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The tantalizing mysteries of Stonehenge may have come one step closer toward being solved.
或许人类距离揭开巨石阵之谜又近了一步。
New radiocarbon dates of human cremation burials there indicate that
人类火葬新碳同位素年龄测定表明
Stonehenge was used as a cemetery from its inception just after 3,000 BC
公元前3000年，巨石阵从一开始就被用作公墓
until well after the large sarsen stones went up around 2,500 BC.
直到公元前2500左右，羊背石得以建造。
Archeologist Mike Parker Pearson has a new theory that Stonehenge was just half of a large religious complex and also functioned as a huge cemetery.
考古学家迈克·帕克·皮尔森提出一种新理论—巨石阵只是一种大型宗教体系的一部分，同样也被当做大型公墓使用。
"Stonehenge is full of burials. It's our biggest cremation cemetery from that time."
“巨石阵里都是坟墓。这是自那时起人类最大的火化墓地。”
With National Geographic's support, Mike Parker Pearson leads the Stonehenge Riverside Project.
在《国家地理》的支持下，迈克·帕克·皮尔森带头领导巨石阵调查计划。
Parker Pearson's teams excavating the plain surrounding Stonehenge have discovered the largest Stone Age settlement found in northern Europe.
帕克·皮尔森的团队挖掘了巨石阵周围的平地，他们发现最大的石器时代居所在欧洲北部。
"We knew this was a big village, and I was thinking maybe a few hundred houses.
“我们知道这曾是一个很大的村庄，我认为这里或许有数百座房屋。
But what we found out this year is that it was really big. We are looking at well over a thousand houses."
但是我们今年发现这个村庄真的很大。我们所看到的是远超一千座的房屋。”
Parker Pearson suspects this was the lost city of the builders of Stonehenge.
帕克·皮尔森猜想这是巨石阵建造者的失落之城。
"I think what we are seeing is a community that are bringing all their stock with them coming here for short parts of the year.
"我认为在我们眼前的是一个社区，短期内他们带着所有的储备来到这里。
This isn't a full-time permanent settlement."
这里并不是一个全时期永久的定居之所。”
He has found evidence that people came here to celebrate an important event in their calendar,
他发现证据证明人们来到这里是为了庆祝他们自己的一个重要节日。
the longest day of the year, the midsummer solstice. He believes they used Stonehenge as a monument to the death.
这是一年中最长的一天—夏至。他认为他们将巨石阵当做对死亡的纪念碑。
Perhaps on the same day, less than two miles away at Durrington Walls the ancient Britons celebrated life.
或许在同一天，距离杜灵顿垣墙不到两英里的地方，古不列颠人也在庆祝生命。
Here a vast circular earthwork known as a henge dominates the landscape.
这里圆形石结构的广阔圆形土方工程掌控着这片天地。
It's 20 times larger than Stonehenge and was surrounded by a ditch and bank 18 feet deep and 30 feet wide.
它是巨石阵的20倍大，并且被沟渠和一个18英尺深、30英尺宽的堤岸所环绕。
In new excavations outside the henge of Durrington walls, archeologists found remains of houses from the third millennium BC.
在杜灵顿垣墙外的挖掘中，考古学家发现房屋的残骸源自公元前第三个千禧年。
Among the most remarkable discoveries are the remains of an oval-shaped hearth with two thick grooves visible in the floor
在最引人注目的发现中有一个团圆形残骸，其地板上有两个厚厚的凹槽可见
where the person who did the cooking kneeled.
这里是人们跪着做饭的地方。
"The thing that really got my imagination going was the, the knee holes that you get by the hearth over there. "
真正让我放飞想象的是那里发现的做饭时双膝跪出的洞。”
And that, that just triggers the imagination of someone everyday sitting by the fire to cook or tend to the hearth,
这个发现触发了我们的想象，让我们想象着人们每天坐在火炉旁生火做饭的情形。
and little things out there really get your imagination going."
一点点的发现都能放飞你的想象。”
Parker Pearson hopes to find more clues to the Stonehenge mystery over the final three years of the excavation project.
帕克·皮尔森希望在这个挖掘项目的最后三年中发现更多关于巨石阵之谜的线索。
His findings are featured in the June issue of National Geographic Magazine
他的发现被刊登在六月出版的《国家地理》杂志中
and revealed in a National Geographic Channel special Stonehenge Decoded premiering Sunday June 1st. Check local listings.
并于6月1日周天首次登陆国家地理频道《解密巨石阵》栏目。
