纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 047萨顿胡头盔(2)

I'm at Sutton Hoo, where in 1939 one of the most important and most exciting archaeological discoveries in Britain was made. It uncovered the tomb of an Anglo-Saxon who had been buried here in the early 600s, and it completely changed the way we thought about what had been called the "Dark Ages"-those centuries that followed the collapse¹ of Roman rule in Britain.I'm with Angus Wainwright, the National Trust archaeologist for the East of England...what can we see of the site now?

我正位于萨顿胡，1939年夏，英国考古史上最激动人心的发现之一出现在距萨福克海岸数英里的萨顿胡。在一座公元七世纪早期的盎格鲁—撒克逊墓葬中发现的物品深远地改变了人们对所谓的“黑暗时代”，也就是罗马帝国在英国的统治崩溃之后那几个世纪的看法。国家信托组织的东安格利亚考古学家安格斯韦恩赖特描述了当地的景象：

"Well we're standing² amongst a number of large mounds⁴, high up on an exposed ridge⁵ looking down towards the River Deben. We're about 100 feet (30 m) up here, and we're standing next to one of the biggest mounds, which we call, excitingly, Mound³ 1, which is where the great ship grave was discovered in 1939. And we've got about 18 or 20 other mounds around us."

在一道约三十米高的山脊上坐落着几十个大土丘，俯视着德本河。那些最大的当中有一个被我们激动地称为土丘一号，1939年我们就是在那儿发现了大型船葬墓地。附近还有18至20个类似的土丘。

It was in this ship grave that the famous Sutton Hoo helmet was found. Surprisingly, there was no body, but in the ship's burial chamber⁶ there was an astonishing range of valuable goods drawn⁷ from all over Europe: weapons and armour⁸, elaborate gold jewellery, silver vessels⁹ for feasting, and many, many coins. Nothing like this from Anglo-Saxon England had ever been found before.

著名的萨顿胡头盔便出土于这个船葬墓地，发掘工作给人们带来了一大谜团，坟墓里没有尸体。但同时出土的还有来自欧洲各地的数目惊人的珍宝：武器、盔甲、精美的黄金首饰以及宴会用的白银餐具和许多货币。之前从未发现过类似的盎格鲁-撒克逊时期的文物。

The discovery of this ship burial in the summer of 1939 captured the British public's imagination.

船葬的发现吸引了英国公众的注意力，

It was hailed as the "British Tutankhamun". But the politics of 1939 lent a disturbing dimension to the discovery: not only did the excavation¹⁰ have to be hurried because of the approaching war, but the burial itself spoke¹¹ of an earlier, and successful, invasion of England by a Germanic-speaking people.

他们欢欣鼓舞，称之为“英国的图坦卡蒙”。但1939年的政治形势给这一发现带来了阴影：不仅仅因为战争邻近，挖掘工作不得不加快节奏，同时也因为墓葬本身便是历史上某个使用日耳曼语的民族成功人侵英国所留下的痕迹。

Here's Angus Wainwright again... what did they actually discover when they excavated¹² in 1939?:

安格斯?韦 恩赖特记录了他们的发现：

"The first thing they discovered very early on in the excavation were ship rivets¹³-these are the iron rivets that hold together the planks¹⁴ of a ship. They also discovered that the wood that had made up the ship had rotted completely away, but by a rather mysterious process, the shape of the wood was preserved in a kind of crusted blackened sand, so by careful excavation they gradually uncovered the whole ship.

挖掘工作伊始，人们便发现了船只使用的铆钉，那是用来将船板固定在一起的钉子。同时他们也发现所有的船板都已完全腐烂，但由于一个神秘的过程，船的形状以一种陈年黑沙的形式被完整地保留了下来。因此，在小心地挖掘之后人们逐渐挖出了整艘船。

1 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

2 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

3 mound   

n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫

参考例句：

• The explorers climbed a mound to survey the land around them.勘探者爬上土丘去勘测周围的土地。
• The mound can be used as our screen.这个土丘可做我们的掩蔽物。

4 mounds   

土堆，土丘( mound的名词复数 )； 一大堆

参考例句：

• We had mounds of tasteless rice. 我们有成堆成堆的淡而无味的米饭。
• Ah! and there's the cemetery' - cemetery, he must have meant. 'You see the mounds? 啊，这就是同墓，”——我想他要说的一定是公墓，“看到那些土墩了吗？

5 ridge   

n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭

参考例句：

• We clambered up the hillside to the ridge above.我们沿着山坡费力地爬上了山脊。
• The infantry were advancing to attack the ridge.步兵部队正在向前挺进攻打山脊。

6 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

7 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

8 armour   

（=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队

参考例句：

• His body was encased in shining armour.他全身披着明晃晃的甲胄。
• Bulletproof cars sheathed in armour.防弹车护有装甲。

9 vessels   

n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人

参考例句：

• The river is navigable by vessels of up to 90 tons. 90 吨以下的船只可以从这条河通过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All modern vessels of any size are fitted with radar installations. 所有现代化船只都有雷达装置。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 excavation   

n.挖掘，发掘；被挖掘之地

参考例句：

• The bad weather has hung up the work of excavation.天气不好耽误了挖掘工作。
• The excavation exposed some ancient ruins.这次挖掘暴露出一些古遗迹。

11 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

12 excavated   

v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘

参考例句：

• The site has been excavated by archaeologists. 这个遗址已被考古学家发掘出来。
• The archaeologists excavated an ancient fortress. 考古学家们发掘出一个古堡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 rivets   

铆钉( rivet的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Straighten the rivets, please. 请把那铆钉铆直。
• Instead of rivets there came an invasion, an infliction, and a visitation. 但是铆钉并没有运来，来的却是骚扰、混乱和视察。

14 planks   

（厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点

参考例句：

• The house was built solidly of rough wooden planks. 这房子是用粗木板牢固地建造的。
• We sawed the log into planks. 我们把木头锯成了木板。