Good afternoon, everyone! This is the first seminar in preparation for our archaeological fieldwork in Namibia; we are fantastically lucky to have received partial research funding for this trip from our Institute, so I shall expect 200% attention and participation from you all.

大家下午好！这是我们为在纳米比亚考古工作做准备的首个研讨会；我们已经十分荣幸的收到了来自我们研究院的一部分研究经费，因此我期待大家百分之二百的注意力和参与。

First in this seminar, I'm going to give a brief introduction to contemporary research on rock art, and in the second part I'm going to give you some do's and don'ts for our fieldwork trip in April - so please listen very carefully.

在研讨会的第一部分我将简略的介绍一下关于岩画艺术的当代研究，第二部分我要来说一说我们四月野外考察工作的注意事项，所以我希望大家认真聆听。

I'm first going to focus on the interpretation of rock art in Namibia.

首先让我们先来关注一下对纳米比亚岩画艺术的解读。

We are very fortunate to be going to an area where you can find some of the most important sites in the entire world.

我们将有幸进入到世界上最重要的一些现场进行考察。

And I hope to show you how easy it is for everyone to make mistakes in looking at cultures which are different from our own - the first and most important lesson we have to learn.

我希望能够让你们认识到，在解读与我们不同的文化时多么容易犯错。这是我们要学的第一课，也是最重要的一课。

In Namibia there are both paintings and engravings - that's where the surface of the rock is cut out.

纳米比亚的岩石艺术既有岩画也有岩刻——在岩石的表层进行凿刻。

Many of the engravings show footprints of animals and most scholars used to think that the purpose of these was simple and obvious: this rock art was like a school book with pictures to teach children about tracks: which track belonged to which animal - giraffe, lion and so on.

很多雕刻的内容都与动物的足迹有关，很多学者认为这些雕刻的目的十分明显：这些岩石就像带着插图的教科书一样，它们教会孩子们辨识动物的行踪：什么样的足迹属于什么样的动物——长颈鹿或狮子等等。

But there were some mysteries.

但这种说法无法解释一些谜团。

First, when you look at a typical Namibian painting or engraving, you see the tracks are repeated, there are dozens of tracks for the same animal.

首先，很多纳米比亚岩画或岩刻上有大量重复的足迹。比如同一只动物的足迹可能会有数十个。

You'd expect just one clear illustration if the reason - the aim - was to teach tracking.

而如果这些岩画的目的是教会辨识动物行踪的话，一个清晰的例子就足够了。

Now there were two more problems.

除此之外还有两个问题。

Why are some of the engravings of animals very accurate as you'd expect - all clearly identifiable - and others quite unrealistic?

为何有的岩刻中的动物刻画得非常精确，很容易辨识，而有些却非常的不切实际？

And another mystery - some of these unrealistic animals - that's in the engravings - seem to be half human.

还有另外一个谜团——就是岩刻中这些形象不真实的动物看起来都是半兽半人。

Some, for example, have got human faces.

其中有些长着人类的脸。

Many researchers now think that these were pictures the wise men engraved of themselves.

不少研究者现在认为这些是部落中的智者为自己雕刻的自画像。

They believed they could use magic to control the animals they had drawn, so the hunters could then catch them for food.

他们相信自己能够有魔力控制他们刻画的动物，这样猎人就能猎食到这些动物。

This shows you some of the dangers of coming from one culture to another, as we'll be doing, without understanding it fully.

从这些例子我们就能够感受到从一种文化踏入另一种我们并未充分理解的文化的危险；而这也正是我们将要做的。

Scholars imagined that children looked at rock art pictures to learn to track - just because they themselves had learnt skills from pictures; many researchers now believe that rock art had a much more complex purpose.

学者们之前认为孩子从岩画中学会辨识动物的行踪，不过是因为他们自己从图像中进行技能的学习；很多研究者现在认为岩画艺术有着更为复杂的功能。

And we'll talk more about it next week!

我们下周会就这个话题进行更多的交流。