读与朝暮第六期：《神祇·坟墓·学者》

选择作品：Gods, graves and scholars - the story of archaeology by Ceram, C. W (Germany)

    “这里有许多文明的历史和重新发现文明的人的故事”

    “跟着世界考古学家一起探寻古墓、发现古城宝藏”

    “将考古学想象成是高度冒险、浪漫、历史和学术的美妙结合”

    “寻找人类自己过去的编年史，读起来就像一部戏剧性的叙事”

     这是一部探索人类神秘历史的记录。书中充满真实的冒险故事，令读者感到自己和书中那些人物一起出生入死，向早已湮没的远古世界索取财富：不顾众人嘲笑寻找荷马笔下的神秘城市特洛伊，打开亘古未曾开启的吐坦卡蒙墓，寻觅圣经中洪水的原始记载——美索不达米亚的古泥牌……书中重现了古巴比仑城和它的悬空花园的异彩，被死神保存了多少世纪的庞培城原貌，玛雅人弃置不顾的金字塔，以及米诺韬尔的传奇式的迷宫……作为一体具有世界影响的考古学经典之作，它将带领读者跨越时代的隔阂，去寻觅那业已湮没的人类的过去。

内容干货

1. 作者简介，本文概要

    作者简介：Ceram, C. W (Germany)

     Notable Works:

    Gods, graves and scholars - the story of archaeology 《神祇·墓葬·学者》

    The First American: A Story of North American Archaeology《第一个美国人·北美考古故事》

    Das Buch der Pyramiden 《金字塔古书》

     作品梗概：

    From Europe to the Middle East, and then to Central America, the author leads the reader into an archaeological saga: Schliemann's discovery of Troy, Carter's opening of Tutankhamun's legendary tomb, Koldewei's excavation of the city of Babylon, Thompson's diving for Mayan treasures, Shang Boliang's deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphics... The reader will be able to experience the wonders of history as if they were at the archaeological site.

 

2. 单词词组，地道表达

    我们“leaf through”古籍，对“antiquity”的“artifacts”产生了浓厚的兴趣。于是我们漫步在博物馆中，并且看到了“yellow, half-decayed leaves of papyrus, and fragments of vases, reliefs, and columns”，这些载满了历史痕迹的遗物蕴含了“wonderful signs and pictures called cuneiform characters or hieroglyphs”。考古学家的“grandiose task”是让干涸的“wellsprings”再次 “bubble forth”,让被遗失的遗迹被人理解,让“the dead alive”并且让历史的长河重新流淌。

 

3. 散文佳句，沉浸赏析

    我们何以了解过去？

    Where, then did this knowledge of the past come from? We are instructed concerning their rise and their decline, a cultural pulsation of fixed duration to the year, the month, and the day. Yet all this may have occurred when our own time-reckoning had not even begun, before our very calendar had come into being.

    人们究竟是怎样了解过去的呢？

     历史海洋的流向从哪里来，又将流向何方？

    This indicates that anyone who occupies himself with the study of ancient cultures no longer can be justly compared to a seaman pressing forward through unknown waters not knowing whence he comes or whither he is going.

    研究过去的人好像一个航海家突然弄清了海洋的流向，探明了来路，也看到了前途。

 

4. 主旨哲思，流连赏玩

     人类之光闪耀

    “This stream is the great human community of the Wworld which for five thousand years has swum with the same flood tide, under different flags, but guided by the same constellations.”

    这历史的长河就是世界伟大的人类群体，5000年来，这个群体在同一条河里游泳：他们举着不同的国旗，但指引他们的却是同样的星宿。

   

    考古看见生活

    “On this account archaeology is everybody's concern and is not in the least an esoteric special branch of science. When we busy ourselves with archaeology,life as a whole has become our subject. For life is not an occasional affair, but a constant balancing on the point of intersection where past and future meet.”

    因此考古学是关系到一切人的事，而决不是什么奥秘的、特殊的科学。从事考古实际上是在研究整个生活本身，因为生活不是什么偶然发生的事物，而是过去和未来的汇合点上的一个常数。

    

    除了惊心动魄的故事和令人瞻仰的文物，“你是谁？从哪里来？到哪里去？”是我们需要思考的永恒的哲学问题。我们将去往未来，就需要摸清来时的路，需要科学认识人类及中华民族的起源、文明形成与发展的历史，在对历史文明的深邃思考中汲取智慧和力量。