遗失的法老城市10

　　So he had never painstakingly¹ dated at all. If he had, he would havediscovered the bizarre truth about Tanis, that there was no city here at thetime of Ramesses the Great.
Not a single pottery² sherd has been collected from the time of Ramesses theSecond or before, but everything is posted Ramesses the Second and theirvisit is a very important point.
And yet, the monuments, statues and buildings here are without doubt thoseof Piramesse built by Ramesses the Great. It was a bizarre paradox³, how cana magnificent city turn up in a place where it could never have been built?
And where on earth should it have been in the first place?
Bietak was intrigued⁴. He felt compelled to solve the puzzle left by Montetand find the real site of Piramesse, and thanks to his map, he had the meansof finding it. By using pottery to date the lost eastern channels of theNile, one immediately stood out---the ancient Pelusiac branch, stretchingover 180 kilometers in length. Along the course of this ancient branch,pottery had been discovered dating from the time or Ramesses the Great whichmeant that it had to be the active most eastern branch of the Nile at thetime of Ramesses. So Piramesse must lie somewhere along this lost Pelusiacbranch. At this point Bietak teamed up with German archeologist Edgar Puschto find the city.
Here, we have Tanis, which we know is not Piramesse, and then over here, wehave the Pelusiac Nile branch is running something like this and along it wedo have evidence of settlement means all from this, the Second and hisfollowers, but here, it Qantir, we have an incredible concentration ofsettlement means of Ramesses the Second.
There had been clues suggesting Qantir was the site of Piramesse going backto the time of Montet.
He says it was dug up about 30 kilometers from here, he claims it's fromPiramesse.
This is Qantir, 30 kilometers south of Tanis. Could this be the site of thelost city of Piramesse? When Pusch first arrived, there was nothing to seeat Qantir...

1 painstakingly   

adv. 费力地 苦心地

参考例句：

• Every aspect of the original has been closely studied and painstakingly reconstructed. 原作的每一细节都经过了仔细研究，费尽苦心才得以重现。
• The cause they contrived so painstakingly also ended in failure. 他们惨淡经营的事业也以失败而告终。

2 pottery   

n.陶器，陶器场

参考例句：

• My sister likes to learn art pottery in her spare time.我妹妹喜欢在空余时间学习陶艺。
• The pottery was left to bake in the hot sun.陶器放在外面让炎热的太阳烘晒焙干。

3 paradox   

n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物)

参考例句：

• The story contains many levels of paradox.这个故事存在多重悖论。
• The paradox is that Japan does need serious education reform.矛盾的地方是日本确实需要教育改革。

4 intrigued   

adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• You've really intrigued me—tell me more! 你说的真有意思—再给我讲一些吧！
• He was intrigued by her story. 他被她的故事迷住了。