遗失的法老城市11

　　No statues, no obelisks¹, no temples, nothing to suggest this could once havebeen home to the ancient world's great lost capital.
"When I came first to this area and to this site, I was shocked. Nothing wasto be seen at the surface. No clue where to dig and where to excavate²." Theregion around Qantir is one of the most fertile in Egypt, and it has been sointensively cultivated, all evidence of ancient worlds on the surface hasbeen obliterated³. It is the archeological equivalent of a scorched⁴ earth.
"When we started to work in this area, every colleague told us, ''You won'tfind a thing''. Everything is destroyed, nothing is there." And yetsomewhere here, amongst these fields, so Pusch and Bietak proposed, lurkedthe Holy Grail of egyptology, Ramesses II's spectacular lost city ofPiramesse.
And so they began to excavate. They were after any clue, however small, thatmight prove them right. Miraculously⁵ , just three days into the dig and onlyten centimeters below the surface, Pusch's team found some tantalizingevidence.
These odd carved objects would ultimately turned out to be the first crucialpiece of evidence suggesting that Qantir, this unprepossessing place, mightjust be everything they were hoping for. But at the time, no one had a cluewhat they were. "We didn’t have the slightest idea what they could be. Sothey were called something like broken fragment of a vase, broken fragmentof a dagger⁶, handle or something like this. ''
They kept digging and finding more and more of these mysterious objects, andthen they found something rather wonderful. Now this is a real surprisingfind, a complete set of horse bits, made from bronze, locally produced. Theonly one ever found in Egypt. It is in such a condition as that it lookslike it was made yesterday.

1 obelisks   

n.方尖石塔，短剑号，疑问记号( obelisk的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One passes under pyramids and obelisks, all on a heroic scale. 试译：一个人经过规模宏大的金字塔和方尖石塔。 来自互联网
• He told me to seek them through secret obelisks. 它告诉我可以通过隐匿的方尖塔找到它们。 来自互联网

2 excavate   

vt.挖掘，挖出

参考例句：

• They plan to excavate a large hole.他们计划挖个大洞。
• A new Danish expedition is again excavating the site in annual summer digs.一支新的丹麦探险队又在那个遗址上进行一年一度的夏季挖掘。

3 obliterated   

v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭

参考例句：

• The building was completely obliterated by the bomb. 炸弹把那座建筑物彻底摧毁了。
• He began to drink, drank himself to intoxication, till he slept obliterated. 他一直喝，喝到他快要迷糊地睡着了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 scorched   

烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦

参考例句：

• I scorched my dress when I was ironing it. 我把自己的连衣裙熨焦了。
• The hot iron scorched the tablecloth. 热熨斗把桌布烫焦了。

5 miraculously   

ad.奇迹般地

参考例句：

• He had been miraculously saved from almost certain death. 他奇迹般地从死亡线上获救。
• A schoolboy miraculously survived a 25 000-volt electric shock. 一名男学生在遭受2.5 万伏的电击后奇迹般地活了下来。

6 dagger   

n.匕首，短剑，剑号

参考例句：

• The bad news is a dagger to his heart.这条坏消息刺痛了他的心。
• The murderer thrust a dagger into her heart.凶手将匕首刺进她的心脏。