A new study finds that the first humans to live in North America depended heavily on mammoths and other large animals for food. 

一项新的研究发现，最早生活在北美的人类严重依赖猛犸象和其他大型动物作为食物。 

The finding is based on examinations of the diet of a woman who lived about 13,000 years ago during the last Ice Age. She belonged to a culture called the Clovis. They were among the first Native Americans to arrive on the continent. 

这一发现是基于对一位生活在大约 13,000 年前最后一个冰河时期的女性的饮食检查得出的。她属于一种叫做克洛维斯的文化。他们是第一批到达非洲大陆的美洲原住民之一。 

The woman was still breast-feeding her 18-month-old son when he died. The boy’s remains were discovered back in 1968 in an ancient burial ground in the western U.S. state of Montana. Scientists examined his bones to learn more about his mother’s diet. 

当她18个月大的儿子去世时，这名妇女仍在哺乳。1968 年，男孩的遗体在美国西部蒙大拿州的一个古老墓地中被发现。科学家们检查了他的骨头，以更多地了解他母亲的饮食。 

They found that the woman ate mostly meat from mammoths and other very large animals. The finding supports scientific theories that Clovis people specialized in hunting large animals instead of seeking plants or small animals to eat. 

他们发现该女子主要吃猛犸象和其他大型动物的肉。这一发现支持了克洛维斯人专门狩猎大型动物而不是寻找植物或小动物作为食物的科学理论。 

At the time the Clovis people lived, large animals like mammoths lived in areas covering the Americas, as well as parts of northern Asia. The researchers noted that mammoths traveled very long distances during this period. This made them a target for migrating humans seeking protein-rich foods to eat. 

在克洛维斯人生活的时代，猛犸象等大型动物生活在美洲以及北亚部分地区。研究人员指出，猛犸象在此期间迁移了很长的距离。这使它们成为寻求富含蛋白质食物的迁徙人类的目标。 

The team examined isotope data collected from the boy’s bones to estimate the Clovis woman’s dietary intake. An isotope is a kind of atom that has a different atomic weight than similar atoms, but the same chemical structure. The isotope experiments centered on the elements carbon and nitrogen. 

研究小组检查了从男孩骨骼中收集的同位素数据，以估计克洛维斯妇女的饮食摄入量。同位素是一种原子量与相似原子不同但化学结构相同的原子。同位素实验以碳和氮元素为中心。 

Mat Wooller is a professor and director of the Alaska Stable Isotope center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He was a co-writer of the study describing the research in the publication Science Advances. 

马特·伍勒 (Mat Wooller) 是阿拉斯加大学费尔班克斯分校阿拉斯加稳定同位素中心的教授兼主任。他是该研究的合著者，该研究在《科学进展》杂志上描述了该研究。 

Wooller told Reuters news agency isotope examinations can provide “a chemical fingerprint” of parts of an ancient human’s diet. "We are all made of elements, like carbon and nitrogen, and so is our food," he said.

伍勒告诉路透社，同位素检查可以提供古代人类饮食部分的“化学指纹”。“我们都是由碳和氮等元素组成的，我们的食物也是如此，”他说。