2017苜蓿筆記3

3. 下面這一小節點出更多苜蓿的歷史典故：

The Anatolian Hittites, acclaimed early charioteers, recorded on clay tablets overwintering their horses on alfalfa. The idea spread along trade routes and with invading armies. Darius I of Persia fed his camels and livestock with it, and exposed the Greeks to this fodder crop. Alfalfa became part of the Roman war machine.

首先，文中提到早期的The Anatolian Hittites是最早期騎馬車的人，考古的石板塊上有馬靠吃苜蓿寒冬的圖像(待查證)。基本上，古代的The Anatolian Hittite在今日土耳其地區，也就是荷馬史詩特洛伊城的可能位置；所以，這間接說明，荷馬史詩中提到Achilles的馬滯留特洛伊城外時啃苜蓿，可信度極高。

        第二點，文中提到波斯王大流士一世(Darius I of Persia)餵馬和牲畜吃苜蓿，被希臘人瞧見，意思就是希臘人偷學起來。這裡的描述十分生動，只是，應該不是大流士一世親自餵馬吃苜蓿吧！另外，如果苜蓿是「餵」給馬吃，表示馬不是吃重在野地，極可能是曬乾後的苜蓿草。

        文中第三點時代已經推到西元一世紀，羅馬帝國時期，「苜蓿」成為重要的戰爭武器 (war machine)。文章沒有引用史料佐證，但是也以推論，因為戰馬吃苜蓿的原因吧?

註解1: The Anatolian Hittites

以下說明出處: http://www.ancient.eu/hittite/

The Hittites occupied the region of Anatolia (also known as Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey) prior to 1700 BCE, developed a culture apparently from the indigenous Hatti (and possibly the Hurrian) people, and expanded their territories into an empire which rivaled, and threatened, the established nation of Egypt. They are repeatedly mentioned throughout the Hebrew Tanakh (also known as the Christian Old Testament) as the adversaries of the Israelites and their god. According to Genesis 10, they were the descendants of Heth, son of Canaan, who was the son of Ham, born of Noah (Genesis 10: 1-6). The name they are known by today, therefore, comes from the Bible and from the Amarna Letters of Egypt which reference a "Kingdom of Kheta" identified today as the `Kingdom of Hatti' (the designation the land of the Hittites was known by) but their own documents refer to them as Nesili, as do others of the time.  Their control of the region is divided by modern-day scholars into two periods: The Old Kingdom (1700-1500 BCE), and the New Kingdom, also known as the Hittite Empire (1400-1200 BCE). There is an interregnum between these two which, to those who accept that version of history, is known as the Middle Kingdom. The discrepancy between those scholars who recognize a Middle Kingdom and those who do not arises from the fact that there was no discontinuity between the Old Kingdom and the New, merely a `dark age’ of less than 100 years about which little is known.  The Hittite Empire reached its peak between under the reign of King Suppiluliuma I (c.1344-1322 BCE) and his son Mursilli II (c.1321-1295 BCE) after which it declined and, after repeated attacks by the Sea Peoples and the Kaska tribe, fell to the Assyrians.