An unknown goddess

無名女神

Some time ago, and interesting discovery was made by archaeologists on the Aegean island of Kea. An American team explored a temple which stands in an ancient city on the promontory of Ayia Irini. The city at one time must have been prosperous, for it enjoyed a high level of civilization. Houses -- often three storeys high -- were built of stone. They had large rooms with beautifully decorated walls. The city was equipped with a drainage system, for a great many clay pipes were found beneath the narrow streets.

The temple which the archaeologists explored was used as a place of worship from the fifteenth century B.C. until Roman times. In the most sacred room of temple, clay fragments of fifteen statues were found. Each of these represented a goddess and had, at one time, been painted. The body of one statue was found among remains dating from the fifteenth century B.C. It's missing head happened to be among remains of the fifth century B.C. This head must have been found in Classical times and carefully preserved. It was very old and precious even then. When the archaeologists reconstructed the fragments, they were amazed to find that the goddess turned out to be a very modern-looking woman. She stood three feet high and her hands rested on her hips. She was wearing a full-length skirt which swept the ground. Despite her great age, she was very graceful indeed, but, so far, the archaeologists have been unable to discover her identity.

不久之前，在愛琴海的基亞島上，考古工作者有一項有趣的發(fā)現(xiàn)。一個美國考古隊在阿伊亞.依里尼海角的一座古城里考察了一座廟宇。這座古城肯定一度很繁榮，因為它曾享有高度的文明，房子一般有3層樓高，用石塊修建。里面房間很大，墻壁裝飾華麗。城里甚至還敷設了排水系統(tǒng)，因為在狹窄的街道底下發(fā)現(xiàn)了許許多多陶土制作的排水管道。

考古工作者考察的這座廟宇從公元前15世紀直到羅馬時代一直是祭祀祈禱的場所。在廟中最神圣的一間殿堂里發(fā)現(xiàn)了15尊陶雕像的碎片。每一尊雕像代表一位女神，而且一度上過色。其中有一尊雕像，她的軀體是在公元前15世紀的歷史文物中發(fā)現(xiàn)的，而她那身異處的腦袋卻碰巧是在公元前5世紀的文物中找到的。她的腦袋一定是在古希臘羅馬時代就為人所發(fā)現(xiàn)，并受到精心的保護。卻使在當時，它也屬歷史悠久的珍奇之物�？脊殴ぷ髡甙堰@些碎片重新拼裝起來后，驚奇地發(fā)現(xiàn)那位女神原來是一位相貌十分摩登的女郎。她身高3英尺，雙手叉腰。身穿一條拖地長裙，盡管上了年紀，但體態(tài)確實優(yōu)美。不過，考古工作者至今未能確定這位女神的身份。

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