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Reading Buried History 阅读尘封的历史

详细资料: 创建于 2009年12月16日; 最后更新于 2024年5月25日; 发布于 2013年1月04日; 作者：Mike Lee; 点击数：274

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An American computer scientist believes he has found a way to “unroll” papyrus scrolls buried in ash and lava nearly 2,000 years ago一名美国电脑科学家坚信已想出办法，能「展开」埋藏在灰烬和熔岩中近两千年的纸莎草书卷

On Aug. 24, 79 A.D., Italy’s Mount Vesuvius exploded, burying the Roman towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii under tons of super-heated ash, rock and debris in one of the most famous volcanic eruptions in history. Thousands died.

公元七十九年八月二十四日，意大利维苏威火山爆发，赫丘莱尼恩和庞贝等城镇，就在这史上最著名的火山爆发中，顿时被埋藏在高热的灰烬、岩块和碎片中，共有数千人死于这场天灾。

But somehow, hundreds of papyrus scrolls survived – sort of – in a villa at Herculaneum thought to have been owned at one time by Julius Caesar’s father-in-law. The scrolls contained ancient philosophical and learned writings. But they were so badly damaged – literally turned to carbon by the volcanic heat – that they crumbled when scholars first tried to open them centuries later. The remaining scrolls, stored away in Italy and France, haven’t been read – or even unrolled – since 79 AD.

但不知怎地，在赫丘莱尼恩据信曾一度为凯萨岳父所有的一座庄园中，却有数以百计的莎草纸书卷多多少少存留了下来。书卷的内容包含了古代哲学及学术性的文章，但由于曾受到严重破坏──实际上被火山的高热所碳化了，以致于数百年后，学者专家首度尝试打开这些书卷时，它们却裂成了碎片，而其余书卷后来被存放在意大利和法国，它们在公元七十九年以后，就从未被阅读过──甚至也未被展开过。

Now, a computer scientist from the University of Kentucky (UK) hopes that modern digital technology will allow him to peer inside two of the fragile scrolls – without physically opening them – and unlock secrets they have held for almost 2,000 years. Brent Seales, professor of engineering in UK’s computer science department, will use an X-Ray CT scanning system to collect interior images of the scrolls’ rolled-up pages. Then, he and his colleagues hope to digitally “unroll” the scrolls on a computer screen so scholars can read them.

如今，肯塔基大学（简称UK）的电脑科学家却满怀希望，认为现代数字科技将使他得以一窥两个脆弱不堪的书卷内容──不必实际上打开书卷──就能揭露在书卷中埋藏近两千年的秘密。肯塔基大学电脑科学系资讯工程教授布兰特．席尔斯将利用X光电脑扫描系统来搜集书卷内页的内部影像；他和同僚希望之后能在电脑屏幕上数字地「展开」书卷，好让学者能阅读内文。

“It will be a challenge because today these things look more like charcoal briquettes than scrolls,” Seales said. “But we’re using a non-invasive scanning system, based on medical technology, that lets you slice through an object and develop a three-dimensional data set without having to open it, just as you would do a CT scan on a human body.”

「这将是一大挑战，因为如今它们看起来还比较像是炭砖，而不像是书卷，」席尔斯透露，「不过，我们将利用医学科技的非侵入性扫描系统，就可以在不必真正打开的情况下，切入物体内部，并取得三度空间的数据，原理就像对人体进行电脑扫描一样。」

Experts say that if the UK system works as well as hoped, it would provide a safe new way to decipher and preserve more scrolls from Herculaneum, as well as other ancient books, manuscripts and documents that are too fragile to be opened.

专家表示，如果肯塔基大学所采用的系统最后果然能如预期般顺利进行，将不但能针对赫丘莱尼恩的书卷提供安全解读和保存的新方式，还能运用来解读其他同样因为太过脆弱而无法开启的古书、手稿和文件上。

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papyrus [pəˋpaɪrəs] n.【植】纸莎草；纸莎草纸 a form of paper used especially by ancient Egyptians and made from a tall, grass-like plant that grows in or near water, especially in North Africa

scroll [skrol] n. 卷轴；裱成卷轴的古书；画卷

Vesuvius [vəˋsuvɪəs] n. 维苏威火山（意大利西南部火山）

Pompeii [pɑmˋpei] n. 庞贝（意大利那不勒斯附近一古城）

villa [ˋvɪlə] n.【英】（城郊）住宅; 别墅

philosophical [͵fɪləˋsɑfɪk!] adj. 哲学的

learned [ˋlɝnɪd] adj. 学术性的 directed toward scholars

crumble [ˋkrʌmb!] v. 粉碎，弄碎

unroll [ʌnˋrol] v.（把卷起的东西）展开，铺开

CT (computed tomography) 电脑断层摄影术

briquette [brɪˈket] n. 煤砖 a small block made from coal dust or charcoal, used as fuel in a fire

slice [slaɪs] v. 切开；划破[Q][（+into/through）]

manuscript [ˋmænjə͵skrɪpt] n. 手写本，手稿；打字稿；原稿

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Seales admits that there are hurdles, the biggest being the carbon-based ink thought to have been used on the scrolls. He says that since the papyrus in the scrolls was turned to carbon by the fury of Vesuvius, it might be impossible to visually separate the writing from the pages, even with powerful computer programs.

席尔斯坦承，这种方式也不免会面临一些障碍，而其中最大的问题，就是据信书卷使用了以碳为主的墨水。他指出，由于书卷的莎草纸在维苏威火山爆发时就已经碳化了，所以即使采用效能强大的电脑程序，也有可能无法辨识出书页上的字体（译注：因为墨水和莎草纸可能因为同样都碳化了，而难以区分）。

“The open question is, will we be able to read the writing?” Seales said. “There is a chance that we won’t be able to do it with our current machine, and that we’ll have to re-engineer some things. But if that’s the case, that’s what we will do.”

「一个悬而未决的问题就是，我们最后到底能不能解读上头的文字？」席尔斯指出，「有可能利用现有器材仍无法办到，所以可能会需要再结合其他方式才行。但若果真如此，我们还是会继续尝试。」

If it works, what will they find? 书卷内容为何？

The best guess is that the scrolls contain writings by Philodemus, a Roman writer and Epicurean philosopher born about 110 B.C. Philodemus is not considered a classic thinker of the first rank, but he was a contemporary of Cicero. He taught Virgil and is thought to have influenced the Roman poet Horace.

书卷上文章的作者，最有可能是罗马作家及伊比鸠鲁派哲学家菲罗德慕，他出生于公元前一百一十年左右。菲罗德慕并未被视为一流的正统思想家，但他是和西塞罗同时期的人，教授的主题是弗吉尔（译注：古罗马诗人，史诗Aeneid为其名作），据信罗马诗人霍勒斯也受到其影响。

Philodemus also was a friend of Lucius Calpurnius Piso – the father-in-law of Julius Caesar – who at one time owned that luxurious villa at Herculaneum.

菲罗德慕也是路西斯．卡波尼尔斯．皮索的朋友，皮索就是凯萨的岳父，曾一度是赫丘莱尼恩这座豪华庄园的主人。

The mansion has passed to other hands, however, when it and Herculaneum were buried during the eruption of 79 A.D. Afterward, Herculaneum lay hidden for 1,600 years, until excavators stumbled upon it in 1709.

不过，公元七十九年火山爆发，埋藏这座豪宅和赫丘莱尼恩之际，豪宅当时已易主。之后，赫丘莱尼恩沈睡了一千六百年，直到开凿者在一七０九年才意外发现这座庄园。

The villa itself was not uncovered until the mid-1700s. Inside its library, investigators found what they first thought to be lumps of coal but that turned out to be papyrus scrolls – about 1,800 in all – fused into blackened cylinders by furious volcanic heat. The building became known as the Villa of the Papyri.

不过，庄园一直到一七００年代中期时，才被挖掘出土。调查人员在图书馆中发现一些东西，起初以为是一堆堆煤炭，后来才发现是莎草纸书卷，总共约有一千八百卷，而且全都因为火山爆发的高热而变为焦黑的圆筒状物。这栋建筑被称为莎草纸庄园（译注：papyri即papyrus的复数）。

－by Jim Warren

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