Researchers may have found first polluted river from before Bronze Age

研究者发现第一条被污染的河流可追溯到青铜时代之前

Industrial pollution may seem like a modern phenomenon, but in fact, an international team of researchers may have discovered what could be the world's first polluted river, contaminated approximately 7,000 years ago.
工业污染看似一个现代现象，但事实上，一个国院研究团队可能发现了世界上第一条被污染的河，它在大约7000年前就被污染了。

In this now-dry riverbed in the Wadi Faynan region of southern Jordan, Professor Russell Adams, from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Waterloo, and his colleagues found evidence of early pollution caused by the combustion of copper. Neolithic humans here may have been in the early stages of developing metallurgy by learning how to smelt.
在位于约旦南部的Wadi Faynan地区的现已干涸的河床，来自滑铁卢大学人类学系的Russell Adams和他的同事发现了由铜燃烧所造成的污染的证据。新石器时代生活在这里的人类通过学习如何熔炼，可能已处于发展冶金术的早期阶段。
The research findings, published in Science of the Total Environment, shed light on a turning point in history, when humans began moving from making tools out of stones to making tools out of metal. This period, known as the Chalcolithic or Copper Age, is a transitional period between the late Neolithic or Stone Age and the beginning of the Bronze Age.
其研究发现，发表在Science of the Total Environment，为人类开发由制作石器到制作金属工具的转折点提供了线索。这一阶段，以铜石并用时代或铜器时代为人所知，是新石器时代或石器时代与青铜时代初期之间的过渡时代。
"These populations were experimenting with fire, experimenting with pottery and experimenting with copper ores, and all three of these components are part of the early production of copper metals from ores," said Adams. "The technological innovation and the spread of the adoption and use of metals in society mark the beginning of the modern world."
Adams说，“这些人用火做试验，用陶器做试验，用铜矿做试验，并且这三种组分都是早期用矿石炼铜的一部分。”“技术创新和金属使用在社会上的传播标识着现代世界的开始。”
People created copper at this time by combining charcoal and the blue-green copper ore found in abundance in this area in pottery crucibles or vessels and heating the mixture over a fire. The process was time-consuming and labour-intensive and, for this reason, it took thousands of years before copper became a central part of human societies.
这时的人们将木炭和本地区丰裕的蓝绿铜矿的混合物放在陶坩埚或容器中在火上加热来炼铜。这一过程费时费力，正因为这一原因，用了几千年，铜才成为人类社会的中心部分。
Many of the objects created in the earliest phase of copper production were primarily symbolic and fulfilled a social function within society. Attaining rare and exotic items was a way in which individuals attained prestige.
在铜器的早期阶段的许多器具首先是象征性的，在社会中实现社会功能。占有稀异事物是个人获得威望的一种途径。（2016-12-07）
As time passed, communities in the region grew larger and copper production expanded. People built mines, then large smelting furnaces and factories by about 2600 BC.
随着时间推移，这个区域的社群增长，铜产量增加。在大约公元前2600年，人们建立矿山，然后建造大规模的冶金炉和工厂。
"This region is home to the world's first industrial revolution," said Adams. "This really was the centre of innovative technology."
“这里是世界上第一次工业革命的发源地，”Adams说。“这里是名符其实的创新技术中心。”
But people paid a heavy price for the increased metal production. Slag, the waste product of smelting, remained. It contained metals such as copper, lead, zinc, cadmium, and even arsenic, mercury and thalium. Plants absorbed these metals, people and animals such as goats and sheep ate them, and so the contaminants bioaccumulated in the environment.
但人们为增长的铜产量付出了巨大代价。冶金过程的副产物，矿渣，遗留了下来。其中包含重金属元素，诸如铜、铅、锌、钙，甚至砷、汞、铊。植物吸收了这些金属元素，人和山羊、绵羊等动物再吃它们，这样环境中的污染物在生物中积聚。
Adams believes the pollution from thousands of years of copper mining and production must have led to widespread health problems in ancient populations. Infertility, malformations and premature death would have been some of the effects. Researchers have found high levels of copper and lead in human bones dating back to the Roman period.
Adams认为几千年前的铜矿开采和冶炼带来的污染一定造成了古人类的广泛传播的健康问题。其影响包括不育、畸形、过早死等。研究者在罗马时代的人类骨骼中发现了高浓度的铜和铅。
Adams and his international team of researchers are now trying to expand the analysis of the effects of this pollution to the Bronze Age, which began around 3200 BC. The Faynan region has a long history of human occupation, and the team is examining the extent and spread of this pollution at the time when metals and their industrial scale production became central to human societies.
Adams和他的国际团队将对这一污染影响的分析扩充到大约始于3200BC的青铜时代的。Faynan区域有时悠久的人类占有史。项目团队正在研究当金属及其工业制品成为人类完会的中心时，金属及其工业污染的程度和传播。（2016-12-13）
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-12-polluted-river-bronze-age.html#jCp