Title:Genetic Analysis Suggests Twin Legends of Inca Origins Are Correct

The Incan Empire ended shortly after Europeans arrived in 1531, but even when the empire fell, some of its aristocrats likely survived. Hundreds of years later, their descendents—and their genes—live on in the Andes Mountains, as do stories about where precisely those nobles came from in the first place.

印加帝国在1531年欧洲人到达后不久就宣告终结，但即使是在帝国垮台之后，一些贵族可能得以生存。几百年后，他们的后代和他们的基因生活在安第斯山脉，关于这些贵族从哪里来的故事也是如此。

Two such stories exist, one linking the nobles to Lake Titicaca and the other to a mountain called Pacaritambo. And it turns out that the genes they've left behind can help confirm those stories, according to an ongoing genetic analysis of people believed to be descended from Inca nobles.

有两个这样的故事存在，一个是贵族们和蒂卡卡湖人和另一个被称为帕卡坦博的山地之间的联系。根据对被认为是来自印加贵族的人的持续遗传分析，他们留下的基因有助于证实这些故事。

Some of the early results of that work are published in a recent paper in the journal Molecular Genetics and Genomics, which analyzed the genomes of 18 individuals from the area.

这项研究的早期成果刊登在最新一期的《分子遗传学和基因组学》杂志上，该文件分析了来自该地区的18个人的基因组。

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The team was particularly interested to look at the results of Y chromosome analysis. That's because those chromosomes are passed directly from father to son across generations and because scholars believe power in the Incan Empire, also known as Tahuantinsuyo, was inherited the same way.

研究小组特别感兴趣的是研究Y染色体分析的结果。这是因为，这些染色体几代人直接从父亲传给儿子，而学者们则认为印加帝国的权力，也称为塔哈廷锡约，也是以同样的方式继承的。

"The conclusion we came to is that the Tahuantinsuyo nobility is descended from two lines, one in the region of Lake Titicaca, the other around the mountain of Pacaritambo in Cusco," first author Jose Sandoval, also a geneticist at the University of San Martin de Porres in Peru,  told Agence France Presse. "That confirms the legends."

我们的结论是：塔胡安锡约贵族由两行传承，一线位于铁蒂卡湖区，另一条位于库斯科的帕卡丽坦博山脉附近；第一作者何塞·桑多瓦尔，也是秘鲁圣马丁大学遗传学家，他告诉法新社，这证实了传说。

This picture taken on August 27, 2016, shows Machu Picchu, which stands 2,430 meters above sea level. The Incan empire ended shortly after Europeans arrived in 1531.   Goh Chai Hin/AFP/Getty Images

2016年8月27日拍摄的这张照片显示马丘比丘，海拔2430米，印加帝国在1531年欧洲人到达后不久就结束。

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The team of scientists wants to build on the paper by analyzing both more modern genomes and those of mummies belonging to Inca rulers. But unfortunately, the second piece of that is quite challenging, since most of those remains were destroyed by the Spanish invaders.

科学家小组希望通过分析现代基因组和属于印加统治者的木乃伊组的基因组，在论文的基础上再接再厉。但不幸的是，其中的第二段相当具有挑战性，因为大部分遗骸被西班牙入侵者摧毁。

The researchers have also contributed the same genetic work going into this project to one looking at how local resistors against Spanish rule remained genetically isolated in a group of people called the Chachapoya. While the Spanish did their best to destroy the cultures they came upon, they couldn't quite destroy their genetic legacies—and those may be our best hope for rediscovering the culture's secrets.

研究人员也为这一项目贡献了同样的基因工作，一个研究当地抵抗西班牙统治的抵抗者如何仍然在一个被称为查察波亚的人群中遗传隔离。尽管西班牙人尽最大努力来破坏他们创造的文化，但他们不会完全摧毁他们的遗传遗产，那些才是我们重新挖掘文化秘密的最好希望。