古代的石圈可能是雷擊的管道嗎?

古代的石圈可能是雷擊的管道嗎?

Ancient stone circles such as Stonehenge and the Callanish Stones have long perplexed archaeologists and captured our collective consciousness. How were they built? What was their purpose? Why were they placed where they were?

像巨石陣和卡拉尼什石陣這樣的古老石陣一直困擾著考古學(xué)家，并抓住了我們的集體意識。它們是如何建造的?他們的目的是什么?為什么把它們放在這里?

Now a startling new finding at a hidden stone circle site located on an island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland might finally begin to offer us some answers. There, researchers have discovered evidence of a massive lightning strike right at the center of the circle, reports Phys.org.

現(xiàn)在，在蘇格蘭大陸西海岸外的島鏈上的一個隱藏的石圈遺址上的一個令人吃驚的新發(fā)現(xiàn)，可能終于開始為我們提供一些答案。據(jù)Phys.org報(bào)道，研究人員在那里發(fā)現(xiàn)了大范圍閃電襲擊圓心的證據(jù)。

BRYAN NELSON

"Such clear evidence for lightning strikes is extremely rare in the UK and the association with this stone circle is unlikely to be coincidental," said project leader Dr. Richard Bates, of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of St. Andrews.

圣安德魯斯大學(xué)地球與環(huán)境科學(xué)學(xué)院的項(xiàng)目負(fù)責(zé)人理查德·貝茨博士說:“如此明確的證據(jù)表明閃電襲擊在英國極為罕見，與這個石圈的聯(lián)系不太可能是巧合。”

"Whether the lightning at [this site] focused on a tree or rock which is no longer there, or the monument itself attracted strikes, is uncertain. However, this remarkable evidence suggests that the forces of nature could have been intimately linked with everyday life and beliefs of the early farming communities on the island."

“目前還不確定是閃電擊中了已經(jīng)不在的樹或巖石，還是紀(jì)念碑本身吸引了閃電。然而，這一顯著的證據(jù)表明，大自然的力量可能與島上早期農(nóng)耕社區(qū)的日常生活和信仰密切相關(guān)。”

Bates is part of the Calanais Virtual Reconstruction Project, an effort to virtually reconstruct what many of these ancient sites might have looked like when they were first built. The photo at the top of this article is one such example, depicting the lost stone circle of Na Dromannan.

貝茨是Calanais虛擬重建項(xiàng)目的一部分，該項(xiàng)目旨在虛擬重建這些古代遺址最初建成時的樣子。這篇文章上面的照片就是這樣一個例子，描述了Na Dromannan丟失的石頭圈。

As part of their surveys, the team has uncovered a number of other lost circles buried beneath the peat, revealing the extent to which this region is dotted with these mysterious ancient structures.

作為調(diào)查的一部分，研究小組發(fā)現(xiàn)了埋在泥炭下面的一些其他的失落的圓圈，揭示了這個地區(qū)點(diǎn)綴著這些神秘的古代建筑的程度。

Perhaps their most startling finding, however, has been the stone circle with the lightning strike. Geophysics revealed a massive, star-shaped magnetic anomaly in the center. While it's unclear whether this anomaly was the result of a single, large lighting strike or many smaller strikes on the same spot, chances are that the stone circle was built here because of the lighting-- either to mark the spot, or perhaps to manufacture it.

然而，也許他們最令人吃驚的發(fā)現(xiàn)是被閃電擊中的石圈。地球物理學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個巨大的星狀磁異常。雖然目前還不清楚這一反?，F(xiàn)象是由于一次大規(guī)模的閃電襲擊，還是在同一地點(diǎn)發(fā)生了多次小規(guī)模的閃電襲擊，但很有可能是因?yàn)殚W電——要么是為了標(biāo)記這個地點(diǎn)，要么是為了制造它。

Further investigation has revealed that the lightning strike (or strikes) hit the spot more than 3,000 years ago, which was before the peat would have buried it. This timing lines up well with when the circles were built.

進(jìn)一步的調(diào)查顯示，早在3000多年前，這里就遭到了雷擊，當(dāng)時泥炭還沒有將其掩埋。這個時間安排與圓圈形成的時間吻合得很好。

"The dramatic results of survey ... demonstrate that we have to understand the landscapes that surrounds these ritual monuments and the role that nature and natural events, including lightning, played in creating the rituals and beliefs of people many thousands of years ago," said Professor Vincent Gaffney of the School Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bradford.

“調(diào)查的戲劇性結(jié)果.表明我們必須了解這些儀式紀(jì)念物周圍的景觀，以及大自然和自然事件，包括閃電、戲劇在千萬年前創(chuàng)造人們的儀式和信仰時所起的作用。布拉德福德大學(xué)的學(xué)?？脊趴茖W(xué)教授VincentGaffney教授說。

The project has also helped to reveal how many of these ancient stone circles are astronomically aligned. It's all part of piecing together why they were built, and what they might have signified to their builders.

該項(xiàng)目還幫助揭示了這些古代石圈中有多少是天文學(xué)上的排列。這些都是拼湊它們被建造的原因，以及它們可能對建造者意味著什么。

"There is much still to find out about the so-called 'satellite' circles of Neolithic Calanais and this provides an important first step. The modelling of Na Dromannan also helps us investigate whether this circle was astronomically aligned," added Dr. Alison Sheridan, Director of Urras nan Tursachan, the Calanais-based charitable trust that partnered with this research.

“關(guān)于新石器時代的加萊納斯所謂的‘衛(wèi)星’圈還有很多有待發(fā)現(xiàn)，這是重要的第一步。Na Dromannan的模型也幫助我們調(diào)查這個圈是否是天文上的對齊，”與這項(xiàng)研究合作的卡納伊薩亞斯慈善信托組織Urras nan Tursachan的主任艾莉森·謝里丹博士補(bǔ)充道。