異域文化 說(shuō)服的藝術(shù) 03

So what happened? How did imagery come to be used as a political tool? Well it's a process that happens at different times in various parts of the world. But in one of those parts, Britain, archeologists believe that they’ve recently hit upon the time and the place. It's new light on one of the country's oldest and best-known monuments, Stonehenge.

This is the biggest prehistoric monument in Europe. Something extraordinary must have happened here for a structure of this size to be built by people living in small isolated communities. This was one of the great mysteries of the ancient world. Now, through our understanding of the persuasive power of art, we may have found an answer.

It all began with the chance discovery of a burial site near Stonehenge. Archeologists expected to find a Roman burial ground, common in this part of the world. What none of them knew at the time was that they had stumbled into one of the most momentous archeological discoveries ever made in Britain.

"I knew straight away that the grave wasn't Roman because it had a kind of portrait in it, that dated to the beginning of the Bronze Age, so it was almost 2,000 years older than the Roman graves, so we knew we had something very different."

Andrew Fitzpatrick and his team had uncovered the skeleton of a man dating back nearly 4,500 years, and next to it, dozens of objects. It was the sheer scale of the find that suggested this was no ordinary grave and no ordinary man.

"It's normal in a burial of this age to find just one or two objects, and we would've called a grave maybe with ten things in it rich, but as the numbers mounted and mounted, it was clear that this grave was of exceptional importance. And as the numbers got to almost 100, we realized that it was the richest grave not just in Britain but in Continental Europe as well."

An examination of the objects revealed further surprises. There were a number of fine objects designed for personal display, like a stone belt buckle, a wrist guard used by an archer and some tiny copper knives. But in amongst all of these, there were something very special, 2 identical pieces of gold.

word to remember:

buckle: A clasp for fastening two ends, as of straps or a belt, in which a device attached to one of the ends is fitted or coupled to the other.扣環(huán)(皮帶)

ep.: belt buckle