世界小史 第30章:象形文字

Now then, think what a job it must have been to decipher all that Egyptian writing when people became interested in hieroglyphs again, 200 years ago.

那么現(xiàn)在想一想，當(dāng)人們在200年前重新對象形文字產(chǎn)生興趣，要讀懂所有的古埃及文字，該多么困難啊。

In fact, they were only able to decipher them because a stone had been found on which the same words were written in three scripts:

事實上，是因為如下原因才有可能讀懂它們：人們找到了一塊石頭，在這塊石頭上寫有三種文字：

ancient Greek, hieroglyphs and another Egyptian script.

古希臘文字、象形文字和另一種古埃及文字, 它們記載著相同內(nèi)容的事情。

It was still a tremendous puzzle, and great scholars devoted their lives to it.

它仍然是一個巨大的難題，不少大學(xué)者為此努力奮斗了一輩子。

You can see that stone - it's called the Rosetta Stone - in the British Museum in London.

你可以看到那塊石頭--它叫羅塞塔石碑， 在倫敦的大英博物館。

We are now able to read almost everything the Egyptians wrote.

今天我們幾乎能夠讀懂古埃及人寫的一切內(nèi)容。

Not just on the walls of palaces and temples, but also in books, though the books are no longer very legible.

人們不僅能讀懂在宮殿和廟宇的墻上的，而且也能讀懂寫在書里的，雖然書里的文字不是很清楚。

For the ancient Egyptians did have books, even that long ago.

古埃及人確實很早就已經(jīng)有書了。

Of course they weren't made of paper like ours, but from a certain type of reed that grows on the banks of the Nile.

當(dāng)然當(dāng)時的書并非像我們一樣是用紙做的，而是用尼羅河畔的一種蘆葦做的。

The Greek name for these reeds is papyrus, from which our name for paper comes.

這些蘆葦在希臘語中叫"莎草紙"(papyrus)，我們的"紙"(paper)這個詞就是這樣來的。