纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 019莫尔德黄金披肩(3)

But it was not until the 1960s, that the gold pieces from the Mold grave were put together for the first time.

但直到二十世纪六十年代，这些黄金碎片才第一次被重新拼接起来。

All the conservators had was flattened fragments of paper-thin gold, some large, some small,

当时保管员们面对的只是一堆薄如纸片的扁平黄金碎片，有大有小，

with cracks, splits and holes all over them, altogether weighing just over a pound-about half a kilo.

且每一块上都有孔洞、裂痕与缺口，总重量约为半公斤。

It was like a huge three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle,

修复工作如同三维立体拼图，

and solving it took nothing less than the re-learning of ancient gold-working techniques that had been lost for millennia.

所花的工夫并不亚于重新学习已失传千年的古代黄金加工技术所需要的时间。

It turned out to be a gold cape-or perhaps more accurately a short golden poncho.

这件令人屏息的物品是一件黄金披肩，更确切地说，是一件黄金短斗篷。

But we call it a cape, and I'm standing in front of it now.

但考古界仍称其为披肩。而我现在就在它的面前。

It's a stunning, punched-gold wrapping for a human being.

它用金箔打造，用于包裹人的肩膀。

It's about a foot and a half wide and about a foot deep, and it would have been put over the head and lowered onto the shoulders,

宽约四十五厘米，长三十厘米。可以从头部套下，覆盖肩部，

coming down to about the middle of the chest.

下缘到胸部中央。

When you look at it closely, you can see that it's all been made out of one sheet of breathtakingly thin gold,

仔细观察，你会发现这披肩是由一整片薄得惊人的黄金打造而成的。

and it's been calculated in fact that the whole thing could have been made from an ingot about the size of a ping-pong ball.

如果熔成金锭，不过乒乓球大小。

The very thin sheet of gold has then been worked from the inside and punched out

工匠从金片内部向外敲击，逐渐将其延展，打造出成串珠链的效果，排列得非常仔细，

so that the overall effect is of strings of beads running from one shoulder to another and going all the way round the body.

从一个肩膀延伸到另 一个肩膀，最终环绕整个身体。

Looking at it now, you're struck with this as an object of enormous complexity and ultimate luxury.

今天的人们仍然会为它的繁复工艺与极致奢华所震撼。

We don't know who made this, but it's perfectly obvious that they were very, very highly skilled.

想必当时挖掘出这一披肩的釆石工们，也一定极为震惊。