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Lost City of the Jaguar 失落的黑豹城

 

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The amazing Mayan city of Ek Balam has been pulled from the jungles  从丛林中被挖掘出土的马雅古城艾克巴兰，展现出令人惊艳的风貌

 

The view from near the summit of The Tower is pure Yucatan. It is breathtaking: low and level scrubland as far as the eye can see, though studded here and there by small, tree-covered mounds.

从艾克巴兰塔顶附近环顾四周，所看到的景色展现出地道的尤卡坦风光（译注：艾克巴兰位于墨西哥的尤卡坦境内），放眼所见的风景简直令人屏息：清一色都是低矮、等高的灌木林地，但也零星点缀着林木丛生的小丘。

 

The Tower has an unsurpassed view because it is one of the taller ancient Mayan ruins – a six-level palace and religious compound 100 feet tall – the equivalent of a 10-story building. It is larger than the famed Temple of Kukulkan at Chichen Itza, 40 miles southwest.

从塔上眺望到的景观，简直无出其右，因为它在古马雅各布布布布布遗址的建筑中，高度算是相当高的──这座六层的宫殿暨宗教用途复合建筑，有一百呎高──高度相当于一栋十层楼的大楼，而且规模比著名的羽蛇神庙还大，后者位于西南四十哩处的奇辰伊萨。

 

Look down from The Tower. You won’t see the souvenir booths that surround Chichen Itza. You won’t see hundreds of tourists, either.

如果从塔上往下俯瞰，一定不会看到奇辰伊萨四周卖纪念品的摊子，也不会看到数以百计的观光人潮。

 

Now turn to face The Tower. Ek Balam – Mayan for “Black Jaguar” or “Star Jaguar” – was abandoned and covered with dirt and vegetation long before the Spanish conquistadors looted the Mayan heartland. It was only in the last two decades that archaeologists carefully peeled back the earth to expose an untouched limestone metropolis decorated with 1,000-year-old bone-colored statuettes.

现在让我们面对这座塔，仔细瞧瞧吧！艾克巴兰是马雅语的「黑美洲豹」或「星美洲豹」的意思，但在西班牙征服劫掠马雅心脏地带之前，这儿早就荒废多时，被尘土和草木所覆盖。一直到过去二十年来，考古学家才小心翼翼地把地表一层层掘开，让这座原封不动的石灰岩古都重见天日，城里还装饰着有一千年历史的骨色小雕像。

 

Ek Balam brought back to life  艾克巴兰重见天日

 

In 1986, a 34-year-old grad student named Bill Ringle began to awaken Ek Balam. He was wrapping up his work in anthropology at Tulane University and visited Valladolid, a market town in the middle of the Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, in connection with his dissertation. Ringle today is a professor of anthropology at Davidson College in North Carolina.

一九八六年，三十四岁的研究生比尔．林格就是把艾克巴兰从沈睡中唤醒的人。当时正准备结束杜兰大学人类学学业的林格，造访了墨西哥尤卡坦半岛中部的市集城镇（译注：指会定期举办市集的城镇）瓦拉多里德，以便进行和论文相关的研究。如今林格已是北卡罗莱纳州戴维森学院的人类学教授。

 

“An explorer named Charnay had been there in the 1880s and even took some photographs, so it’s not like we ‘discovered’ Ek Balam. Still, it had pretty much been ignored,” Ringle says.

「其实一位名叫查尼的探险家早在一八八０年代就曾抵达当地，甚至还照了几张相片，所以我们并不是『第一个发现』艾克巴兰的人。不过，在我们来到之前，的确很少人注意到那个地方，」林格透露。

 

“Ek Balam was difficult to get to, and was completely covered with trees 60 to 80 feet tall. You could tell a huge mound was there only when you walked up this big hill. We ate lunch right on top of it – unaware we were literally on top of a beautifully preserved building.”

「想去艾克巴兰其实并不是件容易的事，而且整个地方又完全被六十至八十呎高的树林所覆盖，只有走到一处大山丘上头时，才注意到原来有座巨大的土墩。我们甚至就在上头吃午餐──没注意到大家其实正在一座保存完好的建筑上。」

 

 

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jaguar [ˋdʒægwɑr] n.【动】美洲虎，美洲豹

Yucatan [ˈjukətɑn] / [ˌjukəˈtɑn] n. 犹加敦半岛；尤卡坦半岛

level [ˋlɛv!] adj. 同高度的，同水平的

scrubland [ˋskrʌb͵lænd] n. 灌木丛林地 an area of land covn.ered with short trees and bushes, growing on dry ground of low quality

souvenir [ˋsuvə͵nɪr] n. 纪念品，纪念物

booth [buθ] n.（有篷的）货摊

vegetation [͵vɛdʒəˋteʃən] n.【植】植被

conquistador [kɑnˋkwɪstə͵dɔr] n.【西】征服者 one of the Spanish people who traveled to America in the 16^th century and took control of Mexico and Peru

heartland [ˋhɑrt͵lænd] n. 心脏地区, 中心地带

peel [pil] v. 剥，去（皮，壳等）

limestone [ˋlaɪm͵ston] n.【地】石灰岩，石灰石

metropolis [məˋtrɑp!ɪs] n. 主要都市，大城市，中心城市

statuette [͵stætʃʊˋɛt] n. 小雕像

bring back to life 复活；起死回生

wrap up【美】【口】完成, 结束

anthropology [͵ænθrəˋpɑlədʒɪ] n. 人类学

peninsula [pəˋnɪnsələ] n. 半岛

dissertation [͵dɪsɚˋteʃən] n.（博士学位）论文；（专题）论文；学术演讲 a long piece of writing on a particular subject, especially one that is done as a part of a course at a university

 

 

 

 

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“I could see bits and pieces of things on the ground – stone covered with plaster. You could see walls in the vicinity, and a shaft that went down into the heart of something large. Again, keep in mind everything was overgrown: It was an adventure just to get from one building to another.”

「我可以看见地上有一些零星的东西冒出头来，是一些覆盖了灰泥的石头，还可以在附近看到有墙壁，以及往下通到某个大型建筑中心的通道；此外也别忘了，这一切都被蔓草所覆盖：光是想从一处建筑走到另一处，难度就很高了。

 

Much of what he sought was truly underfoot. There’s not a lot of soil in the Yucatan flatlands, but the centuries covered the site with 6 inches to a foot of dirt.

他想探寻的目标都在脚底下，这话一点不假。尤卡坦平原其实土壤并不多，但遗址所在地由于被数百年来的尘土所覆盖，导致堆积出来的土壤厚度达到六吋至一呎之间。

 

Still, Ringle had seen enough.

不过，林格当时所见的景象就已经足够了。

 

A year after his dissertation, he and George Bey, a colleague from Tulane, received a grant from the National Geographic Society to explore Ek Balam. “We kind of built on that,” Ringle says, “and we worked there most years until 1999.”

林格论文完成的一年之后，他和杜兰大学的同僚乔治．贝伊获得了国家地理学会的奖助金，可以前往艾克巴兰探索。「我们就从原本的基础继续探索，」林格表示，「然后多年来大半时间都在当地挖掘，直到一九九九年为止。」

 

Ringle and Bey were the principal investigators. They recruited some of their students to come and help. They also hired farmers from around Ek Balam as the excavation crew.

林格和贝伊是主要的探索者，他们也请了一些学生来当帮手，也雇请艾克巴兰附近的农民来负责挖掘工作。

 

What emerged from the jungle was an impressively intact Mayan city-state: 4 to 8 square miles holding several hundred buildings, walls and causeways.

最后从森林中现身的是令人印象深刻、保存完好的马雅城邦：方圆四至八平方哩面积内，共有数百栋建筑、墙壁和堤道。

 

Taking a closer look  近距离观察

 

Walking among the ruins of Ek Balam – and into some – for the lost-world sensation.

在艾克巴兰遗迹之间漫步──甚至走进几座建筑内──就带来彷佛进入失落世界的刺激感受。

 

The purpose of some buildings isn’t immediately clear. The so-called Oval Palace clearly had a live-in role, with 15 exterior doorways leading into individual, windowless rooms with remarkably smooth and flat floors. Each room is the size of a small car.

有一些建筑的用途，一时间也没办法立即得知。被称为椭圆宫殿的建筑，明显有供人居住的功能，外面接了十五条通道，通往个别的房间，而房间都没有窗户，地板则非常光滑平整。每个房间大小都和一辆小型汽车差不多。

 

Ruins of matching, side-by-side temples are called The Twins.

两间相配衬而比邻的寺院，被称作双子星。

 

Most identifiable is the Ball Court, which resembles those at Chichen Itza and other Mesoamerican sites – a rectangular ground-level sports venue whose long sides are marked by steeply sloping smooth walls.

球场则是这里最容易辨识的出土物，外形和奇辰伊萨及其他中美洲文明遗址的球场都很类似──这种矩形的地面运动场，较长的侧边特色是有陡峭的斜坡墙，而墙面平整。

 

 

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plaster [ˋplæstɚ] n.【建】灰泥，灰浆

vicinity [vəˋsɪnətɪ] n. 附近地区；近处

shaft [ʃæft] n. 井状通道；通风井 a long, either vertical or slopping, passage through a building or through the ground

overgrown [͵ovɚˋgron] adj. 杂草蔓生的

flatland [f'lætlænd] n. 平原

grant [grænt] n. 助学金，补助金

causeway [ˋkɔz͵we] n.（穿越湿地或浅水的）堤道，砌道  a raised path, especially across a wet area

live-in [͵lɪvˋɪn] adj. 长期有人居住的

doorway [ˋdor͵we] n. 出入口，门口，门道

matching [ˋmætʃɪŋ] adj. 相配的，相称的

Chichen Itza 奇琴伊察(墨西哥玛雅古迹)

Mesoamerican [͵mɛzoəˋmɛrɪkən] adj. & n. 中美洲文明(的)  pertaining to the region stretching from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua in which diverse civilizations flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15^th and 16^th centuries

ground-level adj. 地平面的

 

 

 

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The Tower’s steps are steep, and scaling them can be daunting if you’re out of shape or are very young. It’s clear that the 2-acre Tower was the nerve center of the monarchy. Research indicates The Tower is where kings ruled, where at least one king was buried, and where community worship services [occurred].

塔的阶梯也很陡峭，如果想攀登到顶端，对身体状况不好或年纪太小的人来说，可能为之却步。占地两英亩的塔，显然是当地君主阶层的中枢。研究显示，塔就是君王统治之处，而且至少有一位君王死后被埋葬在此，此外这里也是人民举行崇拜仪式的地方。

 

A total of 72 rooms at The Tower have been restored. Most artifacts unearthed there and elsewhere at Ek Balam are now at the Anthropology and History Museum in Merida, the provincial capital.

塔内共有七十二个房间都被修复，而这里和艾克巴兰走其他地方的大多数出土文物，如今都收藏在省会马里达的考古与历史博物馆中。

 

When in big-time construction mode, Mayans would simply build new monuments and palaces atop existing ones, carefully covering earlier structures with protective dirt and rubble. The Tower is where archaeologists found pay dirt. The top layer, sheathed in dirt, protected from erosion and Spaniards, is visually breathtaking, particularly around the entrance to the royal tomb, halfway up its southern side.

马雅人搭建重要建筑时，会把新的建物和宫殿直接盖在旧的建物上，他们会仔细地用防护性的土壤和碎石覆盖旧建物。考古学家在塔附近发现了具有开采价值的矿藏。最上层因为有尘土裹覆，因而得以躲避大自然的侵蚀和西班牙人的入侵，这儿壮观的景致令人屏息，从入口一直到南侧中途的王室陵寝这一段，尤其壮观。

 

“A magical experience”  「奇妙的经验」

 

Ringle: “Nobody was interested in the site before we mapped it. …. And the opportunity to be the first at a site so huge was a magical experience. There aren’t many the size of Ek Balam left these days.”

林格表示：「在我们绘出这处遗址之前，大家对此地丝毫不感兴趣。…能先来到这处浩瀚的遗址，真是个奇妙的经验。近来，已经很少有规模像艾克巴兰这么大的古迹了。」

 

Yet, there’s no telling what’s underfoot in the neighborhood. Of Ek Balam’s 52 close-in structures, only 17 have been restored. Awaiting research are 600 housing platforms in the jungle immediately circling the site. And there’s the roadway system that Ringle estimates could total 5.75 square miles. So far, only one of those roads leading out of Ek Balam has been excavated. Ringle’s team mapped them; most lead to pyramids or palace-like structures.

不过，附近地区地表下究竟还藏有哪些古迹，目前还无从得知。艾克巴兰五十二处封闭式建筑中，只有十七座被修复，其他尚待被挖掘的古迹，包括了环绕遗址的森林中的六百处住宅群；此外，据林格估计，整个道路系统达五点七五平方哩，其中只有一条从艾克巴兰通往外界的道路出土；不过，林格的考古团队已经把整个系统绘制草图，其中大多数都通往金字塔或宫殿式的建物。

 

And then there are the small tree-covered mounds you see when gazing at the jungle from up on The Tower. Archaeologists believe that each cloaks pieces of the Mayan past.

此外，从塔顶眺望丛林时，可以看到林木覆盖的小丘，也同样有待挖掘；而考古学家相信，每座小丘底下，应该都埋藏着马雅历史的吉光片羽。

 

−by John Bordsen

 

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daunting [ˋdɔntɪŋ] adj. 令人怯步的；使人气馁的

out of shape【口】处于不良的(健康)状态 not in good physical condition

monarchy [ˋmɑnɚkɪ] n. 君主政治，君主政体

big-time 一流的, 大规模的 significant or important; major

rubble [ˋrʌb!] n. 粗石；碎石；瓦砾堆

pay dirt 有价值的矿藏, 丰富的矿藏, 有利可图的发现 earth, ore, or gravel that is profitable to mine

sheathe [ʃið] v. 覆盖；包装

Spaniard [ˋspænjɚd] n. 西班牙人

there’s no telling 难以预料 it is impossible to guess

close-in 封闭的

housing [ˋhaʊzɪŋ] n.（总称）房屋，住宅

immediately [ɪˋmidɪɪtlɪ] adv. 直接地；接近地 directly

roadway [rodwe] n. 道路，路面

total [ˋtot!] v. 合计为

 

 

 

 

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Vocabulary Focus

stud [stʌd] v. 散布 to be scattered at intervals across the surface of something

unsurpassed [͵ʌnsɚˋpæst] adj. 无比的；卓越的 better than anything else

equivalent [ɪˋkwɪvələnt] n. 相等物 something that has the same amount as something else

loot [lut] v. 掠夺；抢劫 to steal goods, usually during a violent event and by large numbers of people

underfoot [͵ʌndɚˋfʊt] adv. 在脚下面；踩在脚下 under one’s feet or under the ground

excavation [͵ɛkskəˋveʃən] n. 挖掘；开凿 the process of removing earth that is covering very old objects buried in the ground in order to discover things about the past

intact [ɪnˋtækt] adj. 完整的；未损的 complete and in the original state

remarkably [rɪˋmɑrkəblɪ] adv. 非同寻常地; 非常地 in an unusual and surprising manner

nerve center 中枢，核心；中心地区;【解】神经中枢 a place from which an organization or activity is controlled or managed

unearth [ʌnˋɝθ] v. 找到，发现（隐藏或丢失之物）to discover something in the ground, especially after careful searching

cloak [klok] v. 掩盖，掩饰[（+with/in）] to cover or hide something

 

 

Ek Balam

 

Temple of Kukulkan