BORTH, WALES – There is a poem children in Wales learn about the sunken kingdom of Cantre’r Gwaelod, swallowed by the sea and drowned forever after. On a quiet night, legend has it, one can hear the kingdom’s church bells ringing.
在威爾斯，孩童從一首詩知道了遭大海吞噬且永遠陸沉的威爾斯亞特蘭提斯帝國。傳說中，在靜謐的夜晚，人們聽得見那帝國教堂的鐘聲。
When the sea swallowed part of Britain’s western coastline this year and then spat it out again, leaving homes destroyed but also a dense forest of prehistoric tree stumps more exposed than ever, it was as if one had caught a faint glimpse of that Welsh Atlantis.
英國西海岸部分地區今年遭海水吞噬，水退後許多房舍毀了，但一座史前樹木殘幹組成的濃密森林更清楚地浮現了，彷彿讓人隱隱瞥見傳說中的威爾斯亞特蘭提斯帝國。
The submerged forest of Borth is not new. First flooded some 5,000 years ago by rising sea levels after the last ice age, it has been there, coming and going with the tides. But the floods and storms that battered Britain earlier this year radically changed the way archaeologists interpret the landscape: A saltwater channel, revealed by erosion for the first time, provided a trove of clues to where human life may have been concentrated and where its traces may yet be found.
在威爾斯伯斯市海濱浮出水面的，並非新森林。它在5000年前，就因上個冰河時期後的海平面上升而首度被淹沒；它一直在那兒，隨著海平面的起落而時隱時現。但今年初襲擊英國的洪水及暴雨，徹底改變了考古學家對當地景觀的詮釋：因侵蝕作用而首度現形的一條鹹水渠道，為人類可能聚居之地、可能找到的遺跡等問題，提供了珍貴的線索。
“The floods have opened our eyes as to what’s really out there,” said Martin Bates, a geoarchaeologist at the University of Wales Trinity St. David.
威爾斯三一大學聖大衛學院地質考古學家貝茨說：「關於那裡到底是怎麼回事，那幾場暴雨讓我們開了眼。」
Scanning the ghostly spikes protruding from the sand here, Dr. Bates said it was as if nature were making a point: The recent rains, linked to human-induced climate change, have provided an ancient laboratory to study how humans coped with catastrophic climate change in the past.
細細審視著在伯斯市海灘沙岸上詭異突起的殘幹，貝茨博士說，那彷彿是大自然在說：最近幾場與人類引發的氣候變遷有關的大雨，提供了一個年代久遠的實驗室，可研究人類過去如何因應災難性的氣候變遷。
Across Britain, two years of exceptional winter weather have left some equally exceptional discoveries: from unexploded wartime bombs and Victorian shipwrecks to archaeological finds nearly a million years old. Last winter was the wettest on record, according to the national weather service.
過去兩年英國各地出現不尋常的冬季氣候，也留下了一些不尋常的發現：從戰時未爆彈、維多利亞時期的船難殘骸，到可追溯到100萬年前的考古發現。英國氣象局說，去年冬天是英國有史以來最潮濕的冬季。
Nicholas Ashton, the curator of Paleolithic and Mesolithic collections at the British Museum, has been organizing “fossil road shows” in which he invites civilians to bring in any potential archaeological finds. (One man recently showed up with a 15-centimeter-long hippo tusk and an ax, both found locally and both more than half a million years old.)
大英博物館舊石器時代及中石器時代收藏品策展人艾許頓一直在辦「化石巡演展」，邀市民帶著可能是考古文物的東西現身。（有人展示了一個15公分長的河馬牙齒及一把斧頭，二者都是在當地發現的，且皆有50萬年以上歷史。）
Having those extra eyes can make a difference, Dr. Ashton said, for what the sea reveals, it tends to reclaim almost as soon.
艾許頓博士說，有那些普通民眾讓海濱地區完全不一樣，因為伯斯市海濱的遺跡，很快就幾乎恢復了原狀。
In May 2013, shortly after the first set of storms, Dr. Ashton commissioned Dr. Bates, an old university friend, to work on Britain’s east coast in Norfolk. The beach near Happisburgh, a longstanding archaeological site, had suffered severe erosion. Dr. Ashton, an expert in early humans, wanted a geophysical survey to map any channels or rivers that might lie beneath about nine meters of sediment. Some of these channels, he reckoned, might contain evidence of early humans because sources of freshwater would have been gathering spots.
2013年5月，在第一批暴風雨剛過之後，艾許頓委託他大學時的老朋友貝茨博士到英國東岸的諾福克市海灘去做調查研究。當地鄰近一個長期遭受嚴重侵蝕的考古遺址哈比斯堡。身為遠古人類專家的艾許頓希望在當地進行地球物理調查，測繪出可能埋藏在約九公尺沉積物之下的渠道或河流。他猜想，這些渠道中有些可能包含著遠古人類的證據，因為淡水的源頭應該就是人類聚集處。
On their second visit, on May 10, that Dr. Bates noticed indentions. The humps looked familiar. He told Dr. Ashton: “They’re just like the human footprints in Borth.”
去年5月10日，他們第二次造訪諾福克市，貝茨注意到海灘上一些凹陷，那些隆起之處看來很眼熟。他告訴艾許頓：「這些像是伯斯市的人類足跡。」
Footprints of humans and animals in Borth had been dated to about 6,000 years ago. The site in Happisburgh was 900,000 years old, a time when mammoths and hippos still roamed in these parts. No human bones or prints that old had ever been found in Britain.
伯斯市人類及動物的足跡可溯自約6000年前。哈比斯堡是90萬年前的遺址，當時長毛象及河馬仍在此四處漫步，而過去英國從未發現那麼久之前的人類骨骸或足跡。
A frantic race began. Every day, the shape of the prints would blur a little more with the tide. A team from the University of York arrived, taking about 150 digital photographs and creating a three-dimensional model. By the time another team had come to do laser scanning, it was too late: The prints were barely visible.
一場激烈的競賽就這樣開始了。隨著一天天過去、潮水消漲，那些足跡的形狀愈來愈模糊。約克大學的一個團隊抵達，拍了150張數位照片且創作了一個三度空間模型。到了第二支團隊抵達、進行雷射掃描時，已經太遲了，那些足跡幾乎看不清了。
Panicked, scientists lifted from the site a 60-kilogram block of sediment with one faint print on top to have it analyzed. It is the only remaining evidence of the footprints. Before the month was out, all traces of them had vanished.
著急的科學家在海灘上撈起一大塊約60公斤、上有一個模糊足跡的沉積土，加以分析。這是所有足跡中唯一存留下來的證據。還不到那個月底，其餘足跡就全都消失了。
Dr. Ashton knew researchers were dealing with something “quite extraordinary.” The footprints, their studies showed, were the oldest known outside Africa.
艾許頓知道，研究人員處理的是「相當特殊」的東西。他們的研究顯示，那是目前在非洲以外最古老的人類足跡。
Dr. Bates said that during the last ice age some 20,000 years ago the sea level in Borth was 120 meters lower than it is today. About 10,000 years ago, temperatures warmed sharply, but sea level remained some 40 meters lower for another 3,000 years, allowing forests to grow and humans to recolonize the area. When the sea level did rise, it would have been traumatic for the population, wiping out settlements, and the forest of Borth. The humans of the time, Dr. Bates said, were prehistoric refugees from climate change.
貝茨說，約二萬年前的上一次冰河時期，伯斯市的海平面約比今天低120公尺。約一萬年前，氣溫陡升，但在其後3000年，海平面一直維持在約比現在低40公尺之處，可讓濱海地區長出森林，且讓人類重新屯墾居住。當海平面上升，淹沒了伯斯的屯墾區及森林，那對人類而言是場痛苦的經驗。貝茨博士說，當時的人是史前時代的氣候變遷難民。
Dr. Bates is convinced that stories like Cantre’r Gwaelod originated in this period.
貝茨博士確信，像威爾斯亞特蘭提斯帝國之類故事，發源於這個時期。
“It was a traumatic geological event, and people turned it into a story to make sense of it,” said Gerald Morgan, a local historian in nearby Aberystwyth.
附近亞伯里斯威斯市的地方歷史學家摩根說：「那是令人痛苦的地質事件，人們把它變成故事，賦予它意義。」
The forest has once again become part of local lore. Its haunting shapes are featured in storytelling evenings, and performances of Cantre’r Gwaelod have been staged on the beach, said Mr. Morgan and his wife, Enid.
現在，那片森林再次成為當地傳說的一部分。摩根和他太太伊妮德說，在晚間說故事時，說書人會特別描述那森林讓人難忘的形狀，海灘上也推出有關亞特蘭提斯帝國的表演。
Have they ever heard the bells?
他們聽到了那教堂鐘聲嗎？
Mrs. Morgan smiled. “I knew someone who did.”
摩根太太笑著說：「我知道有人聽見了。」
留言列表
