Egyptians practised fish farming more than 3,500 years ago, the earliest evidence of such activity worldwide according to a study released last Tuesday.

据上周二发表的一项研究称，埃及人早在3500多年前就开始鱼类养殖了，是全世界进行这类活动的最早迹象。

Scientists studied 100 fish teeth found at archaeological¹ sites across modern-day Israel to conclude they had been plucked from a lagoon² in Egypt's Sinai thousands of years ago.

科学家们对在现代以色列多个考古地点发现的100颗鱼类牙齿进行了研究，推断这些鱼是几千年前从埃及西奈半岛的一个泻湖里捞上来的。

"The sample of teeth covered a chronological³ period extending over 10,000 years, from the early Neolithic⁴ period through to the early Islamic period," said a statement from Israel's Haifa University, one of the participants in the study.

参与这一研究的以色列海法大学，日前发表一则声明称：“这些牙齿样本的年代范围长达1万多年，从新石器时代早期一直到伊斯兰时代早期。”

Of those samples, some were from about 3,500 years ago.

其中一些样本甚至有约3500年的历史。

Farmers at the time found a lagoon which fish were entering and barricaded⁵ it for a few months, Guy Bar-Oz, one of the authors of the report and archaeology⁶ professor at the University of Haifa.

该研究报告作者之一、海法大学考古学教授盖伊·巴尔·奥兹称，当时的农民发现了一个泻湖，鱼游进去后在里面被困了几个月。

Afterwards "you can easily harvest them," the academic explained of a method still used in the same Sinai lagoon.

然后“就能很容易地捕获它们了”，这位学者解释了在西奈泻湖仍在沿用的这种方法。

The Haifa academics worked alongside those from German universities in Mainz and Gottingen to deduce their findings from the teeth of gilthead sea bream.

海法大学的学者与来自德国美因茨和格丁根的大学的学者共同进行了这一研究，他们从金头鲷的牙齿推断出了结论。

Through studying the different types of oxygen isotopes⁷ in the teeth, scientists deduced that they were "spending at least four months in the closed lagoon".

通过研究牙齿中不同类型的氧同位素，科学家们推断出，这些鱼“在封闭的泻湖里至少待了4个月”。

The majority of the fish found by the researchers came from aquaculture and not local fishing.

研究人员发现的大多数鱼都来自水产养殖而不是从当地钓上来的。

Irit Zohar, from the University of Haifa and co-author of the study, said the size of fish standardised around 3,500 years ago and those imported from Egypt were all "the size of a plate".

研究报告作者之一、海法大学的伊里特·措哈尔称，在3500年前，鱼的大小就已经标准化了，那些从埃及进口的鱼都是“盘子大小”。

"Exactly what we observe of the fish bred in modern aquaculture," she said.

她说：“和我们在现代水产养殖中看到的鱼一样。”

Scientists believe fish farming was practised in China 4,000 years ago, although Bar-Oz said no evidence has yet been produced to prove the theory.

科学家们认为，中国早在4000年前就开始水产养殖了，不过巴尔·奥兹称目前尚没有证据证实这一理论。