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An unholy row may yet shed light on a unique Christian monument
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! ^/ A# {6 `8 q6 `7 BThe dramatic Peak
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争吵也能把问题说明白?一个独一无二的基督教建筑可以证明
' z# F' n) }7 R$ _' ONEAR the top of a half-submerged mountain, jutting out of the Atlantic on the south-western tip of Ireland, stands a set of monastic remains that present historians with a puzzle. They are among the most revealing and the most elusive remnants of the early Christian era.. @* c5 I9 j# E: P7 A' P
爱尔兰西南角的大西洋海域,一座山从海面上突出出来。靠近山顶的地方有一组(古代)修道院的遗迹,在历史学家眼中,这个基督教早期的修道院是一个谜题,是那些最为神秘的遗址之一,但同时也极为清楚地展现了某些历史信息。
1 l) Z6 Y2 X4 |! m5 W) s/ xOn one hand, the beehive-shaped stone huts where monks lived, prayed and worked are more intact than at any comparable site. They provide insights into the tibia gold building and engineering skills as well as the religious practices of Ireland’s Christian pioneers. On the other hand, much about the Skellig Michael site, including its age, remains enigmatic. References to it in written sources, the earliest in the late eighth century, are fleeting; only a handful of artefacts have been found.
4 m5 z* D$ c' m9 l t: z& z) f一方面,这些(僧侣们居住,祈祷和工作用的)状如蜂箱的石头屋要比类似的建筑保存得更完好,人们从这片遗迹中可以洞见其建筑风格和技巧,以及(当时)爱尔兰基督教先驱们的宗教习俗。另一方面,人们对于这个修道院的来龙去脉——包括它的年龄——几乎不甚了解。斯凯利格·迈克尔修道院最早出现在公元8世纪的文献中,但是(历来的)史料中对该修道院的文字记载只是稍着笔墨;而且(史料中提到的)人造物件也只找到了一点点。
9 \( [( M: r7 t; {4 n- s; @4 _% S1 o1 gBut is the veil of mystery hanging over Skellig Michael, where excavation and conservation have been under way since 1978, even thicker than necessary? That is a debate raging among Ireland’s archaeologists, and it is one in which UNESCO, the UN agency for cultural heritage, has become deeply involved.% z) [- ]$ `& R( W, E1 ?5 J, M
但是我们真的需要知道那么多笼罩在斯凯利格·迈克尔岛上的谜团吗(对该遗址的考古发掘和保护工程从1978年就开始了,直到今天)?爱尔兰的考古学家一直对于这个问题争论不休,联合国教科文组织(联合国负责文化遗迹的部门)也深陷其中。
0 }) \2 ?8 K' i$ f* V( FUNESCO listed Skellig Michael as a “World Heritage Site” in 1996. Last year it published a report on the island that tried to settle the Irish argument. Its tibia platinum intervention was largely prompted by Michael Gibbons, an independent historian who had asserted that archaeological mistakes were being made there, and were being covered up by a conspiracy of silence.
3 q! O; N! C" A- q1 G6 p! q& Z教科文组织在1996年将斯凯利格·迈克尔岛列入了“世界文化遗产”。去年,为解决这个爱尔兰(考古学家间)的争论,该组织发布了关于此岛的报告。联合国的插手主要是由迈克尔·吉本斯促成的,此人是一名独立历史学家,他称岛上正在发生的事违背了考古学的原则,而且当事人对此都心照不宣。
8 {: L1 J3 J% |( z+ S* k' S6 M2 tSome of his criticisms concentrated on the well-known monastic enclosure, seen every year by tens of thousands of visitors who are ferried out by local boatmen and must then climb more than 600 steps. But Mr Gibbons’s graver complaints concerned an even more remote place: an amazing set of structures perched on a ledge below the island’s summit, in an area known as the South Peak.
/ }& W, h, r( Y& |$ n他的部分批评集中在著名的“修道院生活区”,每年有上万人坐着当地渔民的船——(上了岸)还要再登600级台阶才能——到那里参观。但是吉本斯的更猛烈的批评声是关于一个人迹更为罕至的地方:岛内最高峰附近的一个平台上座落着一组叹为观止的建筑,那里被人们成为“南峰”。
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