How Art Made The World 人、艺术、世界 -11

Now, an ambitious new idea began to take hold in Lewis Williams' mind because he was aware that there were other rock paintings which were very similar to those painted by the San. These were many thousands of years older, the earliest pictures ever created. And they were in Europe.

For many years I've also been interested in the cave paintings in France and Spain, the upper Paleolithic paintings. And one of the things that is really striking is the similarity between the rock paintings in Europe and the Southern African rock art.

Just like the San's obsession¹ with the eland, prehistoric² cave artists had also been captivated by a few key animals. And as with the images in South Africa, European paintings seem to graft³ features of animals onto the human body to create strange new creatures. But above all, there was one inexplicable⁴ feature shared by both San and European paintings which intrigued⁵ Lewis Williams.

What we've got here is a tracing of a painting made by the San Bushmen, probably about 200 years ago. It shows a picture of an eland with some San figures surrounding the animal, but there is also something else. The artist has scattered⁶ dots across the whole image. Ring any bells? Well, just take a look at this. It's a drawing of those two horses that we saw down in the caves in Pech Merel. And that too has got this strange patterning of spots all over it.

Just 200 years ago on rock walls in Africa, the San were creating the same abstract patterns as those painted tens of thousands of years ago in the caves in Europe. But why? What made people from completely different parts of the world and thousands of years apart come up with such strikingly similar geometric patterns? Lewis Williams began to wonder if the answer lay not so much in the art as in the brains of the people who generated it.

Now, in Southern Africa we knew that the art came out of trance experience, altered states of consciousness. So, it's a simple matter then, of course, to turn to people who have studied altered states of consciousness in laboratory work and ask them what happens to the brain when, when people go into an altered state. And it was then that we learnt that when people're going into an altered state, the first thing they see is zigzag⁷ lines, bright flashing zigzag lines as in a migraine headache, for example. And , or clouds of dots or grids⁸, and they see these things because they are wired into the human brain.

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words to remember:

1.upper paleolithic: 上古时期

2.migraine headache: 偏头痛

1 obsession   

n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感)

参考例句：

• I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
• She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。

2 prehistoric   

adj.（有记载的）历史以前的，史前的，古老的

参考例句：

• They have found prehistoric remains.他们发现了史前遗迹。
• It was rather like an exhibition of prehistoric electronic equipment.这儿倒像是在展览古老的电子设备。

3 graft   

n.移植，嫁接，艰苦工作，贪污；v.移植，嫁接

参考例句：

• I am having a skin graft on my arm soon.我马上就要接受手臂的皮肤移植手术。
• The minister became rich through graft.这位部长透过贪污受贿致富。

4 inexplicable   

adj.无法解释的，难理解的

参考例句：

• It is now inexplicable how that development was misinterpreted.当时对这一事态发展的错误理解究竟是怎么产生的，现在已经无法说清楚了。
• There are many things which are inexplicable by science.有很多事科学还无法解释。

5 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。

6 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

7 zigzag   

n.曲折，之字形；adj.曲折的，锯齿形的；adv.曲折地，成锯齿形地；vt.使曲折；vi.曲折前行

参考例句：

• The lightning made a zigzag in the sky.闪电在天空划出一道Z字形。
• The path runs zigzag up the hill.小径向山顶蜿蜒盘旋。

8 grids   

n.格子( grid的名词复数 )；地图上的坐标方格；（输电线路、天然气管道等的）系统网络；（汽车比赛）赛车起跑线

参考例句：

• Typical framed structures are beams, grids, plane and space frames or trusses. 典型构架结构为梁、格栅、平面的和空间的框架或桁架。 来自辞典例句
• The machines deliver trimmed grids for use or stock. 这种机器铸出修整过的板栅，以供使用或储存。 来自辞典例句