By Neil Arun BBC News
Alexander the Great's awe-inspiring conquest of Asia is drawing archaeologists to a desert island off the shores of Iraq.
亞歷山大大帝征服亞洲的豐功偉業吸引考古學家們前來伊拉克岸邊的荒島.
Greek government experts are going to Failaka - a Gulf outpost of Alexander's army, now governed by Kuwait.
希臘政府指派的專家們來到Failaka - 一個亞歷山大軍隊的海灣軍事基地,現由科威特所管理.
The island's bullet-holed buildings tell of a conflict still fresh in people's memories - Saddam Hussein's brief occupation of Kuwait in the early 1990s.
島上佈滿彈孔的建築物訴說著一段人們記憶猶新的衝突 - Saddam Hussein在1990年初短暫的佔據科威特.
Beneath the sun-baked sands of Failaka, archaeologists hope to unearth the secrets of an earlier conquest - a settlement established by Alexander's general, Nearchus, in the 4th Century BC.
在Failaka曬乾了的沙土下,考古學家們期盼能挖掘出更早期征服的秘密 - 一個由亞歷山大的將軍Nearchus在西元前400年時所建的殖民地.
The excavations will focus on the ruins of an ancient citadel and cemetery, the general secretary of the Greek culture ministry, Christos Zahopoulos, told the BBC News website.
挖掘工作主要的重點是古要塞及公墓的廢墟. 希臘文化部秘書長Christos Zahopoulos告訴BBC新聞網.
Earlier work by French archaeologists has uncovered the remnants of a temple to Artemis, the Greek goddess of hunting, as well as several Greek coins and idols.
初期挖掘工作中,法國考古學家發現了希臘狩獵女神Artemis神殿的遺蹟,以及一些希臘的錢幣和偶像.
'The first globalisation'
According to Michael Wood, the author of a book on Alexander, the period after the conqueror's death saw Hellenistic culture take root across a broad swathe of land, from India to Egypt.
根據一本描寫亞歷山大之書的作者Michael Wood所說, 在這位偉大的征服者死後,希臘文化已經根植在橫跨印度到埃及的大片土地上.
He cites the example of Uruk, a site near Basra in southern Iraq, where inscriptions have been found bearing the names of the local ruling class.
他引用Uruk為例, 在接近伊拉克南邊靠近Basra一處地點,發現了刻有當地統治階層名字的碑文.
The names, Wood says, are a hybrid of ancient Babylonian and Greek titles - and they date to several hundred years after Alexander's death.
Wood說,這些名字是混雜著古巴比倫與希臘所使用的頭銜 - 他們是在亞歷山大死後幾百年的時間.
Alexander's conquest of Asia also accelerated commerce in his colonies, giving rise to what Wood describes as "the first globalisation".
亞歷山大征服亞洲也加速了他所建立殖民地間的交流, 引發了如同Wood所描述的"第一波的全球化".
Failaka's position, at the point where the Tigris and Euphrates pour into the Gulf, means it would have been ideally placed to exploit this economic boom.
Failaka的地理位置位於底格里斯河與幼發拉底河注入海灣之處, 意味著她定是一個可以利用其經濟繁榮來謀利的好地方.
Mr Wood says the Greek team's findings may reveal more of how the ancient civilisations of the Gulf thrived on trade with their contemporaries in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley.
Mr Wood說, 希臘的團隊的發現可以揭露更多關於這個位於波斯灣的古老文明是如何成功的與當代美索不達米亞與印度河谷的人做買賣.
The Greek archaeologists will begin their excavations in November, Greece's culture ministry says.
希臘的文化部長表示,希臘考古學家將在11月開始進行他們此次的挖掘工作.
Much of the work will be centred around the site of the ancient town of Icarea.
大部份的工作會以Icarea這個古老的城鎮為中心開始進行.
According to Mr Zahopoulos, the team will also carry out restoration on artefacts and ruins that have already been unearthed.
據Zahopoulos所說, 這個團隊將會同時對已出土的藝術品及廢墟進行修復工作.
Civilian flight
Alexander was born in 356BC to the king of Macedon, in northern Greece.
亞歷山大出生於西元前356年,是希臘北部馬其頓的國王.
By his early thirties, he had conquered much of the ancient world, from Egypt to India.
在他30歲的時候, 就已經征服了大部份的舊世界, 從埃及一直到印度.
He died at the age of 33 of a high fever in Babylon, in what is now Iraq.
他在33歲的時候因為高燒死在巴比倫, 就是現在的伊拉克.
Failaka's name is thought to descend from the Greek word for outpost - "fylakio".
Failaka這個名字被認為是源於希臘字"fylakio",就是前哨基地的意思.
Before the Greeks arrived, the island had been inhabited by the Bronze Age Dilmun civilisation.
在希臘人來到之前, 青銅器時代的Dilmun文明就已經存在這個島上.
By the time Saddam Hussein's troops invaded in 1990, the island had become the longest continually-inhabited site in Kuwait.
一直到1990年Saddam Hussein的軍隊入侵, 這個島已經成為科威特時間最長的反覆棲息地.
Most of the civilian population fled for the mainland during the Iraqi occupation. Few have returned.
為了躲避伊拉克的入侵,大部份居民都逃到大陸去. 幾乎沒什麼人回來.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6930285.stm
Published: 2007/08/07 09:58:47 GMT
© BBC MMVII
註:Dilmun,為古代兩河流域和巴林沿海一帶青銅器時代的古文明,時間約為西元前 3000 多年.
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