Why Some Easter Island Statues Are Where They Are
The statues on Easter Island are among the most mysterious objects made by humans. We still don't know how they were moved, why they were placed at particular sites around the island and why they were made in the first place.
復活節島上的石像是人類建造的最神秘的遺蹟之一。我們至今仍不清楚這些石像是如何被移動的，又為何會被放置在島上的特定地點，以及它們最初為何會被建造出來。Now researchers think they have at least some answers, because a new analysis finds that the statues are situated near sources of freshwater. It's believed that the residents of Rapa Nui—the Indigenous name for Easter Island—began constructing these carvings in the 13th century.
如今，研究人員認為他們至少解開了一些疑問，據一項最新的研究發現，這些雕像位於島上淡水資源附近。據信，拉帕努伊島（復活節島的土著名稱）的居民在13世紀開始建造這些石像。The statues, called moai, which sit upon stone platforms called ahu, are the very definition of monumental. Most weigh between 20 and 30 tons. And of the 1.000 on the island, about 400 have been moved from the quarry where they originated and placed on ahu located elsewhere.
這些人們稱為「摩艾」的石像坐落在被人們稱為「胡」的石頭平臺上，似乎有著紀念碑的含義。大多數石像重達20至30噸。在島上近1000座石像中，大約有400座已經從它們最初的採石場轉移到了各處的石頭平臺上。"But those ahu locations aren't necessarily everywhere. They're in some places and not in others. And the question we started to ask ourselves was, Why do we find these ahu and moai some places on the landscape but not others?" Carl Lipo, an anthropologist at Binghamton University in central New York.
紐約中部賓漢姆頓大學的人類學家卡爾·利波說道：「但這些石頭平臺並非隨處可見，有些地方有，有些地方沒有。我們開始提出疑問，為什麼在島上的某些地方發現了胡和摩艾，而在其他地方沒有發現。」He says that most of these sculptures are found along the coast, but some are inland. And they're not necessarily at obvious places. For example, we don't find ahu and statues located on the tops of hills—places that we might expect to find them if these things were symbolic or representing ancestors.
他說，這些石像大都是在沿海區域發現的，但也有少數在內陸地區。並且不一定是在一些明顯的地方。例如，我們在一些制高點找不到石像的蹤跡，如果這些石像具有某種象徵意義或者代表著祖先，那麼它們應該位於高處。So the statues are more than just towering talismans to be admired from afar. Indeed, Lipo and his colleagues noted that people spent most of their time living and working around these sites, which made the researchers think that the the statues might be located near a valuable resource.
因此，這些雕像不僅僅是供人們從遠處欣賞的高聳的護身符。事實上，利波和他的同事們注意到島上的人們大部分時間都在這些石像遺址附近生活和工作，研究人員因此認為，這些石像或許意味著附近存在有價值的資源。So the question was: What resource? Was it water, freshwater, marine resources or cultivation places? Which of those, or which combination of those, best explained the locations of ahu on the landscape? Their statistical analyses pointed toward potable water, which Lipo says made sense.
所以問題來了：究竟是什麼資源？是水、淡水、海洋資源還是養殖場所？究竟是哪一種資源或哪一種資源組合能最好地解釋胡的地理位置？他們的統計分析指向了飲用水資源，利波認為這是有道理的。"Every single time we found a big source of freshwater, there would be a statue and an ahu. And we saw this over and over and over again. And places where we didn't find freshwater, we didn't find statues and ahu."
「每當我們找到一個具有淡水資源的地方，就能在附近發現一座石像和一個胡。我們一次又一次地驗證了這種猜想。而在沒有淡水資源的地方，就看不到石像和胡。」And thus, their investment in statues was done around that resource. Because these are the locations that had the resources that they needed to survive. It seems that many of the massive sculptures are where they are for totally pragmatic reasons: "We'll build here because here is where we want to be."
因此，人們正是圍繞著淡水資源而建造石像的。因為這些地方具有維持生存所需的資源。似乎許多巨大的石像都是出於實用的意義而建造的：「我們之所以在這裡建造石像，是因為這裡正是我們想要的地方。」(全文共457個詞，標紅單詞為考研重難點詞彙)
重難點詞彙：
indigenous [ɪnˈdɪdʒənəs] adj. 本土的；土著的；國產的
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