古代文化背后之神秘

Stonghenge

巨石陣

For years， the closest theories that anyone had as to how the stones of Stonehenge were transported ranged from Merlin using magic to aliens. Uses for Stonehenge ranged from ritual magic to a life-size calendar. But researchers and archaeologists have recently discovered additional stones and monuments in the ground around Stonehenge which means that the still-standing stones were merely a focal point amongst many more stones. This also gives a stronger hint that the stones were used as a calendar to track the Sun for the purposes of keeping track of seasons for farming.

多年來，關于巨石陣的運輸之謎，最接近的理論從梅林施法到外星人杰作，應有盡有。而關于巨石陣的用途，從祭祀施法到人形日歷，也都猜測不一。但最近研究人員和考古學家在巨石陣周圍又發現了石塊和紀念碑，說明眼前這些仍屹立不倒的石頭僅僅是眾多石塊的焦點部分。這也極有可能證明巨石陣就是日歷，用于觀察太陽方向，記錄農耕季節。

Egypt

埃及

For a significant amount of time， researchers were giving men too little credit in the construction of the pyramid. For a time， scientists claim that the pyramids were built with technology that was too advanced for the time period which made the conspiracy theorists go nuts with thoughts of aliens giving the Pharaohs space tools to build these massive structures. But in reality， ancient Egypt has proven to have the advanced technology and the pyramids arent built perfectly. In fact， the tools used to build the pyramids， like rope and counter-balancing， are time period appropriate especially since it meant the pyramids were built over a period of 20 years.

在相當長的時間里，對于金字塔建造者的豐功偉績，研究人員很少提及?？茖W家還一度認為，因建造技術較當時來講太過先進，令陰謀論者想出外星人理論，稱外星人賦予法老“太空技術”建造這些龐然大物。但事實上，古埃及人已證實他們擁有高超技術，然而金字塔建造得并不完美。事實上，由于金字塔修建時間超過20年，所以像繩子、平衡等用于建造金字塔的工具是符合當時建造水平的。

Mayans

瑪雅人

After the Spaniards invaded the Mayan civilization， the mystery was that the people of this ancient civilization completely disappeared. People thought that aliens give the mayans their technology or that the Mayans were aliens themselves and “went home” after the Spanish colonization of the Americas， thus explaining why the Mayans left without a trace. But researchers have found that its simply not true. The Mayans actually spread out and formed smaller colonies of their own and grew Mayan population from there. There are areas of South America where the mayan language is still spoken and you can find descendants of these ancient people. Also the Mayan calendar was one of the biggest mysteries which doubled as an indicator to some that the ending of the calendar also meant the end of the world. These same surviving Mayans were the same people debunking doomsday prophecies and insisted that the calendar meant a new age， not the end of the world.

瑪雅文明遭西班牙人入侵后，瑪雅人的完全滅絕成了未解之謎。有人說外星人賦予瑪雅人技術，還有說瑪雅人本身就是外星人，西班牙在美洲建立殖民地后，他們選擇“回家”，這就對他們的神秘失蹤做出了解釋。但研究人員卻不以為然?，斞湃藢嶋H向外擴散， 組建了小型群落，不斷繁衍后代。南美洲有的地區仍然使用瑪雅語言，后代依然生息繁衍。瑪雅日歷也是未解之謎之一，它加倍預示瑪雅日歷的最后一天即為世界末日。但瑪雅后代親自戳穿祖先的末日預言，稱日歷預示新紀元，而非世界末日。

Terracotta Army

兵馬俑

After Chinese farmers discovered the massive Terracotta Army that made archaeological history， scientists and researchers had no idea how the thousands of clay soldiers were designed to protect the tomb of Emperor Qin Shihuang， making it one of the biggest mysteries of ancient China. Initially， historians thought the soldiers were constructed in an assembly-line fashion， but each warrior had its own specific feature. Historians then took photos of each warriors ears which are as unique as our fingerprints and discovered that each warrior was based on a real-life person.

在中國農民發現考古史上數量最龐大的兵馬俑之后，科學家和研究人員仍對這數千名泥兵是如何設計來保護秦始皇陵感到不解，它也隨即成為中國古代史中的未解之謎之一。起初， 歷史學家以為陶人士兵都制作得千篇一律，但每個士兵卻各具特色。歷史學家隨即拍攝了每個士兵的耳朵，發現這些耳朵如同人的指紋般獨一無二，且每名士兵都以真實人物為原型。

Word Study

focal / 'f??kl/ adj. 中心的；很重要的；焦點的；有焦點的

hint /h?nt/ n. 征兆；跡象

conspiracy /k?n'sp?r?si/ n. 密謀策劃；陰謀

invade /?n've?d/ v. 武裝入侵；侵略；侵犯

The enemy troops are ready to invade.

debunk /di：'b??k/ v. 揭穿……的真相