世界小史 第30章:象形文字

Now then, think what a job it must have been to decipher all that Egyptian writing when people became interested in hieroglyphs again, 200 years ago.

那么现在想一想，当人们在200年前重新对象形文字产生兴趣，要读懂所有的古埃及文字，该多么困难啊。

In fact, they were only able to decipher them because a stone had been found on which the same words were written in three scripts:

事实上，是因为如下原因才有可能读懂它们：人们找到了一块石头，在这块石头上写有三种文字：

ancient Greek, hieroglyphs and another Egyptian script.

古希腊文字、象形文字和另一种古埃及文字, 它们记载着相同内容的事情。

It was still a tremendous puzzle, and great scholars devoted their lives to it.

它仍然是一个巨大的难题，不少大学者为此努力奋斗了一辈子。

You can see that stone - it's called the Rosetta Stone - in the British Museum in London.

你可以看到那块石头--它叫罗塞塔石碑， 在伦敦的大英博物馆。

We are now able to read almost everything the Egyptians wrote.

今天我们几乎能够读懂古埃及人写的一切内容。

Not just on the walls of palaces and temples, but also in books, though the books are no longer very legible.

人们不仅能读懂在宫殿和庙宇的墙上的，而且也能读懂写在书里的，虽然书里的文字不是很清楚。

For the ancient Egyptians did have books, even that long ago.

古埃及人确实很早就已经有书了。

Of course they weren't made of paper like ours, but from a certain type of reed that grows on the banks of the Nile.

当然当时的书并非像我们一样是用纸做的，而是用尼罗河畔的一种芦苇做的。

The Greek name for these reeds is papyrus, from which our name for paper comes.

这些芦苇在希腊语中叫"莎草纸"(papyrus)，我们的"纸"(paper)这个词就是这样来的。