纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 052后宫壁画残片（4）

You might think at first that these paintings are not very much to look at - they're really just scraps¹ of paintings, and the largest is no bigger than a CD disc. They are drawn² fairly simply, with black outlines on a yellow ochre background, with just a few sketchy³ lines to catch the features. But there are flecks⁴ of gold in the painting, which give us a hint of their original lavishness⁵.

Like random⁶ pieces from a jigsaw⁷ puzzle, it's difficult to guess what the bigger picture that they once came from might have been, and, indeed, they're not all portraits - some of the fragments show animals, some show bits of clothing and bodies. But the faces that are caught here have, I think, a definite sense of personality - there's a clear air of melancholy⁸ in the eyes, as they look out at us from a lost world.

These small bits of plaster were excavated⁹ by archaeologists from the ruins of the Dar al-Khilafah palace - the main residence of the caliph in Samarra and the ceremonial heart of the new purpose-built capital city. And pleasure was built into the very name of the city, which was interpreted at the court as a shortened form of 'Surra Man Ra'a' - 'He who sees it is delighted'.

But beneath the frolicking, there were ominous¹⁰ undercurrents. The decision in 836 to move the court from Baghdad to Samarra was taken in order to defuse a tricky¹¹ situation. There were dangerous tensions between the caliph's armed guards and the inhabitants of Baghdad - tensions that had already ignited a string of riots. And Samarra was intended to provide both a haven¹² for the court and a safe base for the caliph's army.

1 scraps   

油渣

参考例句：

• Don't litter up the floor with scraps of paper. 不要在地板上乱扔纸屑。
• A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material. 做杂拼花布棉被是利用零碎布料的好办法。

2 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

3 sketchy   

adj.写生的，写生风格的，概略的

参考例句：

• The material he supplied is too sketchy.他提供的材料过于简略。
• Details of what actually happened are still sketchy.对于已发生事实的详细情况知道的仍然有限。

4 flecks   

n.斑点，小点( fleck的名词复数 )；癍

参考例句：

• His hair was dark, with flecks of grey. 他的黑发间有缕缕银丝。
• I got a few flecks of paint on the window when I was painting the frames. 我在漆窗框时，在窗户上洒了几点油漆。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 lavishness   

n.浪费，过度

参考例句：

6 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

7 jigsaw   

n.缕花锯，竖锯，拼图游戏；vt.用竖锯锯，使互相交错搭接

参考例句：

• A jigsaw puzzle can keep me absorbed for hours.一副拼图就能让我沉醉几个小时。
• Tom likes to work on jigsaw puzzles,too.汤姆也喜欢玩拼图游戏。

8 melancholy   

n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的

参考例句：

• All at once he fell into a state of profound melancholy.他立即陷入无尽的忧思之中。
• He felt melancholy after he failed the exam.这次考试没通过，他感到很郁闷。

9 excavated   

v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘

参考例句：

• The site has been excavated by archaeologists. 这个遗址已被考古学家发掘出来。
• The archaeologists excavated an ancient fortress. 考古学家们发掘出一个古堡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 ominous   

adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的

参考例句：

• Those black clouds look ominous for our picnic.那些乌云对我们的野餐来说是个不祥之兆。
• There was an ominous silence at the other end of the phone.电话那头出现了不祥的沉默。

11 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

12 haven   

n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所

参考例句：

• It's a real haven at the end of a busy working day.忙碌了一整天后，这真是一个安乐窝。
• The school library is a little haven of peace and quiet.学校的图书馆是一个和平且安静的小避风港。