纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 069瓦斯特克女神雕像（10）（在线收听）

Kim Richter may of course be right, and these statues may simply be representations of the local elite, but I find it hard to believe that these geometric naked female statues are merely aristocratic family likenesses, even of the most ritualised sort. We know that groups of them stood high up above their communities, on artificial mounds where people could congregate for ceremonies and processions, but it's hard to be certain about anything in the face of our statue. And, sadly, there's nobody now who can enlighten us. Here's Kim Richter again:

"I don't think the sculptures really have much meaning to local people there today. So when I was in the field and I spoke to indigenous people, they were interested and curious, and they want to learn more, but they didn't know anything about these sculptures. I heard a report that in one of the sites the farmers would shoot at the sculptures, and use them as target practice."

金·里克特所言也许是对的，这尊雕像表现的可能只是当地贵族。但我仍然很难相信这些呈几何形状的赤的女性雕像会是贵族的肖像，哪怕是最为仪式化的类型。

我们知道，它们曾一组组地站在人工堆出的土丘上，从高处俯视自己的部落，俯视在此汇聚、举行仪式与游行的族人。但我们无法从雕像本身获得任何明确信息。遗憾的是，如今已没有人可以告诉我们真相。金·里克特说：

我认为这些雕像对如今居住在当地的人不存在任何意义。在野外调查期间，我曾询问过当地人。他们很感兴趣，很好奇，想知道更多，但他们本身对雕像一无所知。我听说有一篇报告声称，在某片遗址附近，当地人把雕像当作靶子练习射击。