新奇事件簿 童话故事历史悠久

The famous 19th-century fairy tale collector Wilhelm Grimm suggested fairy tales dated back thousands of years. Scientists now support his theory and claim that many of the fairy tales we know and love could be over 4,000 years old. Anthropologist¹ Jamshid Tehrani and folklorist² Sara da Silva say the oldest known fairy tale dates back over 6,000 years to the Bronze Age. This is a time between the Stone Age and Iron Age when humans first started making tools from metal. Dr Tehrani studied the evolution of our early languages. He found strong links between a tale called "The Smith and the Devil" and the Proto-Indo-European language an ancient common language that dates to around 6,000 ago.

19世纪著名童话搜集家威廉·格林认为，童话故事可以追溯到数千年前。如今，科学家支持这一论断，并认为许多我们耳熟能详的童话故事或有4000多年历史。人类学家贾姆希德·德黑兰尼以及民俗学家萨拉·席尔瓦认为，许多“化石”级童话故事可以追溯到6000多年前的铜器时代。这一时段处于石器时代和铁器时代之间，人类也是从那时起开始用金属制造器具。德黑兰尼对早期语言进行了研究。他发现童话故事“史密斯和恶魔”与原始印欧语关系密切，这种古代语言能够追溯到约6000年前。

The two scientists analysed 275 tales for elements of culture that existed before modern languages like English, French and Italian. They say well-known tales like "Beauty and the Beast" and "Rumplestiltskin" are at least 4,000 years old. Dr Tehrani said: "It's remarkable³ that these stories have survived so long without being written down. They are older than the English language and would have been first told in a language that is now extinct⁴." Many of the fairy tales we know today were first written down in the 17th century. Dr Tehrani says the new findings suggest that: "A substantial⁵ number of magical tales have existed in Indo-European oral traditions long before they were written down."

两位科学家对275个童话故事中的文化因素进行了研究，它们的历史甚至要早于像英语、法语以及意大利语的存在时间。他们认为像“美女与野兽”“侏儒怪”这样的童话故事至少有4000年的历史。德黑兰尼认为：“这些童话故事能够以口头形式流传至今，这确实太不可思议。这些童话比英语还要古老，而最先通过口头表达的语言也已经不复存在。”许多我们现在熟悉的童话都是在17世纪以书面形式流传下来。德黑兰尼博士认为新研究发现表明：“大量童话在原始印欧语的口述就已存在，并比书面流传时间早得多。”

1 anthropologist   

n.人类学家，人类学者

参考例句：

• The lecturer is an anthropologist.这位讲师是人类学家。
• The anthropologist unearthed the skull of an ancient human at the site.人类学家在这个遗址挖掘出那块古人类的颅骨。

2 folklorist   

民俗学研究者

参考例句：

3 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

4 extinct   

adj.灭绝的，不再活跃的，熄灭了的，已废弃的

参考例句：

• All hopes were extinct.所有希望都破灭了。
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years.恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。

5 substantial   

adj.大的，相当可观的，大体上的

参考例句：

• She is preparing a substantial meal against his return.她正在准备一顿丰盛的饭菜为他接风。
• The country bought a substantial number of weapons.这个国家购买了大量武器。