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Large urban centers have historically been uncommon in high-altitude regions.
历史上，高海拔地区很少出现大型城市中心。
The most famous examples -- Machu Picchu, Cusco, and Lhasa -- are often viewed as exceptions and remarkable examples of human resilience in extreme conditions.
而其中最有名的是秘鲁马丘比丘与库斯科以及中国拉萨，这几大城市常被视为极端环境下人类韧性的典范。
But Tashbulak and Tugunbulak's location may have been chosen to harness strong mountain winds to fuel high-temperature fires needed to smelt metallic ores.
但塔什布拉克与图贡布拉克的独特选址则可能是为了利用强劲的山风助长高温火焰，以便融化金属矿石。
Limited excavations have revealed what appears to be a production kiln—likely a workshop where ancient smiths transformed the region's rich iron deposits into swords, armor, or tools.
有限的挖掘找到了某样看似窑炉的构造，它可能是古代铁匠利用本地丰富的铁矿锻打宝剑、盔甲或工具的工坊。
"We need to investigate more, but we have a very strong sense that a major portion of the site was oriented around productive activities, smelting or other sorts of pyrotechnology," Frachetti says.
“我们需要进行更多考察，不过我们强烈地感觉到，该遗址有很大一部分是围绕烧窑、熔炼或其他使用火的生产活动建造的，”弗拉切蒂说。
"By mid-morning, the ground heats from the sun, and then you get a natural convection system with a long, hard wind that blasts up the mountainsides—a perfect condition for metalworking."
“晌午时分，大地被太阳晒热了，此时，不息的劲风涌上山坡，形成一套天然的对流系统，为锻冶创造了完美的条件。”
The researcher suspects that Tugunbulak's economy was driven by blacksmithing and other metalworking industries, capitalizing on the materials around them and their proximity to the Silk Road.
研究人员猜想，图贡布拉克的经济动力来自打铁与其他锻冶产业，充分利用了周边的材料以及靠近丝绸之路的地理优势。
"Iron and steel were the resources that everybody wanted, along with horses and warriors," Frachetti says.
“铁与钢就像马匹与战士一样，是人人都渴望的资源，”弗拉切蒂说。
"This was an age with a lot of rapid change, when everyone needed power to survive. These were the oil fields of the middle ages."
“这是一个瞬息万变的年代，任何民族都需要生存下去的实力。而这些就是中古时期的油田。”
For centuries, Silk Road historians have focused on the nomadic tribes and lowland empires that dominated the Uzbekistan region, often painting the highlands as marginal or peripheral to life in the valleys below.
几个世纪以来，丝绸之路历史研究人员一直把注意力放在支配乌兹别克斯坦地区的游牧部落和低地帝国上，而高地往往被描绘成边缘地带或下方山谷生活的周边辐射区域。
But the existence of extensive urban centers suggests that the mountains were home to their own distinct societies, with complex economies, political systems, and cultures.
但宽广的城市中心的存在表明，山脉地区孕育了独特的社会，发展出了复杂的经济结构、政治体系和文化生态。
The new discoveries raise the possibility that highland urbanism wasn't an anomaly in Central Asia, but part of a broader, more complex picture of medieval life.
考古新发现提高了这样一种可能性，即高地城市化不是中亚的一种异态，而是更加宽广、复杂的中世纪生活画卷的一部分。
"This puts a very big political entity at high altitude, in a zone that's outside of the normal agricultural realm, where you wouldn't expect to find a city of this size," says Frachetti.
“这种可能性就把一个非常庞大的政治实体放在了高海拔地区，这里超出了常规农业文明的范畴，没有人曾想过会在这样的地方找到如此规模的城市。”弗拉切蒂说。
Further research will shed more light on who these people were, but it's already clear that they developed their own ways of life, separate from the typical agricultural societies of their time.
下一步的研究将继续了解，哪些民族曾在这些高山古城中生活，但不论他们是谁，显然都已发展形成了区别于同时期标准农业社会的独特的生活方式。
"If what we're discovering is a highland political realm that's differentiated from the lowlands, then it paints a very different picture of who the players were in medieval Central Asia," Frachetti says.
“假如我们正在发现的是一种有别于低地的高地政治地域，那么它将画出一幅截然不同于过往认知的中世纪中亚角逐者画像。”弗拉切蒂说。
"If we're right, we've got a new kid on the block," says Frachetti.
“如果我们推测的是正确的，那么这片地区的历史便将迎来一位新加入者，”弗拉切蒂说。
"These people weren't the barbarian horse-riding hordes that history has often painted them as. They were mountain populations, probably with nomadic political systems, but they were also investing in major urban infrastructure. This changes everything we thought we knew about Central Asian history."
“他们不像历史上常常描绘的那样，是马背上的野蛮部落。他们是高山上的民族，很可能发展出了游牧政治体系；而他们同时也发展了大型城市基础设施。这改变了我们自认为了解的有关中亚历史的一切。”
