特点是其独特的艺术和建筑，传播到世界各地的其他文化。这些发现“有力地表明”，克里特人至少熟悉两种长角猿，这进一步证实了地中海社会可能与世界其他地方有着广泛的联系。

B. Urbani/Antiquity