2006年VOA标准英语-Exhibition Looks at 'Mysterious Bog People

By Mike O'Sullivan
Los Angeles
27 March 2006

A museum in Los Angeles is bringing to life the people who lived in northern Europe thousands of years ago. Well-preserved bodies and artifacts from fog-shrouded¹ bogs³ offer a glimpse of the distant past.

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Throughout northwestern Europe, in what is today Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Britain, are swampy⁴ landscapes known as bogs. In the summer and fall, when the air temperature is lower than the ground temperature, an eerie⁵ mist hangs over the landscape. Sylvie Morel of the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa says these are scary places.

"They're wet, they're dark, they're misty," said Sylvie Morel. "They're not a place that you would just go to live or to have a good time. They were very much a place where people went and deposited artifacts, and the ultimate sacrifice of human bodies."
 
  
  
The Canadian museum is one of four institutions that is sponsoring this travelling exhibition, which is now on display at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Archeologist Scott Van Keuren says 400 artifacts, many remarkably⁶ preserved, offer a glimpse into the lives of little-understood people. Some items date back 12,000 years, and include Stone Age axes, Bronze Age swords and spearheads, amber⁷ necklaces, household pottery⁸, textiles and leather shoes. A wooden wheel carved from a single piece of oak is nearly 5,000 years old, one of the oldest known in Europe. He says some, including a 4,000-year-old flint knife with a leather shaft⁹ and strap¹⁰, look almost new.

"And really the highlight of the show are the bog² bodies, these wonderfully preserved human remains¹¹ that were placed into the bog as sacrifices," said Scott Van Keuren. "They're not mummies, per se. The people were placed in the bog on purpose, and it was the natural qualities of the bog that preserved them so well for us to learn from."

Remains of a 16-year-old female, dubbed¹² “Yde Girl,” from the Netherlands   
  
Six bog mummies are included in the exhibit. The best preserved is a 16-year-old female known as "Yde Girl", named after the place where she was found in the Netherlands. She lived 2,000 years ago, and around her neck is the woolen¹³ cord with which she was strangled.

Scholars can only speculate about the life and rituals of the bog people. They left no writings, and much about them remains shrouded in mystery, like the bogs where the bodies and artifacts were found. Historians believe they practiced human sacrifice for religious reasons, and one body on display shows signs of a violent death from knife wounds to the belly¹⁴.
 

An assortment¹⁵ of pottery   
  
The bodies and artifacts reflect various cultures from different time periods. Jaap Brakke of the Drents Museum in the Netherlands says some bog people were hunter-gatherers, and others were simple farmers who led quiet lives.

"Imagine little farming villages, five, six, or seven farms, little hamlets, and people producing for their own needs and for trade," said Jaap Brakke. "Easy going. But bogs were never far."

New forensic¹⁶ techniques show what some bog people may have looked like. Yde Girl emerges as a fragile teenager with sandy, flowing hair and delicate features. Jaap Brakke says the exhibit has been seen by thousands of museum-goers in Europe and at another US venue¹⁷, in Philadelphia. He says all of them, including Americans, are drawn¹⁸ to the subject.
 

Beads   
  
"I think we are giving our audiences, also here in LA, a window to the past, showing them a story, the story of the farmers and the hunter-gatherers in northwestern Europe and their historym," he said. "And a lot of Americans can trace their family tree, their family roots back into northwestern Europe. And so for a lot of Americans, it's their story as well.

The Mysterious Bog People will be on display at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles through September 10.

1 shrouded   

v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 )；保密

参考例句：

• The hills were shrouded in mist . 这些小山被笼罩在薄雾之中。
• The towers were shrouded in mist. 城楼被蒙上薄雾。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 bog   

n.沼泽；室...陷入泥淖

参考例句：

• We were able to pass him a rope before the bog sucked him under.我们终于得以在沼泽把他吞没前把绳子扔给他。
• The path goes across an area of bog.这条小路穿过一片沼泽。

3 bogs   

n.沼泽，泥塘( bog的名词复数 )；厕所v.（使）陷入泥沼， （使）陷入困境( bog的第三人称单数 )；妨碍，阻碍

参考例句：

• Whenever It'shows its true nature, real life bogs to a standstill. 无论何时，只要它显示出它的本来面目，真正的生活就陷入停滞。 来自名作英译部分
• At Jitra we went wading through bogs. 在日得拉我们步行着从泥水塘里穿过去。 来自辞典例句

4 swampy   

adj.沼泽的，湿地的

参考例句：

• Malaria is still rampant in some swampy regions.疟疾在一些沼泽地区仍很猖獗。
• An ox as grazing in a swampy meadow.一头牛在一块泥泞的草地上吃草。

5 eerie   

adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的

参考例句：

• It's eerie to walk through a dark wood at night.夜晚在漆黑的森林中行走很是恐怖。
• I walked down the eerie dark path.我走在那条漆黑恐怖的小路上。

6 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

7 amber   

n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的

参考例句：

• Would you like an amber necklace for your birthday?你过生日想要一条琥珀项链吗？
• This is a piece of little amber stones.这是一块小小的琥珀化石。

8 pottery   

n.陶器，陶器场

参考例句：

• My sister likes to learn art pottery in her spare time.我妹妹喜欢在空余时间学习陶艺。
• The pottery was left to bake in the hot sun.陶器放在外面让炎热的太阳烘晒焙干。

9 shaft   

n.(工具的)柄，杆状物

参考例句：

• He was wounded by a shaft.他被箭击中受伤。
• This is the shaft of a steam engine.这是一个蒸汽机主轴。

10 strap   

n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎

参考例句：

• She held onto a strap to steady herself.她抓住拉手吊带以便站稳。
• The nurse will strap up your wound.护士会绑扎你的伤口。

11 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

12 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 woolen   

adj.羊毛(制)的；毛纺的

参考例句：

• She likes to wear woolen socks in winter.冬天她喜欢穿羊毛袜。
• There is one bar of woolen blanket on that bed.那张床上有一条毛毯。

14 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。

15 assortment   

n.分类，各色俱备之物，聚集

参考例句：

• This shop has a good assortment of goods to choose from.该店各色货物俱全，任君选择。
• She was wearing an odd assortment of clothes.她穿着奇装异服。

16 forensic   

adj.法庭的，雄辩的

参考例句：

• The report included his interpretation of the forensic evidence.该报告包括他对法庭证据的诠释。
• The judge concluded the proceeding on 10:30 Am after one hour of forensic debate.经过近一个小时的法庭辩论后，法官于10时30分宣布休庭。

17 venue   

n.犯罪地点，审判地，管辖地，发生地点，集合地点

参考例句：

• The hall provided a venue for weddings and other functions.大厅给婚礼和其他社会活动提供了场所。
• The chosen venue caused great controversy among the people.人们就审判地点的问题产生了极大的争议。

18 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。