VOA文化艺术2022--伊拉克艺术家重现古代艺术品

Iraqi Artist Recreates Ancient Artwork

Iraqi artist Khaled Al-Abadi's dream is to recreate historical objects that were damaged during years of war.

Al-Abadi is a sculptor¹. In his Mosul workshop, he carefully shapes objects into pieces of art -- lions, chariots, birds, and more.

Al-Abadi told the Reuters news agency, "During the Islamic State period, when my colleague and I were walking around, we would see the statues that were removed, and the gates that were being demolished², we were really troubled by this." Demolished is a term that means destroyed.

Al-Abadi's clay-based artworks show the country's long history – from the Assyrian period through the Islamic State occupation.

"We want to remind the coming generations that this is the history of Nineveh," he said, talking about the ancient Assyrian city located close to modern Mosul. "This is the history of Mosul. This is the history of Iraq."

The area where about 20 murals are displayed is located in old Mosul, a part of the city that suffered heavy damage during the war to take back the city from Islamic State militants³. These militants destroyed many of its ancient sites.

The country's rich cultural history has long suffered during its conflicts. Last year, ancient objects stolen and taken out of Iraq after the U.S. invasion in 2003 were put on display in Baghdad.

One of the objects on display included a 3,500-year-old clay tablet with part of the Epic⁴ of Gilgamesh, the ancient Sumerian story believed to be one of the world's first written works.

Words in This Story

chariot – n. a carriage with two wheels that was pulled by horses and was raced and used in battle in ancient times

colleague – n. a person who works with you : a fellow worker

mural – n. a usually large painting that is done directly on the surface of a wall

tablet – n. a flat piece of stone, clay, or wood that has writing on it

1 sculptor   

n.雕刻家，雕刻家

参考例句：

• A sculptor forms her material.雕塑家把材料塑造成雕塑品。
• The sculptor rounded the clay into a sphere.那位雕塑家把黏土做成了一个球状。

2 demolished   

v.摧毁( demolish的过去式和过去分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光

参考例句：

• The factory is due to be demolished next year. 这个工厂定于明年拆除。
• They have been fighting a rearguard action for two years to stop their house being demolished. 两年来，为了不让拆除他们的房子，他们一直在进行最后的努力。

3 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

4 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。