纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 070复活节岛雕像（8）（在线收听）

All the key elements of this later ritual are present in our statue. They're carved on the back. They must have been added several hundred years after the statue was first made, and the carving style here could hardly be more different from the front. It's in low relief, the scale is small, and the sculptor has tried to accommodate a large range of disparate detail. Each shoulder blade has been turned into a symbol of the Birdman - two frigate birds with human arms and feet face each other, their beaks touching at the back of the statue's neck. On the back of the statue's head are two stylised canoe paddles, each with what looks like a miniature version of our statue's face at the upper end, and between the paddles is a standing bird. It's thought to be a sooty tern, whose eggs were so central to the Birdman ritual. This carving could never have been very legible as sculpture. We know it was originally painted in bright colours, so that this cluster of very potent symbols could be easily recognised and understood. Now, without its colour, the carving looks to my eyes feeble, fussy, diminished - a confused and timid postscript to the confident vigour of the front.

这一后期宗教仪式中的所有元素都包含在这座雕像里，刻在它的背部。这些图案应该是在雕像制成数百年后添加的，其风格与石像正面截然不同，为较小的浅浮雕，雕刻者显然试图同时表现迥异的风格。石像两侧的肩胛骨上各有一个鸟人的标志，这两只军舰鸟长着人类的胳膊，爪尖相对，喙碰触着石像的后颈。在石像的后脑上有两支极具风格的船桨，手柄上带有类似石像脸孔的图案。船桨中间站着的鸟一般认为是小乌燕鸥，它的蛋正是仪式的核心所在。这种石像背后的雕刻一向难以辨认。我们知道它曾被刷上鲜艳的颜色，更好辨认也更易于理解，但如今颜色褪去之后，它在我眼里显得繁杂而无力。和自信而充满活力的正面相比，后面简直是混乱而又怯懦的补充。