英國史前巨石陣爲病人朝拜地

Archaeologists probing the secrets of Stonehenge, Britain's most famous prehistoric monument, said on Monday it may have been an ancient pilgrimage site for the sick who believed its stones had healing qualities.

It has always been a mystery why bluestones, the smaller stones that form part of the circle, were transported around 155 miles from Preseli Hills in Wales to Wiltshire in southern England.

Archaeologists from Bournemouth University, who carried out the dig in April -- the first at Stonehenge since 1964 -- believe the bluestones were revered as healing stones.

"It was the magical qualities of these stones which ... transformed the monument and made it a place of pilgrimage for the sick and injured of the Neolithic world," a statement from the archaeologist team said.

Geoffrey Wainwright, president of the Society of Antiquaries of London and one of the experts leading the work, told BBC radio that one reason which lead to the conclusion was because a number of the burials around Stonehenge showed signs of trauma and deformity.

The archaeologists said in the statement that radio-carbon dating put the construction of the circle of bluestones at between 2,400 B.C. and 2,200 B.C., a few centuries later than originally thought.

But they found fragments of charcoal dating from before 7,000 B.C., showing humans were active in the area much earlier than previously thought.

During the excavation at the World Heritage Site on Salisbury Plain, the researchers also found a beaker pottery fragment, Roman ceramics and ancient stone hammers.

"We now know, much to our surprise and delight, that Stonehenge was not just a prehistoric monument, it was a Roman and mediaeval monument," said Wainwright.

Another of the team leaders, Tim Darvill of Bournemouth University, said the bluestones appeared central to the purpose of Stonehenge although it may have had more than one function.

Other theories about Stonehenge are that it was a religious site or that it acted as a calendar

考古學家們於本週一公佈，英國最著名的史前遺址巨石陣可能是古代病人的朝聖地。據推測，巨石陣的石頭可能被史前人類當作是具有治療功效的幸運石。

長期以來，人們一直很困惑，爲什麼巨石陣裏的一種藍色小石頭是從155英里以外的威爾士普利斯里山運到英格蘭南部威爾特郡這裏的。

伯恩茅斯大學的考古學家們推測，可能當時的人們信奉這些藍色的石頭具有神奇療效。考古學家於今年4月對史前巨石陣進行了自1964年以來的首次發掘。

該考古小組在一份聲明中說：“巨石陣曾經可能只是個紀念碑，但這些具有魔力的石頭被搬來之後，這裏就變成了新時器時代傷病者的朝聖地。”

倫敦古文物學會主席、考古小組專家傑弗裏•韋恩萊特在接受BBC廣播的採訪時說，得出這一結論的其中一個根據就是，巨石陣附近埋葬了很多傷殘者。

考古學家在一份聲明中說，經放射性碳測年法鑑定，環形巨石陣應該建造於公元前2400年至公元前2200年之間，比之前的推測晚了幾百年。

但考古學家還在此發現了公元前七千年前的木炭碎片，這說明在更早的時期已有人類活躍在這一地帶。

考古人員還在發掘過程中發現了大口陶器杯的碎片、古羅馬陶器以及古石錘。位於索爾茲伯里平原的史前巨石陣已被列入世界文化遺址。

韋恩萊特說：“現在我們知道了，巨石陣不僅是史前的紀念碑，也是古羅馬和中世紀時期的祭壇，這個發現讓我們十分驚喜。”

考古小組的另一位專家、伯恩茅斯大學的蒂姆•達維爾說，巨石陣可能有多種功能，但藍色小石頭應該是其功能的一個重要體現。

其它理論認爲，巨石陣曾是個宗教場所或是一個日曆等等

Vocabulary:

radio-carbon dating:放射性碳側年法（通常用來推算有機體或曾經是生物一部分的物質的年代）