文明（2018）

Civilisations S01E01

Part 6 Feb. 24, 2021, 4:14 p.m.

also made it possible to feed a city of 30,000 people,
也是水滋养了一座三万人口的城市
many of whom were immigrants from all over the region.
许多人都来自各个不同的地方
There were Egyptians and Syrians
埃及人叙利亚人
and Judeans and Greeks and Romans,
犹太人希腊人罗马人
and they were all coming to Petra
他们都来到佩特拉
to enjoy what the Persians called a pairi daiza,
欣赏波斯人口中的"天堂公园"
a pleasure resort, a little bit of heaven on Earth.
也就是度假胜地有点"人间天堂"的意思
And they all brought a flourish
他们也随之带来了
of their own cultural styles with them.
自己民族的文化样式
Most of the art discovered here has been taken to museums,
大部分在此发现的艺术品已被送至博物馆
but what survives tells the story of a cosmopolitan playground.
但这些遗迹本身也在讲述一座玩乐大都会的故事
There are curious abstract representations
这里有纳巴泰女神的
of a Nabataean goddess...
抽象画
carved heads from the wine soaked Hellenistic cult of Dionysus.
属于酒香四溢的狄俄尼索斯教派的雕刻头像
Recent excavations have brought to light ritzy villas
最近的挖掘发现了在原生岩石层中
carved into the living rock.
雕凿出的豪华住♥宅♥
Inside them, "Here's to happiness" Murals
其中《幸福之地》壁画
from that same Dionysian cult,
也来自狄俄倪索斯教派
cherubs, vine leaves,
画上有天使葡萄树叶
the inevitable bunches of grapes.
当然也肯定有葡萄串
And from the later years of Petra's life, Byzantine mosaics
还有来自佩特拉时代后期的拜占庭镶嵌画
found beneath the sand and rubble of a ruined church.
被发现埋藏在一座教堂的废墟下
Petra had its day, or rather its centuries,
佩特拉的辉煌可能持续过好几世纪
and then it ended.
但还是结束了
Not because of conquest,
不是因为战争
but because new trade routes
仅仅是因为新贸易路线
simply made Petra commercially irrelevant.
让佩特拉在商业上变得无关紧要
And without that commercial lifeblood,
没有了商业命脉
there was no longer any reason to struggle against the desert.
就没有理由在这里与沙漠对抗了
The people left,
人们离开了
the systems for capturing water fell into disrepair,
蓄水系统无人修缮
and the desert reclaimed the city.
于是沙漠又吞噬了这座城市
On the other side of the world in Central America,
而在世界另一边的中美洲
another culture would face a set of ecological conditions
另一个文明面对的生态环境
that seemed far more hospitable.
看起来就宜人多了
The Mayans lived amidst tropical forests.
玛雅人生活在热带丛林中
It looks almost absurdly fertile.
这里的土地看似异常肥沃
And these great ruins are proof that when the delicate balance
这些伟大的遗迹证明当生机勃勃的栖息地
between prospering habitat and vaulting ambition is maintained,
和人类巨大的野心之间保持微妙的平衡时
civilisations can bind rulers and the ruled,
文明能将统治者和被统治者联结到一起
and a culture can burst into riotously prolific bloom.
文化也会迸发出最蓬勃的活力
If you take away all this magnificent vegetation
如果把这些自然生长出的
that's sprung up naturally from the space,
高大植物从这里除去
you realise this is an extraordinary plaza,
你就会发现这是一个超大的广场
it's the centre of a city.
是城市的中心
Wherever you look, there are these huge stone staircases,
四目望去都是巨大的石阶
some temples, some tombs,
还有庙宇坟墓
all the more amazing because there are no draft animals,
如此神奇因为没有役畜
there are no wheels,
也没有轮状工具
so human labour only is responsible for these great things.
这些宏大的建筑全都由人力建造
This is a spectacular space.
多么壮观啊
The kind of space
这样的空间结构
you would really expect to see in Rome or Greece,
你本以为会在罗马或希腊看到
these great pyramids with platforms for performances
这些有着表演平台的大金字塔
because this, as much as anywhere
因为和西方古遗迹一样
in the Western world of antiquity,
这座建筑本质上
is essentially an urban theatre.
是一座城市剧场
It's a theatre of political and religious power.
这是政♥治♥和宗教力量的剧场
A structure like this looks down upon the citizens
这样的结构可以俯瞰人♥民♥
and forces them to look back up.
也逼迫他们必须抬头仰视
And what they looked up to was often gruesomely violent,
而他们抬头看到的也经常是可怕的一幕
the mass sacrifice of captives.
大量俘虏的献祭
And one God in particular had a special thirst...
尤其有一位神胃口极大
the rain god, Chaac.
雨神恰克
The power of the Mayan kings rested on the promise
玛雅国王的权力来源于他们承诺
that every year they would persuade Chaac to bring the rains
每年都会说服恰克降下
on which all life depended.
所有生命赖以生存的雨水
Mayan art and architecture was a prayer
玛雅的艺术品和建筑都反映了
and appealed to the weather -
对天气的祈求
"Let us live, let every year be fruitful."
"让我们活下去让年年丰收"
Only the most damaged of the art
曾经装点卡拉克穆尔并还保留在原址的
that used to adorn Calakmul remains on-site.
只有被破坏最严重的艺术品
In Mexico's anthropology museum,
在墨西哥的人类学博物馆里
we can see some of that art and how Mayan society worked.
我们可以看到部分艺术品以及玛雅社会体系
There were kings made of flesh and blood
既有拥有血肉之躯的国王
and kings made of stone,
也有石头铸就的国王
and you had to obey both kinds.
你必须全部服从
But Mayan art wasn't all enormous and formal, far from it.
但玛雅艺术并不全是宏伟正式的而恰恰相反
It was hugely varied.
它种类繁多
One of the most spectacular flourishings of creativity
这是人类历史上
in human history.
创造力最勃发的时代之一
Every human type got his or her figurine,
每种人都有他或她的小雕像
like action characters and heroes from a comic book or a play.
像是漫画书或戏剧中的人物和英雄
There were ceramic vessels and there were murals too.
有陶器也有壁画
And out of the Mayan delight in making pictures
玛雅人以绘画为乐并由此发明了
developed a fully-fledged script.
一套非常成熟的文字体系
They were brushed onto paper made from wild fig tree bark,
然后画到用野无花果树树皮制成的纸上
painted onto beautiful ceramic pottery
或是精美的陶器上
or, like this one, carved into limestone.
亦或是像这种雕刻在石灰岩上
They were everywhere in Maya city states.
它们在玛雅城邦中随处可见
The Maya were the wordiest of all ancient cultures.
玛雅文化是所有古代文化中最富文字表达的文化
So that this,
所以这个
which looks like something purely decorative, ornamental,
看起来像是单纯的装饰品
a bestiary with all these animals,
是一部包含所有这些动物的寓言集
there's a monkey,
这有一只猴子
there's a magnificently complacent frog,
这有一只洋洋自得的青蛙
there in the middle is an extremely scary killer rabbit,
在中间有一只非常可怕的杀手兔子
in fact, all these are words which make a text.
事实上所有的这些都是表意文字
Each glyph is not a single word, but it's a syllable, in fact,
每个象形文字不是独♥立♥的字词而是一个音节
and you put them together and you have a sentence, a paragraph.
把它们合在一起就成为一个句子一段话
But in this case, it makes up a date.
但在这里这些符号♥组成了一个日期
We know exactly what that date was.
我们很确切地知道这个日期
This is the 11th of February, 526.
就是公元526年的2月11日
In 526, Mayan civilisation was at its height.
在公元526年玛雅文明正值鼎盛时期
It's art and culture flourished
艺术和文化欣欣向荣
and many believe that the finest Mayan art of all is to be found
很多人相信在科潘城中会发现
in the city of Copan.
最美的的玛雅艺术
The city was home to a dynasty
这座城市曾是一代王朝的所在地
that lasted from the fifth to the ninth centuries,
从五世纪持续至九世纪
16 successive kings ruled here.
曾被十六位国王接连统治
An archaeological team, led by Bill and Barbara Fash,
比尔和芭芭拉·法什带领的考古队
have been studying Copan for over 30 years.
已对科潘进行了三十多年的研究
And they've found that for most of its life,
他们发现在大多数时候
the art of Copan is elegant, refined, astonishing.
科潘的艺术品精妙高雅令人惊叹
Single carved steles announce the accession of new kings.
单刻石碑宣告新国王登基
It's the work of a society where that balance between habitat
这反映出在当时的社会中
and ambition is still in good order.
生存环境和野心之间依然处于良好的平衡
It's certainly hard to imagine a more vivid realisation
没有什么能比这更逼真地表现出
of the rain god Chaac than this.
雨神恰克的形象
Complete with the bubbling streams of water
包括这在雨神庇佑下
that his blessings brought.
被带来的潺潺溪流
In the seventh century, the 12th ruler of Copan
在公元七世纪科潘的第十二位统治者
commissioned a new grand structure.
下令建造一项宏伟工程
This is the hieroglyphic stairway of Copan.
这是科潘的象形文字石阶
It was built, originally, in honour of ruler 12
起初它是为了纪念第十二位统治者而建
哈佛大学
芭芭拉·法什
who is portrayed here,
就是这里描绘的这位
and then was finished by ruler 15
第十五位统治者完成了修建
who added on the uppermost section of it.
添加了最上面的部分
And it has 6♥4♥ steps in total
整个石阶有六十四级