我們所發(fā)現(xiàn)的最古老的故事是關(guān)于超自然人物的狩獵

我們所發(fā)現(xiàn)的最古老的故事是關(guān)于超自然人物的狩獵

Archaeologists working in Indonesia say they have discovered the earliest artwork that depicts a story. It is a tale told in red pigment on a cave wall. The scene, in the scientists' interpretation, shows supernatural people hunting wild animals.

在印度尼西亞工作的考古學(xué)家表示，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)了最早的描述故事的藝術(shù)品。這是一個(gè)用紅色顏料寫在巖壁上的故事。在科學(xué)家的解釋中，這個(gè)場(chǎng)景顯示了超自然的人獵殺野生動(dòng)物。

People living on the island of Sulawesi drew this image of pigs and horned animals as long as 44,000 years ago, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Surrounding the animals are people or human-like figures. This artwork predates the charcoal cave art in Europe by thousands of years.

根據(jù)周三發(fā)表在《自然》(Nature)雜志上的一項(xiàng)研究，居住在蘇拉威西島(Sulawesi)的人們?cè)缭?.4萬(wàn)年前就畫出了這幅豬和有角的動(dòng)物的圖像。動(dòng)物的周圍是人或類人的形象。這件藝術(shù)品比歐洲的木炭洞穴藝術(shù)早了幾千年。

Ancient Sulawesi people, like European cave painters, drew lots of wildlife. On the limestone walls, animals loom larger than the other characters, who are nearly as spindly as stick figures. In one section, those figures cluster in front of a buffalo. They appear to face off against the animal. Lines connect their small arms to the buffalo's chest.

古代的蘇拉威西島人，像歐洲洞穴畫家一樣，畫了許多野生動(dòng)物。在石灰?guī)r的墻壁上，動(dòng)物比其他人物顯得更大，他們幾乎和簡(jiǎn)筆畫一樣細(xì)長(zhǎng)。在一個(gè)展區(qū)，這些人物聚集在一頭水牛前面。他們似乎與那只動(dòng)物對(duì)峙。他們的小手臂與水牛的胸部相連。

It's quite amazing. It's a narrative scene, and it's the first time we see that in the rock art, said study author Maxime Aubert, an archaeologist at Griffith University in Australia.

這很神奇。澳大利亞格里菲斯大學(xué)的考古學(xué)家馬克西姆·奧伯特是研究報(bào)告的作者。

Everything, he said, meaning narration and creative invention, "is there from the beginning."

“一切，”他說(shuō)，意思是敘述和創(chuàng)造性發(fā)明，“從一開(kāi)始就在那里。”

The large horned animals scrawled on the walls are anoa, a species of water buffalo found only on Sulawesi. Anoa are about the size of large dogs, but what they lack in stature they make up for in aggressive tempers.

墻上潦草的大角動(dòng)物是anoa，一種僅在蘇拉威西島發(fā)現(xiàn)的水牛。Anoa的體型和大型犬差不多，但它們的攻擊性卻彌補(bǔ)了體型上的不足。

The characters in the scene appear to be hunting or, perhaps, wrangling one of the buffalo, Aubert said.

奧伯特說(shuō)，場(chǎng)景中的人物看起來(lái)像是在打獵，或者可能是在和一頭水牛爭(zhēng)吵。