普通高中课程标准实验教科书英语选修高二下选修8 Unit 5 Meeting your ancestors-Readin
A GREAT ARCHAEOLOGICAL
DISCOVERY IN THE 20TH CENTURY
This was one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. Its find was as dramatic and exciting as the discovery itself. Here is the story.
The first hint
The first hint that led to the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamun was on November 4th, 1922. Howard Carter, the excavator, noted in his diary:
"At about 10 am I discovered underneath the first hut the first step of the entrance to the tomb ... It seemed like a staircase(楼梯) to a tomb of the type of the 18th Dynasty but nothing more could be discovered till the rubbish was cleared away."
The next day Carter and his team removed the rubbish from the staircase to find the remains of a doorway that was still fastened. This was very significant as it was clearly a tomb of somebody important, and it had not been robbed. He noticed some of the wall had fallen away and when he looked inside, he saw a corridor completely filled with stones and rubbish.
On November 26th, 1922 Carter's colleagues from England came to see what he had found. They started to remove the rubbish from the corridor.
The find
When Carter got to the second sealed doorway, he made a small hole to see what was inside that room or passageway (antechamber a room in front of an important room) and put a candle inside to get a better view. Everyone with him waited eagerly. He widened the hole and let the others look inside too. In his diary he describes their astonishment at the marvellous(绝妙的) collection of treasures. They included: two strange black statues of the king, wearing gold shoes and carrying royal insignia(徽章); gold chairs decorated with the heads of animals and gods; beautifully painted boxes; flowers; vases decorated with some beautiful flower designs; strange black boxes; white chests; a golden seat for the Pharaoh(法老) and lastly a cart made of gold.
Their first impression was of a room filled with treasure from another civilization. They felt amazement, shock and surprise, and they couldn't help asking themselves, "Was it a collection hidden from thieves or the doorway to a Pharaoh's tomb?"
The tomb
On February 17th of the next year they eventually came to what all archaeologists dream of - an unopened tomb of an Egyptian Pharaoh. The room or burial chamber with the king's body contained boxes of all shapes and sizes. One held the king's body and had his name on it, so they knew whose tomb it was. When it was examined, it was found that the body had been turned into a mummy(木乃伊) and placed within three boxes, one inside the other. One of the boxes was made of pure gold. Another smaller box beside the Pharaoh's body held the four jars containing the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines(肠) of the Pharaoh. In all there were more than 6,000 objects found in the tomb. Carter described the sight as "'one that was greater than any other and one we never dreamed of seeing. We were astonished by the beauty and refinement of the art displayed by the objects, which was greater than we could have imagined."
