【英语语言学习】原始人的饮食、生活方式与健康状况

Robyn Williams: And so to a mummies aspect that did not get celebrated¹ at all last weekend, and there are plenty of them. This is Wendy Zukerman:

Wendy Zukerman: For 7,000 years we humans have mummified our dead. Yes, the ancient cultures of Chile, Egypt, India, Mesopotamia and the Pacific Islands all disembowelled, dried and dissected² their corpses³. Elsewhere the natural environment has inadvertently turned bodies into mummies. The dry and arid⁴ climate around Granada in the south of Spain, for example, has left the local graveyard⁵ littered with mummified corpses. And that's where we are today. No, not in the graveyard but in Granada, at the Parque de las Ciencias, where monies are populating the terranean environment. Elisa Wilkinson, project manager of the park's newest exhibition, Mummies: Witnesses of the Past, is ready to show us around.

Right now we are in a room filled with some very gory-looking mummies that are all crouched⁶. Where are these from and how did they come to look that way?

Elisa Wilkinson: These mummies are from the Inca period. They are all natural mummifications, they are not induced like the Egyptians. And when they buried them they would put them in a foetal position and then bound them with cloths then put them in caves. And so due to the dryness and the arid atmosphere of the area they were naturally mummified, and that's why they are in that position, they bury them like that.

Wendy Zukerman: How old are the mummies that we are looking at at the moment?

Elisa Wilkinson: Approximately from about 8,000 years old. So they are before the Egyptian mummies, they are one of the oldest in the world.

Wendy Zukerman: There's around 200 pieces in this exhibition, and you have two very modern ones from Granada. Shall we go have a look at them?

Elisa Wilkinson: Yes, okay. So this is the first one, it's a baby, it's an infant. I mean, it's not even a year old. They estimate that about 70% of the bodies in the cemetery⁷ here in Granada due to our climate are actually mummified.

Wendy Zukerman: And the two children that we are looking at now, how old are they?

Elisa Wilkinson: They estimate that it's from approximately the 1940s to where they were found and obviously what they are wearing. It's a relatively⁸ modern dress.

Wendy Zukerman: And so from perhaps some of the most modern mummies, in this museum you also have one of the oldest mummies in the world. It's rivalling Ötzi. And it was found in Granada?

Elisa Wilkinson: Yes, he's the second oldest mummy in Europe, it's Galera which is a village here in Granada, will it's about an hour and a half drive from Granada, and he is about 500 years younger than Ötzi.

Wendy Zukerman: And what have we learned about the culture in Granada all those years ago from the study of this mummy?

Elisa Wilkinson: Well, they were actually quite healthy. The food, what they ate was all obviously natural, but they had quite a balanced diet even in those days. We also know that for example this mummy in particular, he was some form of craftsman⁹ because of the bones, the bone structures, how they are, and how worn the bones are. We know that he used his hands a lot when he worked. We know that he died from a stomach infection because when they actually did the analysis of the tissue in the stomach they found that it was absolutely empty, so that induces everyone to think there was some form of stomach infection. He was very tall for the time. He was approximately 165, 167, which is a very decent height for that age.

Wendy Zukerman: Does the mummy in Granada have a name?

Elisa Wilkinson: They call him Galera, they call him just Galera because that's where he was found. I think that from the very beginning they started calling him Galera and he is just stuck with the name.

Wendy Zukerman: Speaking of names, some of the mummies here have some very interesting names from where they were discovered. We are now looking at one which has a very open mouth, that brown copper¹⁰ skin, it looks like it's part of The Scream, that painting.

Elisa Wilkinson: Yes, they call him The Crier. When all the commissioners¹¹ from different museums came to actually place their pieces in the showcases, we were talking with them and I realised that every one of them had a name or a nickname for their mummies, like The Crier. Okay, what is this? And one of them said, 'Listen, we're with these mummies that are quite gruesome, so we have to lighten up the atmosphere a bit, so each one of them we give them nicknames,' which I found quite amazing and quite curious actually.

Wendy Zukerman: This exhibition has been put together in the Parque de las Ciencias, and it obviously involved a huge amount of collaboration¹² from the University of Granada and also Italy, Egypt, everything. Did you find that through this collaboration, the scientists were able to learn more about certain topics?

Elisa Wilkinson: Well, actually one of the areas, the area which is dedicated¹³ to Egypt, and we have Egyptian heads there that come from the University of Turin, one of the heads has a small piece of gold in the mouth region. And the curator when she was placing the head, she was saying, you know, 'Through the X-rays we know that he has got a coin in his mouth.'

But then in the showcase next to it there was the curator from the museum in León and she was placing mummified animals in the showcase, and she was overhearing us and she went, 'Well, hang on a minute, we've got a head in our museum, we did the X-ray, we thought it was a coin, but when we opened him up it was actually a gold tongue. So when you get back, look at your X-rays because although it looks like a gold coin, it may be a gold tongue.'

So amazing, just one person from Italy, another person from a city here in Spain, that they just meet up because they are collaborating¹⁴ on the same exhibition, and one gives the information like that, just offhand¹⁵. And the woman for Turin was just, 'Wow, when I'm getting back I'm going to have a look at it.' So, actually amazing. There are just small stories like that which has been an absolute delight when we produced this exhibition.

Wendy Zukerman: Thank you very much for your time.

Elisa Wilkinson: Okay, thank you very much.

Robyn Williams: Elisa Wilkinson taking Wendy Zukerman and us around the mummy exhibition in Granada.

1 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

2 dissected   

adj.切开的，分割的，（叶子）多裂的v.解剖（动物等）( dissect的过去式和过去分词 )；仔细分析或研究

参考例句：

• Her latest novel was dissected by the critics. 评论家对她最近出版的一部小说作了详细剖析。
• He dissected the plan afterward to learn why it had failed. 他事后仔细剖析那项计划以便搞清它失败的原因。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 corpses   

n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The living soldiers put corpses together and burned them. 活着的战士把尸体放在一起烧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Overhead, grayish-white clouds covered the sky, piling up heavily like decaying corpses. 天上罩满了灰白的薄云，同腐烂的尸体似的沉沉的盖在那里。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

4 arid   

adj.干旱的；(土地)贫瘠的

参考例句：

• These trees will shield off arid winds and protect the fields.这些树能挡住旱风,保护农田。
• There are serious problems of land degradation in some arid zones.在一些干旱地带存在严重的土地退化问题。

5 graveyard   

n.坟场

参考例句：

• All the town was drifting toward the graveyard.全镇的人都象流水似地向那坟场涌过去。
• Living next to a graveyard would give me the creeps.居住在墓地旁边会使我毛骨悚然。

6 crouched   

v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He crouched down beside her. 他在她的旁边蹲了下来。
• The lion crouched ready to pounce. 狮子蹲下身，准备猛扑。

7 cemetery   

n.坟墓，墓地，坟场

参考例句：

• He was buried in the cemetery.他被葬在公墓。
• His remains were interred in the cemetery.他的遗体葬在墓地。

8 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

9 craftsman   

n.技工，精于一门工艺的匠人

参考例句：

• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。
• The craftsman is working up the mass of clay into a toy figure.艺人把一团泥捏成玩具形状。

10 copper   

n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的

参考例句：

• The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
• Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。

11 commissioners   

n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 )；长官；委员；政府部门的长官

参考例句：

• The Commissioners of Inland Revenue control British national taxes. 国家税收委员管理英国全国的税收。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The SEC has five commissioners who are appointed by the president. 证券交易委员会有５名委员，是由总统任命的。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

12 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

13 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

14 collaborating   

合作( collaborate的现在分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• Joe is collaborating on the work with a friend. 乔正与一位朋友合作做那件工作。
• He was not only learning from but also collaborating with Joseph Thomson. 他不仅是在跟约瑟福？汤姆逊学习，而且也是在和他合作。

15 offhand   

adj.临时，无准备的；随便，马虎的

参考例句：

• I can't answer your request offhand.我不能随便答复你的要求。
• I wouldn't want to say what I thought about it offhand.我不愿意随便说我关于这事的想法。