科学美国人60秒 SSS 蜂巢帮助测定土著岩画年龄

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Susanne Bard¹.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是苏珊娜·巴德。

Thousands of years ago, in what's now the Kimberley region of Western Australia, Aboriginal² artists created elaborate rock paintings. Much of the artwork still exists today.

数千年前，土著艺术家在如今西澳大利亚州的金伯利地区绘制了精美的岩画。许多艺术品至今仍然存在。

"If you're walking beside the rivers and creeks³ and go up into the escarpments, into rock shelters, there are just thousands of rock art sites."

“如果你沿着河流和小溪，爬上悬崖进入岩石掩体，会发现数千处岩画遗址。”

University of Melbourne geochronologist Damien Finch⁴. The oldest paintings depict⁵ plants and animals. But later works show human figures in ceremonial attire⁶ and ornate headdresses.

墨尔本大学的地质年代学家达米安·芬奇说到。最古老的岩画描绘的是植物和动物。但后来的作品描绘了着礼服、戴华丽头饰的人类形像。

"And then, around the arms and the elbows and the knees, there's decorations. And sometimes they'll be holding a clutch of boomerangs. And very often, they're very finely executed, using quite long and elegant-looking brushstrokes."

“手臂、手肘和膝盖周围还有装饰品。有时他们还会拿着一些回旋镖。通常，绘画者非常擅于使用绵长且优雅的笔触。”

The human-centered paintings represent what's known as the Gwion style. How old the artwork is has remained a mystery, however. That's because the typical method for estimating the age of ancient objects—radiocarbon dating—relies on the presence of organic carbon. But the artists used ocher pigments⁷ that had no organic carbon.

以人类为中心的绘画是Gwion风格。然而，这些绘画的年龄仍然是谜。这是因为估算古代物体年龄的典型方法是放射性碳定年法，而这种方法依赖于有机碳的存在。但艺术家使用的赭石颜料不含有机碳。

"There is nothing organic that we can apply carbon dating to. So the only thing that we can do is look for stuff that's either been constructed on top of or underneath⁸ the paintings."

“我们没有可供放射性碳定年法使用的有机物。因此，我们唯一能做的就是寻找建在岩画上面或下面的东西。”

That's where mud wasps⁹ come in. The insects often incorporated organic matter into their nests, which they built on the same rock faces where artists painted. The artists would sometimes paint right on top of old nests. Finch and his colleagues were thus able to date the artwork by sampling the remains¹⁰ of those nests.

这时泥蜂就派上用场了。这种昆虫经常将有机物混入蜂巢，而且它们就在艺术家绘制的岩画上筑巢。艺术家有时会在老蜂巢上面作画。因此，芬奇和同事能够通过采集蜂巢的剩余物样本来测定画作的年代。

"If it was over the top of the painting, that tells us that the painting has to be older than that nest. But if the nest was underneath paint, the painting must be younger than the age that we determined¹¹ for that nest. And in that way, we can help to build up an idea of when these paintings were created."

“如果蜂巢位于岩画上方，说明岩石比蜂巢更古老；但如果蜂巢在岩画下方，那岩画的年代肯定早于我们判定的蜂巢的年代。通过这种方法，我们可以帮助树立一种观念，大致确定岩画绘制的时间。”

The analysis revealed that most of the Gwion style paintings sampled were about 12,000 years old.

分析显示，大多数Gwion风格岩画样本有12000年左右的历史。

"So now we can place that in the context of all the other archaeological and environmental information that we've got for the Kimberley region at that time."

“因此，现在我们可以将岩画与我们掌握的古代金伯利地区的所有其他考古和环境信息结合起来。”

The study is in the journal Science Advances.

这项研究发表在《科学进展》期刊上。

The results provide support for the hypothesis that Aboriginal artists may have switched from painting plants and animals to depicting¹² humans in ceremonial dress around 12,000 years ago in response to the ecological¹³ changes and rapidly rising sea levels as the last ice age ended.

研究结果支持了一种假设，即大约12000年前，土著艺术家从绘制动植物转为描绘身着礼仪服装的人类，是为了应对最后一次冰河时期结束时的生态变化和海平面迅速上升。

Finch is now working out the age of other styles of Aboriginal rock art—with a little help from materials that ancient insects once called home.

芬奇现在正在借助古代昆虫曾当作家的材料，计算土著岩画其他风格的年代。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Susanne Bard.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是苏珊娜·巴德。

1 bard   

n.吟游诗人

参考例句：

• I'll use my bard song to help you concentrate!我会用我的吟游诗人歌曲帮你集中精神！
• I find him,the wandering grey bard.我发现了正在徘徊的衰老游唱诗人。

2 aboriginal   

adj.（指动植物）土生的，原产地的，土著的

参考例句：

• They managed to wipe out the entire aboriginal population.他们终于把那些土著人全部消灭了。
• The lndians are the aboriginal Americans.印第安人是美国的土著人。

3 creeks   

n.小湾( creek的名词复数 )；小港；小河；小溪

参考例句：

• The prospect lies between two creeks. 矿区位于两条溪流之间。 来自辞典例句
• There was the excitement of fishing in country creeks with my grandpa on cloudy days. 有在阴雨天和姥爷一起到乡村河湾钓鱼的喜悦。 来自辞典例句

4 finch   

n.雀科鸣禽(如燕雀，金丝雀等)

参考例句：

• This behaviour is commonly observed among several species of finch.这种行为常常可以在几种雀科鸣禽中看到。
• In Australia,it is predominantly called the Gouldian Finch.在澳大利亚，它主要还是被称之为胡锦雀。

5 depict   

vt.描画，描绘；描写，描述

参考例句：

• I don't care to see plays or films that depict murders or violence.我不喜欢看描写谋杀或暴力的戏剧或电影。
• Children's books often depict farmyard animals as gentle,lovable creatures.儿童图书常常把农场的动物描写得温和而可爱。

6 attire   

v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装

参考例句：

• He had no intention of changing his mode of attire.他无意改变着装方式。
• Her attention was attracted by his peculiar attire.他那奇特的服装引起了她的注意。

7 pigments   

n.（粉状）颜料( pigment的名词复数 )；天然色素

参考例句：

• The Romans used natural pigments on their fabrics and walls. 古罗马人在织物和墙壁上使用天然颜料。 来自辞典例句
• The original white lead pigments have oxidized and turned black. 最初的白色铅质颜料氧化后变成了黑色。 来自辞典例句

8 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

9 wasps   

黄蜂( wasp的名词复数 )； 胡蜂； 易动怒的人； 刻毒的人

参考例句：

• There's a wasps' nest in that old tree. 那棵老树上有一个黄蜂巢。
• We live in dread not only of unpleasant insects like spiders or wasps, but of quite harmless ones like moths. 我们不仅生活在对象蜘蛛或黄蜂这样的小虫的惧怕中，而且生活在对诸如飞蛾这样无害昆虫的惧怕中

10 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

11 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

12 depicting   

描绘，描画( depict的现在分词 )； 描述

参考例句：

• a painting depicting the Virgin and Child 一幅描绘童贞马利亚和圣子耶稣的画
• The movie depicting the battles and bloodshed is bound to strike home. 这部描写战斗和流血牺牲的影片一定会取得预期效果。

13 ecological   

adj.生态的，生态学的

参考例句：

• The region has been declared an ecological disaster zone.这个地区已经宣布为生态灾难区。
• Each animal has its ecological niche.每种动物都有自己的生态位.