The wave that destroyed Atlantis
By Harvey Lilley
BBC Timewatch
The legend of Atlantis, the country that disappeared under the sea, may be more than just a myth. Research on the Greek island of Crete suggests Europe's earliest civilisation was destroyed by a giant tsunami.
亞特蘭提斯，這個從海平面上消失的國度，她的傳奇也許不再只是個神話。針對在希臘克里特島上所做的研究報告指出，這個歐洲最早的文明有可能是毀於一場巨大的海嘯。
Until about 3,500 years ago, a spectacular ancient civilisation was flourishing in the Eastern Mediterranean.
這個繁榮於地中海東部、令人嘆為觀止的古文明，在約三千五百年前倏然而止。
The ancient Minoans were building palaces, paved streets and sewers, while most Europeans were still living in primitive huts.
古邁諾安人建了宮殿、鋪設街道與下水道的時候，大部份的歐洲人尚居住在簡陋的小屋裡。
But around 1500BC the people who spawned the myths of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth abruptly disappeared. Now the mystery of their cataclysmic end may finally have been solved.
但是在西元前一千五百年左右，這些創造出Minotaur這個半人半牛神話與迷宮的人們，卻突然之間渺無蹤影。現在這個驟然間畫下休止符的謎團也許終將得已解開。
A group of scientists have uncovered new evidence that the island of Crete was hit by a massive tsunami at the same time that Minoan culture disappeared.
一個科學家小組已經發現了新的跡象，顯示克里特島曾遭逢一場大規模的海嘯，發生的時間正巧就是在邁諾安文化消失的時候。
"The geo-archaeological deposits contain a number of distinct tsunami signatures," says Dutch-born geologist Professor Hendrik Bruins of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.
"地質考古的沉積物當中含有數個明確的海嘯特徵，" 來自以色列Negev Ben-Gurion大學的荷籍地質學教授Hendrik Bruins這麼說。
"Minoan building material, pottery and cups along with food residue such as isolated animal bones were mixed up with rounded beach pebbles and sea shells and microscopic marine fauna.
"邁諾安文明使用的建材、陶器和杯子，與食物的殘渣，諸如圈養的動物骨頭，一起全部混在海灘上小圓石、貝殼與微小的海洋生物之間。
"The latter can only have been scooped up from the sea-bed by one mechanism - a powerful tsunami, dumping all these materials together in a destructive swoop," says Professor Bruins.
"只有藉威力強大的海嘯這樣的機制，才有可能將後者從海床上舀起，毀滅性的一瞬間將所有物質同時傾洩，" Bruins教授說。
The deposits are up to seven metres above sea level, well above the normal reach of storm waves.
沉積物足足高出海平面七公尺左右，遠超過一般暴風激起的大浪所能達到的高度。
"An event of ferocious force hit the coast of Crete and this wasn't just a Mediterranean storm," says Professor Bruins.
"一個地中海的暴風是不可能以這種雷霆萬鈞之勢侵襲克里特島沿岸的，" Bruins教授說。
Big wave
The Minoans were sailors and traders. Most of their towns were along the coast, making them especially vulnerable to the effects of a tsunami.
邁諾安人是水手也是商人。他們大部份的城鎮都是沿著海岸而建，使得這些城鎮格外難以抵禦海嘯的侵襲。
One of their largest settlements was at Palaikastro on the eastern edge of the island, one of the sites where Canadian archaeologist Sandy MacGillivray has been excavating for 25 years.
他們其中一座最大的聚落就建在島上東邊的Palaikastro，加拿大的考古學家Sandy MacGillivray在其中一個遺址從事挖掘工作已經有25年了。
Here, he has found other tell-tale signs such as buildings where the walls facing the sea are missing but side walls which could have survived a giant wave are left intact.
在這裡，他發現另其他幾個足以解釋所有問題的跡象，例如，好幾幢房屋朝海的那幾面牆全部不見，而可能遭到巨浪侵襲後倖存的側面牆則依舊完好。
"All of a sudden a lot of the deposits began making sense to us," says MacGillivary.
"突然之間，對我們來說，那麼多的沉積物就解釋得通了，"
"Even though the town of Palaikastro is a port it stretched hundreds of metres into the hinterland and is, in places, at least 15 metres above sea level. This was a big wave."
"雖然Palaikastro是座港口，但這個城鎮朝內陸延伸了幾百公尺，有幾個地方甚至高出海平面15公尺。這是個巨浪。"
But if this evidence is so clear why has it not been discovered before now?
但是，如果證據是這麼的明確，為什麼之前沒被發現呢?
Tsunami expert Costas Synolakis, from the University of Southern California, says that the study of ancient tsunamis is in its infancy and people have not, until now, really known what to look for.
來自南加州大學的海嘯專家Costas Synolakis表示，對於研究古代所發生的海嘯還在初期的階段，一直到現在人們才真正了解要找的是什麼。
Many scientists are still of the view that these waves only blasted material away and did not leave much behind in the way of deposits.
許多科學家仍持著這樣的觀點，認為大浪只會將一切物質摧毀殆盡而不會留下太多的沉積物。
But observation of the Asian tsunami of 2004 changed all that.
但是2004年南亞海嘯的觀察報告卻將之全然改觀。
"If you remember the video footage," says Costas, "some of it showed tonnes of debris being carried along by the wave and much of it was deposited inland."
"如果你對電視幾個鏡頭還有印象，" Costas說，"大浪一路挾帶了幾公噸的碎石瓦礫，而大部份都沉積在內陸。"
Volcanic eruption
Costas Synolakis has come to the conclusion that the wave would have been as powerful as the one that devastated the coastlines of Thailand and Sri Lanka on Boxing day 2004 leading to the loss of over 250,000 lives.
Costas Synolakis已做出了一個結論，他認為在這裡曾遭逢的巨浪威力可能與發生在2004年耶誕節次日導致超過二十五萬人喪生並且蹂躪泰國及斯里蘭卡沿岸的海嘯是一樣的。
After decades studying the Minoans, MacGillivray is struck by the scale of the destruction.
以他幾十年下來對邁諾安人的研究，MacGillivray對破壞的規模有所感觸。
"The Minoans are so confident in their navy that they're living in unprotected cities all along the coastline. Now, you go to Bande Aceh [in Indonesia] and you find that the mortality rate is 80%. If we're looking at a similar mortality rate, that's the end of the Minoans."
"邁諾安人對他們的海軍是那麼的有信心，所以他們沿著岸邊居住在不設防的城市。現在你到印尼的亞齊省去，你會發現死亡率是八成。如果是同樣的死亡率，那就是邁諾安人的末日。"
But what caused the tsunami? The scientists have obtained radiocarbon dates for the deposits that show the tsunami could have hit the coast at exactly the same time as an eruption of the Santorini volcano, 70 km north of Crete, in the middle of the second millennium BC.
但，是什麼引發了海嘯? 科學家對沉積物做碳-14定年法所測得的時間，也就是海嘯侵襲的那個時間，與克里特島北方70公里處的聖托里尼火山爆發時間相當穩合，約是在西元前第二個千禧年中間。
Recent scientific work has established that the Santorini eruption was up to 10 times more powerful than the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. It caused massive climatic disruption and the blast was heard over 3000 miles away.
最新的科學已證實聖托里尼火山爆發的威力相較1883年Krakatoa(克雷克吐爾)火山爆發足足有10倍大。Krakatoa造成了氣候的混亂，產生的爆炸聲遠在三千哩外都聽得見。
Costas Synolakis thinks that the collapse of Santorini's giant volcanic cone into the sea during the eruption was the mechanism that generated a wave large enough to destroy the Minoan coastal towns.
Costas Synolakis認為聖托里尼火山在爆發時，巨大的火山錐崩塌到海裡所產生的浪，大到足以毀掉邁諾安沿海的城鎮。
It is not clear if the tsunami could have reached inland to the Minoan capital at Knossos, but the fallout from the volcano would have carried other consequences - massive ash falls and crop failure. With their ports, trading fleet and navy destroyed, the Minoans would never have fully recovered.
海嘯是否侵襲至內陸的邁諾安首都克諾索斯，目前尚不清楚，但是火山爆發的餘波必定招至其它的後果 – 大規模的落塵以及農作物的欠收。由於他們的港口、貿易艦隊及海軍都被摧毀，邁諾安人要完全恢復到原狀是不可能的。
The myth of Atlantis, the city state that was lost beneath the sea, was first mentioned by Plato over 2000 years ago.
亞特蘭提斯的神話，這個消失於海面下的城邦，最初是兩千年前由柏拉圖所提及。
It has had a hold on the popular imagination for centuries.
幾百年來一直支配著眾人的想像。
Perhaps we now have an explanation of its origin - a folk memory of a real ancient civilisation swallowed by the sea.
一段民間記憶記載了一個真實存在但最後卻被大海吞沒的古老文明 – 也許我們現在可以解釋它的由來了。
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/6568053.stm
Published: 2007/04/20 08:05:45 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
By Harvey Lilley
BBC Timewatch
The legend of Atlantis, the country that disappeared under the sea, may be more than just a myth. Research on the Greek island of Crete suggests Europe's earliest civilisation was destroyed by a giant tsunami.
亞特蘭提斯，這個從海平面上消失的國度，她的傳奇也許不再只是個神話。針對在希臘克里特島上所做的研究報告指出，這個歐洲最早的文明有可能是毀於一場巨大的海嘯。
Until about 3,500 years ago, a spectacular ancient civilisation was flourishing in the Eastern Mediterranean.
這個繁榮於地中海東部、令人嘆為觀止的古文明，在約三千五百年前倏然而止。
The ancient Minoans were building palaces, paved streets and sewers, while most Europeans were still living in primitive huts.
古邁諾安人建了宮殿、鋪設街道與下水道的時候，大部份的歐洲人尚居住在簡陋的小屋裡。
But around 1500BC the people who spawned the myths of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth abruptly disappeared. Now the mystery of their cataclysmic end may finally have been solved.
但是在西元前一千五百年左右，這些創造出Minotaur這個半人半牛神話與迷宮的人們，卻突然之間渺無蹤影。現在這個驟然間畫下休止符的謎團也許終將得已解開。
A group of scientists have uncovered new evidence that the island of Crete was hit by a massive tsunami at the same time that Minoan culture disappeared.
一個科學家小組已經發現了新的跡象，顯示克里特島曾遭逢一場大規模的海嘯，發生的時間正巧就是在邁諾安文化消失的時候。
"The geo-archaeological deposits contain a number of distinct tsunami signatures," says Dutch-born geologist Professor Hendrik Bruins of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.
"地質考古的沉積物當中含有數個明確的海嘯特徵，" 來自以色列Negev Ben-Gurion大學的荷籍地質學教授Hendrik Bruins這麼說。
"Minoan building material, pottery and cups along with food residue such as isolated animal bones were mixed up with rounded beach pebbles and sea shells and microscopic marine fauna.
"邁諾安文明使用的建材、陶器和杯子，與食物的殘渣，諸如圈養的動物骨頭，一起全部混在海灘上小圓石、貝殼與微小的海洋生物之間。
"The latter can only have been scooped up from the sea-bed by one mechanism - a powerful tsunami, dumping all these materials together in a destructive swoop," says Professor Bruins.
"只有藉威力強大的海嘯這樣的機制，才有可能將後者從海床上舀起，毀滅性的一瞬間將所有物質同時傾洩，" Bruins教授說。
The deposits are up to seven metres above sea level, well above the normal reach of storm waves.
沉積物足足高出海平面七公尺左右，遠超過一般暴風激起的大浪所能達到的高度。
"An event of ferocious force hit the coast of Crete and this wasn't just a Mediterranean storm," says Professor Bruins.
"一個地中海的暴風是不可能以這種雷霆萬鈞之勢侵襲克里特島沿岸的，" Bruins教授說。
Big wave
The Minoans were sailors and traders. Most of their towns were along the coast, making them especially vulnerable to the effects of a tsunami.
邁諾安人是水手也是商人。他們大部份的城鎮都是沿著海岸而建，使得這些城鎮格外難以抵禦海嘯的侵襲。
One of their largest settlements was at Palaikastro on the eastern edge of the island, one of the sites where Canadian archaeologist Sandy MacGillivray has been excavating for 25 years.
他們其中一座最大的聚落就建在島上東邊的Palaikastro，加拿大的考古學家Sandy MacGillivray在其中一個遺址從事挖掘工作已經有25年了。
Here, he has found other tell-tale signs such as buildings where the walls facing the sea are missing but side walls which could have survived a giant wave are left intact.
在這裡，他發現另其他幾個足以解釋所有問題的跡象，例如，好幾幢房屋朝海的那幾面牆全部不見，而可能遭到巨浪侵襲後倖存的側面牆則依舊完好。
"All of a sudden a lot of the deposits began making sense to us," says MacGillivary.
"突然之間，對我們來說，那麼多的沉積物就解釋得通了，"
"Even though the town of Palaikastro is a port it stretched hundreds of metres into the hinterland and is, in places, at least 15 metres above sea level. This was a big wave."
"雖然Palaikastro是座港口，但這個城鎮朝內陸延伸了幾百公尺，有幾個地方甚至高出海平面15公尺。這是個巨浪。"
But if this evidence is so clear why has it not been discovered before now?
但是，如果證據是這麼的明確，為什麼之前沒被發現呢?
Tsunami expert Costas Synolakis, from the University of Southern California, says that the study of ancient tsunamis is in its infancy and people have not, until now, really known what to look for.
來自南加州大學的海嘯專家Costas Synolakis表示，對於研究古代所發生的海嘯還在初期的階段，一直到現在人們才真正了解要找的是什麼。
Many scientists are still of the view that these waves only blasted material away and did not leave much behind in the way of deposits.
許多科學家仍持著這樣的觀點，認為大浪只會將一切物質摧毀殆盡而不會留下太多的沉積物。
But observation of the Asian tsunami of 2004 changed all that.
但是2004年南亞海嘯的觀察報告卻將之全然改觀。
"If you remember the video footage," says Costas, "some of it showed tonnes of debris being carried along by the wave and much of it was deposited inland."
"如果你對電視幾個鏡頭還有印象，" Costas說，"大浪一路挾帶了幾公噸的碎石瓦礫，而大部份都沉積在內陸。"
Volcanic eruption
Costas Synolakis has come to the conclusion that the wave would have been as powerful as the one that devastated the coastlines of Thailand and Sri Lanka on Boxing day 2004 leading to the loss of over 250,000 lives.
Costas Synolakis已做出了一個結論，他認為在這裡曾遭逢的巨浪威力可能與發生在2004年耶誕節次日導致超過二十五萬人喪生並且蹂躪泰國及斯里蘭卡沿岸的海嘯是一樣的。
After decades studying the Minoans, MacGillivray is struck by the scale of the destruction.
以他幾十年下來對邁諾安人的研究，MacGillivray對破壞的規模有所感觸。
"The Minoans are so confident in their navy that they're living in unprotected cities all along the coastline. Now, you go to Bande Aceh [in Indonesia] and you find that the mortality rate is 80%. If we're looking at a similar mortality rate, that's the end of the Minoans."
"邁諾安人對他們的海軍是那麼的有信心，所以他們沿著岸邊居住在不設防的城市。現在你到印尼的亞齊省去，你會發現死亡率是八成。如果是同樣的死亡率，那就是邁諾安人的末日。"
But what caused the tsunami? The scientists have obtained radiocarbon dates for the deposits that show the tsunami could have hit the coast at exactly the same time as an eruption of the Santorini volcano, 70 km north of Crete, in the middle of the second millennium BC.
但，是什麼引發了海嘯? 科學家對沉積物做碳-14定年法所測得的時間，也就是海嘯侵襲的那個時間，與克里特島北方70公里處的聖托里尼火山爆發時間相當穩合，約是在西元前第二個千禧年中間。
Recent scientific work has established that the Santorini eruption was up to 10 times more powerful than the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. It caused massive climatic disruption and the blast was heard over 3000 miles away.
最新的科學已證實聖托里尼火山爆發的威力相較1883年Krakatoa(克雷克吐爾)火山爆發足足有10倍大。Krakatoa造成了氣候的混亂，產生的爆炸聲遠在三千哩外都聽得見。
Costas Synolakis thinks that the collapse of Santorini's giant volcanic cone into the sea during the eruption was the mechanism that generated a wave large enough to destroy the Minoan coastal towns.
Costas Synolakis認為聖托里尼火山在爆發時，巨大的火山錐崩塌到海裡所產生的浪，大到足以毀掉邁諾安沿海的城鎮。
It is not clear if the tsunami could have reached inland to the Minoan capital at Knossos, but the fallout from the volcano would have carried other consequences - massive ash falls and crop failure. With their ports, trading fleet and navy destroyed, the Minoans would never have fully recovered.
海嘯是否侵襲至內陸的邁諾安首都克諾索斯，目前尚不清楚，但是火山爆發的餘波必定招至其它的後果 – 大規模的落塵以及農作物的欠收。由於他們的港口、貿易艦隊及海軍都被摧毀，邁諾安人要完全恢復到原狀是不可能的。
The myth of Atlantis, the city state that was lost beneath the sea, was first mentioned by Plato over 2000 years ago.
亞特蘭提斯的神話，這個消失於海面下的城邦，最初是兩千年前由柏拉圖所提及。
It has had a hold on the popular imagination for centuries.
幾百年來一直支配著眾人的想像。
Perhaps we now have an explanation of its origin - a folk memory of a real ancient civilisation swallowed by the sea.
一段民間記憶記載了一個真實存在但最後卻被大海吞沒的古老文明 – 也許我們現在可以解釋它的由來了。
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/6568053.stm
Published: 2007/04/20 08:05:45 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
※在經歷這樣大規模的毀滅後，考古學家發現存活下來的邁諾安人之間可能爆發了宗教危機，神殿和神像被刻意砸毀、焚燒。導致那些曾經支撐了這個璀璨文明好一段時間的價值與信仰逐漸崩解。
在另一篇報導裡曾引用詩人艾略特在The Hollow Man幾句著名的詩句:
This is the way the world ends 就這樣世界終結
This is the way the world ends 就這樣世界終結
This is the way the world ends 就這樣世界終結
Not with a bang but a whimper 不發轟然巨響而只嗚咽
在另一篇報導裡曾引用詩人艾略特在The Hollow Man幾句著名的詩句:
This is the way the world ends 就這樣世界終結
This is the way the world ends 就這樣世界終結
This is the way the world ends 就這樣世界終結
Not with a bang but a whimper 不發轟然巨響而只嗚咽
對邁諾安人來說，似乎他們的世界是在轟然巨響與嗚咽聲中同時瓦解。
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