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.

多年来，关于巨石阵的运输之谜，最接近的理论从梅林施法到外星人杰作，应有尽有。而关于巨石阵的用途，从祭祀施法到人形日历，也都猜测不一。但最近研究人员和考古学家在巨石阵周围又发现了石块和纪念碑，说明眼前这些仍屹立不倒的石头仅仅是众多石块的焦点部分。这也极有可能证明巨石阵就是日历，用于观察太阳方向，记录农耕季节。

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.

在相当长的时间里，对于金字塔建造者的丰功伟绩，研究人员很少提及。科学家还一度认为，因建造技术较当时来讲太过先进，令阴谋论者想出外星人理论，称外星人赋予法老“太空技术”建造这些庞然大物。但事实上，古埃及人已证实他们拥有高超技术，然而金字塔建造得并不完美。事实上，由于金字塔修建时间超过20年，所以像绳子、平衡等用于建造金字塔的工具是符合当时建造水平的。

Mayans

玛雅人

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.

玛雅文明遭西班牙人入侵后，玛雅人的完全灭绝成了未解之谜。有人说外星人赋予玛雅人技术，还有说玛雅人本身就是外星人，西班牙在美洲建立殖民地后，他们选择“回家”，这就对他们的神秘失踪做出了解释。但研究人员却不以为然。玛雅人实际向外扩散， 组建了小型群落，不断繁衍后代。南美洲有的地区仍然使用玛雅语言，后代依然生息繁衍。玛雅日历也是未解之谜之一，它加倍预示玛雅日历的最后一天即为世界末日。但玛雅后代亲自戳穿祖先的末日預言，称日历预示新纪元，而非世界末日。

Terracotta Army

兵马俑

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.

在中国农民发现考古史上数量最庞大的兵马俑之后，科学家和研究人员仍对这数千名泥兵是如何设计来保护秦始皇陵感到不解，它也随即成为中国古代史中的未解之谜之一。起初， 历史学家以为陶人士兵都制作得千篇一律，但每个士兵却各具特色。历史学家随即拍摄了每个士兵的耳朵，发现这些耳朵如同人的指纹般独一无二，且每名士兵都以真实人物为原型。

Word Study

focal / 'f??kl/ adj. 中心的；很重要的；焦点的；有焦点的

hint /h?nt/ n. 征兆；迹象

conspiracy /k?n'sp?r?si/ n. 密谋策划；阴谋

invade /?n've?d/ v. 武装入侵；侵略；侵犯

The enemy troops are ready to invade.

debunk /di：'b??k/ v. 揭穿……的真相