How Art Made The World 人、艺术、世界 -07

Now if you can't understand what a picture is unless you've seen one before. How on earth do you come up with the idea of creating one in the first place?

So how did our ancient ancestors come to realize that a collection of lines, dots and colors could represent something? How did the penny drop all those thousands of years ago? This is one of the great mysteries of human creativity. It's one that experts have long tried and failed to solve. But then a few years ago, a revolutionary idea appeared. It was an idea that might solve this very problem. And it originated¹ not in Europe but a place thousands of miles away. It came from South Africa. Hidden among high crags of these mountains, the Drakensberg are images on rock walls uncannily like European cave paintings. They, too, feature large animals and they also seem to show hunting scenes. But unlike the European paintings, these pictures aren't thousands of years old. They were painted just a couple of hundred years ago, almost within living memory. They were painted by people called the San --the Bushman. For a long time, these paintings were largely² ignored. But one man became fascinated³ by them. His name was David Lewis Williams.

When I first started looking at the paintings, the general opinion was that they were scenes from daily life and because they were San people, they thought they were hunting scenes. Take this one as an example. Here we have an eland and a man who appears to be holding the eland's tail. (Yeah, yep). People thought well maybe when eland were hunted by Bushman, they pulled its tail as a demonstration⁴ of being very brave, or something like that. But when you begin to look more closely⁵ at the painting, you begin to find point after point that just doesn't add up. For example this man, here you see, has got hoofs⁶ and not feet. "Yeah. Yeah."

So, had no one noticed that these were hoofs before?

I didn't get anybody stuck the head under there to notice it. No. Er, and then of course there're things about the man himself. His legs are crossed and the eland's legs are crossed. And then you notice other things, like that one, higher up there, that has a very clear antelope⁷ head. (Yeah.) And then you realize that he's also got hairs standing⁸ on end all over its body. And the eland has got hairs standing all over its body.

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words:

on end: (stand) erectly, relentless 竖直地，连续的
hairs stand on end毛发竖起

1 originated   

v.起源于，来自，产生( originate的过去式和过去分词 )；创造；创始；开创

参考例句：

• The disease is thought to have originated in the tropics. 这种疾病据说起源于热带地区。
• The art of portrait miniatures was originated in England. 微型画像艺术创始于英国。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 largely   

adv.大部分，主要地

参考例句：

• It is largely dependent on the weather.这多半取决于天气情况。
• Their conclusions were largely founded on guesswork.他们的结论大部份基于猜测。

3 fascinated   

a.被强烈地吸引住，感到着迷的

参考例句：

• China has always fascinated me. 中国一直令我心驰神往。
• The children watched, fascinated, as the picture began to appear. 电影开始以后孩子们入迷地观看着。

4 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

5 closely   

adv.紧密地；严密地，密切地

参考例句：

• We shall follow closely the development of the situation.我们将密切注意形势的发展。
• The two companies are closely tied up with each other.这两家公司之间有密切联系。

6 hoofs   

n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The stamp of the horse's hoofs on the wooden floor was loud. 马蹄踏在木头地板上的声音很响。 来自辞典例句
• The noise of hoofs called him back to the other window. 马蹄声把他又唤回那扇窗子口。 来自辞典例句

7 antelope   

n.羚羊；羚羊皮

参考例句：

• Choosing the antelope shows that China wants a Green Olympics.选择藏羚羊表示中国需要绿色奥运。
• The tiger was dragging the antelope across the field.老虎拖着羚羊穿过原野。

8 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。