印加人仪式上佩戴的“奖杯头”是一种权力的展示

这一令人毛骨悚然的发现表明，印加人仪式上佩戴的“奖杯头”是一种权力的展示

It was the largest, most elaborate society the Americas had ever seen. And it was about to come to an abrupt end.

这是美洲有史以来最大、最复杂的社会。这一切即将戛然而止。

By the Late Horizon of the Inca Empire, the epic civilisation stretched all the way from Colombia in the north to Chile in the south. Imperial fortunes would soon change – violently, at the hands of Spanish conquistadors – but before the curtain fell, the kingdom was truly vast.

印加帝国晚期，史诗般的文明从北部的哥伦比亚一直延伸到南部的智利。在西班牙征服者的手中，帝国的命运很快就会发生变化——剧烈变化——但在帷幕落下之前，这个王国真的是辽阔的。

How did the Inca maintain their grip over such an expansive, disparate empire?

印加人是如何保持对如此广阔、迥然不同的帝国的控制的?

With force, and the gruesome threat of it, a new study suggests.

一项新的研究表明，可能是，暴力及可怕的威胁。

By the Late Horizon (1476 CE to 1534 CE), "new forms of ideological violence" were emerging at the fringes of the Inca Empire, researchers say in a new paper.

研究人员在一篇新的论文中说，到晚期(1476-1534)，印加帝国边缘出现了“新形式的意识形态暴力”。

Evidence of this – according to a team from the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural in Chile – comes in the form of the "performative use of modified severed heads", which could been one way the Inca kept locals in line at the periphery of their huge pre-Columbian realm.

根据智利国家历史博物馆的一个研究小组的说法，这一现象的证据是以“改良的切割头的表演性使用”的形式出现的，这可能是印加人在其巨大的前哥伦布王国外围保持当地人一致的一种方式。

A fragmentary trophy skull with drilled hole modifications (F. Garrido & C. Morales via Nature)Anthropologists Francisco Garrido and Catalina Morales analysed four severed and fragmented skulls dated to the Late Horizon era, which were buried in isolation among trash and without their bodies in Copiapo? Valley in northern Chile.

人类学家弗朗西斯科·加里多和卡特琳娜·莫拉莱斯，分析了四个来自智利北部的伊阿波山谷的，被切割和破碎的头骨，这些头骨可以追溯到晚地平线时代，它们被孤立地埋在垃圾堆中，没有身体。

According to the researchers, these decapitated heads reveal modifications including orifices in the cranium vault and defleshing marks in the mandible. The team suggests these marks indicate the skulls were most likely mounted as "trophy heads, used in ritualistic displays of power over local subjects of the new imperial provinces".

根据研究人员的说法，这些被斩首的头颅显示出了一些变化，包括头盖骨穹窿的小孔和下颌骨的刮痕。研究小组认为，这些标志表明，头骨最有可能被安装成“奖杯头，用于对新帝国省份的地方臣民进行仪式性的权力展示。”

The trophy heads were discovered in a prehispanic village called Iglesia Colorada, the largest settlement in Copiapo? Valley, a region the Inca mined for copper.

这些奖杯头是在一个叫做伊格丽西亚·克劳达的西班牙前村庄发现的，这是印加人在科皮亚波山谷(copiapo valley)开采铜的地区最大的定居点。

The skulls were excavated in 2003, found buried amid a large concentration of domestic refuse, at a distance from the village's cemetery area. Despite poor preservation, it's estimated three of the skulls came from young females aged between 16 and 30, while another nearby skull, also featuring circular perforations, is thought to have come from an individual aged 11 to 13.

这些头骨是2003年挖掘出来的，被发现埋在离村子墓地不远的一大片生活垃圾中。尽管保存得不好，但据估计其中三个头骨来自16至30岁的年轻女性，而附近另一个头骨也有圆形穿孔，据了解是来自一个11至13岁的个体。

In addition to these four skulls analysed in the current study, the researchers say at least five other severed skulls have been found at the same archaeological site.

除了在当前研究中分析的这四个头骨外，研究人员说，在同一个考古遗址至少发现了另外五个被切断的头骨。

Although they acknowledge it's impossible to know for sure, the researchers say the decapitated heads and their distinctive modifications are strongly indicative of their use as grim trophies.

尽管不可能确切地知道，但研究人员说，斩首的头部和它们独特的修改强烈地表明，它们被用作可怕的战利品。

"We argue that the observed pattern of severed head modification may represent new ideological efforts for controlling possible social unrest, which was especially likely considering the distance of the site from major imperial centres," the authors write.

作者写道:“我们认为，观察到的头颅被砍下的样子，可能代表了控制可能发生的社会动荡的新意识形态努力，尤其是考虑到遗址与主要帝国中心的距离。”

"Thus, the performative use of shocking and powerful displays of violence may have helped demonstrate political control and ensured compliance with Inca rule."

“因此，使用令人震惊和强有力的暴力表现，可能有助于显示政治控制，并确保遵守印加规则。”

It's possible, the researchers suggest, that Iglesia Colorada represented a pocket of resistance to Inca rule, located as it was at the distant edge of the empire.

研究人员认为，有可能伊格丽西娅·克劳达代表了对印加统治的抵抗，因为它位于帝国的遥远边缘。

Contemporaneous burials in the village did not include Inca pottery in the graves, which the researchers say "may be interpreted as a form of resistance to domination".

村里同时代的墓葬中没有包括印加陶器，研究人员说，这些陶器“可能被解释为反抗统治的一种形式”。

Amidst this fraught backdrop, it may be that the local Inca authorities or their representatives targeted weaker members of the village – women and children, whose bones revealed signs of illness and nutritional deficiencies – to use as the tools of their terrible propaganda.

在这一令人担忧的背景下，当地印加当局或其代表可能将目标锁定在村里较弱的成员——妇女和儿童身上，她们的骨骼显示出疾病和营养不足的迹象——制作奖杯头——他们可怕宣传的工具。

"The selection of female individuals with nutritional stress, in preference to young males in good health condition, may be related to the state's interest in not affecting the labor structure of the population serving as taxpayers in their corve?e labour system," the researchers explain.

研究人员解释说：“与健康状况良好的年轻男性相比，选择缺乏营养的女性个体可能与国家利益有关，也就是不影响劳动体系中作为纳税人的劳动结构。”

"Trophy heads could be a mode of repressing … internal tension and conflict, before it increased to levels that could threaten the imperial rule in this far provincial context."

“在这个遥远的省份背景下，在这种冲突上升到可能威胁帝国统治的水平之前，奖杯头可能是一种压抑的方式……内部紧张和冲突的方式。”

If the researchers are right, this reign of terror and coercion did not have long to last – before it was replaced by something equally brutal.

如果研究人员是对的，那么这个恐怖和胁迫的统治就不会持续很久——在它被同样残忍的东西取代之前。

By 1530, the Inca Empire had reached its greatest extent. Two years later, the Spanish conquest would begin.

1530年，印加帝国达到了鼎盛时期。两年后，西班牙的征服开始了。