托福阅读背景知识（九）

五、托福阅读背景知识：欧洲的岩洞艺术

　　Cave Art in Europe

　　欧洲的岩洞艺术

　　1.The earliest discovered traces of art are beads and carvings, and then paintings, from sites dating back to the Upper Paleolithic period. We might expect that early artistic efforts would be crude, but the cave paintings of Spain and southern France show a marked degree of skill. So do the naturalistic paintings on slabs of stone excavated in southern Africa. Some of those slabs appear to have been painted as much as 28,000 years ago, which suggests that painting in Africa is as old as painting in Europe. But painting may be even older than that. The early Australians may have painted on the walls of rock shelters and cliff faces at least 30,000 years ago, and maybe as much as 60,000 years ago.

　　段落梗概：在发现的早期工艺品中，西班牙与法国南部的岩洞画显示出了高超的技艺，在非洲南部发掘出的自然石板画也是如此。而且通过考古发掘发现，非洲绘画与欧洲绘画一样历史久远;欧洲人在岩石和悬崖断面上作画的历史更久。

　　2.The researchers Peter Ucko and Andree Rosenfeld identified three principal locations of paintings in the caves of western Europe: (1) in obviously inhabited rock shelters and cave entrances;(2) in galleries immediately off the inhabited areas of caves;and (3) in the inner reaches of caves, whose difficulty of access has been interpreted by some as a sign that magical-religious activities were performed there.

　　段落梗概：研究人员指出西欧洞画的三个主要地点：(1)在明显有遮蔽可供人类居住的岩石和洞穴入口处，(2)在居住的洞穴一出门的走廊上(3)在洞穴所能及的最深处

　　3.The subjects of the paintings are mostly animals. The paintings rest on bare walls, with no backdrops or environmental trappings. Perhaps, like many contemporary peoples, Upper Paleolithic men and women believed that the drawing of a human image could cause death or injury, and if that were indeed their belief, it might explain why human figures are rarely depicted in cave art. Another explanation for the focus on animals might be that these people sought to improve their luck at hunting. This theory is suggested by evidence of chips in the painted figures, perhaps made by spears thrown at the drawings. But if improving their hunting luck was the chief motivation for the paintings, it is difficult to explain why only a few show signs of having been speared. Perhaps the paintings were inspired by the need to increase the supply of animals. Cave art seems to have reached a peak toward the end of the Upper Paleolithic period, when the herds of game were decreasing.

　　段落梗概：绘画的主题大部分都是动物。在洞穴绘画中，很少描绘人物。并猜测了原因。后石器时代的人们也相信画人物像会引起伤害或死亡;人们在探索如何提高打猎的命中率;或许是出于增加猎物的需求而画的画。

　　4.The particular symbolic significance of the cave paintings in southwestern France is more explicitly revealed, perhaps, by the results of a study conducted by researchers Patricia Rice and Ann Paterson. The data they present suggest that the animals portrayed in the cave paintings were mostly the ones that the painters preferred for meat and for materials such as hides. For example, wild cattle (bovines) and horses are portrayed more often than we would expect by chance, probably because they were larger and heavier (meatier) than other animals in the environment. In addition, the paintings mostly portray animals that the painters may have feared the most because of their size, speed, natural weapons such as tusks and horns, and the unpredictability of their behavior. That is, mammoths, bovines, and horses are portrayed more often than deer and reindeer. Thus, the paintings are consistent with the idea that the art is related to the importance of hunting in the economy of Upper Paleolithic people. Consistent with this idea, according to the investigators, is the fact that the art of the cultural period that followed the Upper Paleolithic also seems to reflect how people got their food. But in that period, when getting food no longer depended on hunting large game animals (because they were becoming extinct), the art ceased to focus on portrayals of animals.

　　段落梗概：研究者们的研究结果更清楚地揭示了法国西南部的岩洞画的特殊象征性意义。研究显示，绘画者经常描绘的动物是喜欢食用的动物或喜欢用作兽皮的动物，另外画作中主要描绘了绘画者害怕的动物。结论：在旧石器时代晚期的人的经济中，岩洞艺术与打猎的重要性有关。

　　5.Upper Paleolithic art was not confined to cave paintings. Many shafts of spears and similar objects were decorated with figures of animals. The anthropologist Alexander Marshack has an interesting interpretation of some of the engravings made during the Upper Paleolithic. He believes that as far back as 30,000 B.C., hunters may have used a system of notation, engraved on bone and stone, to mark phases of the Moon. If this is true, it would mean that Upper Paleolithic people were capable of complex thought and were consciously aware of their environment. In addition to other artworks, figurines representing the human female in exaggerated form have also been found at Upper Paleolithic sites. It has been suggested that these figurines were an ideal type or an expression of a desire for fertility.

　　段落梗概：旧石器时代晚期的艺术不仅仅局限于洞穴绘画。许多矛杆和类似的东西上都画了动物作为装饰。人类学家对旧石器时代晚期的一些雕刻品的解释意味着旧石器时代晚期的人们已经有了复杂的思维并对他们的环境有了一个理性的认识。人们还在旧石器时代晚期的遗址上发现了以夸张的形式描绘妇女的小雕塑。