Ancient mysteries revealed in Turkmen desert sands
土库曼斯坦沙漠发现古代神秘文明
来源：法国新闻社（Agence France Presse, AFP）
时间：2013年4月6日
译者： 严小呆、恶魔猎手
编辑：伏维阁主
地址：
数个世纪以前，在土库曼斯坦（Turkmenistan）西部，卡拉库姆沙漠（Kara Kum）还未将Gonur-Tepe掩埋。早在四千多年以前，这里曾经是一处要塞，并且酝酿了一个举世罕见的先进文明。
Gonur-Tepe在上个世纪借前苏联考古学家之手重现天日。在此后的每次夏季挖掘中，考古学家都能在此发现新的手工制品。这个曾有数千居民的繁华中心，慢慢向世人揭开了它神秘的面纱。
这一地区规模宏大，占地超过30万平方米，需要从空中鸟瞰才能看得完整。它周围环绕着无数壁垒，就像迷宫一般矗立在沙漠中心。
Gonur-Tepe遗址距离著名古城梅尔夫（Merv）只有50千米。而梅尔夫古城位于现代都市马雷（Marry）边缘。Gonur-Tepe遗址代表了土库曼斯坦灿烂辉煌的古代文明，尽管它现在是世界上最与世隔绝的国家之一。
公元前2000年左右，Gonur-Tepe是Margush 和Margiana地区居民最主要的聚居地，这里也是一个远古文明的发源地——这个文明异常先进，但却鲜为人知。
在苏联时期，著名考古学家维克托·萨瑞阿尼迪（Viktor Sarianidi）在沙漠和灌木丛中挖掘出这片遗址。萨瑞阿尼迪教授今年已届84岁高龄，今夏他即将再次在这里展开挖掘工作。
他告诉法新社：“我到现在还清楚地记得，当我第一次发现这考古学的宝藏时，内心是多么激动——即将引起轰动的发现就在我脚下。”
在每一个挖掘季，Gonur-Tepe都会诞生不少新发现。它们充分展示了青铜器时代这座曾有上千人口的城镇的工艺水平。
当时，镇上的能工巧匠已经使用模具来熔铸金属。他们也掌握了打造金银饰品、制作祭祀用具以及制作骨雕和石雕的技术。
考古学家Nadezhda Dubova说：“当时技术的成熟度让我们大为惊讶。手工艺者们已经知道如何利用高温来改变石头的自然形态，以及如何给它们上釉以方便储存。”
她还介绍说：“今年，Gonur再次给我们带来惊喜。我们在这里出土了一块奇特的马赛克镶嵌装饰。”而这件文物的年代甚至比希腊和罗马的马赛克工艺出现的年代还要古老。
穆尔加布河（Morghab）三角洲地区拥有大量城市和定居点。而Gonur-Tepe遗址正位于该城镇网络的中心。
Gonur-Tepe距离马雷城中心区约有三小时车程——前两小时行驶在颠簸的柏油路上，途经现在已经一片荒芜的前集体田地；还有一小时则需要披荆斩棘，在沙漠灌木丛中穿行而过。
距首都阿什哈巴德（Ashgabat）380公里的马雷城，是土库曼斯坦一座典型的省级城市。该城有20万人口，建筑多为苏联风格。城中有大量低层建筑，并且有一条铁路。
而在距马雷30公里处，坐落着梅尔夫古城遗址。早在阿契美尼德王朝（Achaemenid Persians）时期，梅尔夫就拥有重要地位，并在公元12世纪突厥人治下达到全盛。
然而在1221年，蒙古人将梅尔夫城洗劫一空，数万居民死亡，梅尔夫从此走向没落，其残址如同当年的Gonur-Tepe一样，为人所弃。
梅尔夫古城中最著名的宝藏是一座保存完好的陵墓。墓的主人名为塞尔柱·苏丹·桑贾尔（Seljuk Sultan Sanjar）。在他统治期间，梅尔夫城的人口数达到20万，它差不多是当时世界上居住人口最多的城市。
在塞尔柱的陵墓上方，有一个直径逾17米的圆顶。土库曼斯坦建筑史学家罗斯兰·穆拉多夫（RuslanMuradov）告诉法新社，这个设计拥有划时代的意义。
他说，这个穹顶的设计“甚至比文艺复兴时期伟大的建筑师菲利波·布鲁内列斯基（Filippo Brunelleschi）的构想还要早300年”。正是菲利波建造了佛罗伦萨主教堂的大穹顶。
但梅尔夫古城与Gonur-Tepe的知名度截然不同。早在沙皇时代，在现今的土库曼斯坦还只是俄国一个边远哨站的时候，梅尔夫古城就被发掘出来。它在1999年被联合国教科文组织评定为世界文化遗产，直至今日。
马雷历史博物馆的史学家维克多·杜里克（Viktor Turik）说，现在考古学家的发现与马雷地区埋藏的巨大宝藏相比，只不过是九牛一毛。
他说：“在马雷共有354处考古遗址，但至今其中95%都没有被专业人士考察过。”
土库曼斯坦虽然是世界上最冷清的国家之一，但每年仍有一些外国游客前来探访。他们大都参加了某类特别旅游团。马雷城中只有三所旅馆，不过土库曼斯坦总统库尔班古力·别尔德穆哈梅多夫（GurbangulyBerdymukhamedov）近期已经下令，要建造一座拥有350床位的酒店。此举显然是为了促进当地旅游业的发展。
另一方面，出土的金银器具亟待进行大量的维修保护。究竟要怎么对待这些稀世奇珍，仍是个悬而未决的问题。
土库曼斯坦国家遗产部的一位员工表示，他们此前曾与巴黎卢浮宫文物部门洽谈过合作项目，可惜后来未能成功。
这位不愿透露姓名的员工说：“在土库曼斯坦博物馆的仓库里还收藏着大量举世无双的文化遗珍，等待人们来一探究竟。”
原文：
Over four millennia ago, the fortress town of Gonur-Tepe might have been a rare advanced civilisation before it was buried for centuries under the dust of the Kara Kum desert in remote western Turkmenistan.
After being uncovered by Soviet archaeologists in the last century, Gonur-Tepe, once home to thousands of people and the centre of a thriving region, is gradually revealing its mysteries with new artifacts being uncovered on every summer dig.
The scale of the huge complex which spans some 30 hectares can only be properly appreciated from the air, from where the former buildings look like a maze in the desert surrounded by vast walls.
Just 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the celebrated ancient city of Merv outside the modern city of Mary, the ruins of Gonur-Tepe are an indication of the archeological riches of Turkmenistan, one of the most isolated countries in the world.
Around 2,000 BC, Gonur-Tepe was the main settlement of the Margush or Margiana region that was home to one of the most sophisticated, but little-known Bronze Age civilisations.
The site — which until the last century was covered by desert and scrub — was uncovered in Soviet times by the celebrated archeologist Viktor Sarianidi who, at the age of 84, is about to spend another summer working on the site.
“I remember so well my joy when I first encountered this archaeological Klondike. A sensation right under your feet,” the Russian professor told AFP.
Every digging season at Gonur-Tepe yields new discoveries showing the quality of the craftsmanship of the Bronze Age artisans in the town which at the time would likely have been home to thousands of residents.
The town’s craftsmen could mould metal, make silver and gold trinkets, create materials for cult worship and carve bone and stone.
“It’s amazing to what extent the people possessed advanced techniques. The craftsmen learned how to change the form of natural stone at a high temperature and then glazed it so that it was preserved,” said archeologist Nadezhda Dubova.
“This year, Gonur has given us another surprise, a fantastic mosaic,” she said, noting that such an object pre-dated the standard era of mosaic-making in Greek and Roman antiquity.
The ruins of Gonur-Tepe are the centrepiece of a network of towns and settlements in the delta region of the river Morghab that flows through Turkmenistan from its source in Afghanistan.
Gonur-Tepe is a three-hour drive from the provincial centre of Mary — two hours along a bumpy asphalt road that passes former collective farms that have now fallen into disuse, and then another hour-long slog through the desert scrub.
Mary, 380 kilometres from the capital Ashgabat, is a typical Turkmen provincial city, home to 200,000 people and largely built in the Soviet style with a railway connection and low-rise apartment buildings.
Some 30 kilometres (19 miles) outside Mary lies the other great glory of the region — the great ruined city of Merv, whose importance goes back to the time of the Achaemenid Persians and reached a peak under Turkic rule in the 12th century AD.
Merv went into terminal decline after it was sacked by the Mongols in 1221 in a deadly conquest that left tens of thousands dead. Its ruins are as deserted as those of Gonur-Tepe.
Its greatest treasure is the still preserved mausoleum of the Seljuk Sultan Sanjar under whose rule Merv was a city of 200,000 people and briefly one of the most heavily populated settlements in the world.
The mausoleum, which is crowned by a cupola with a diameter of over 17 metres, was revolutionary in its design, Turkmen architectural historian RuslanMuradov told AFP.
The design of the dome “anticipates by 300 years the ideas of the great Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi” who designed the great dome of the cathedral in Florence, he said.
Unlike the ruins of Gonur-Tepe, ancient Merv was excavated as far back as Tsarist times when today’s Turkmenistan was a far-flung outpost of the Russian Empire. It has been listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1999.
Archaeologists have only just begun to scratch the surface of the huge riches of the Mary region, said Viktor Turik, a historian who works at the Mary history museum.
“In the region there are 354 archeological monuments, 95 percent of which have, until now, not been studied by experts,” he said.
Turkmenistan remains one of the most isolated countries in the world but still sees a trickle of foreign tourists every year, mostly on organised special interest tours.
Mary has just three hotels although President GurbangulyBerdymukhamedov has recently ordered the construction of a new 350-bed hotel in an apparent bid to boost tourism.
Meanwhile the question remains about what to do with the extraordinary silver and gold artefacts that are being unearthed in the region but which need painstaking restoration and conservation.
An employee of Turkmenistan’s national heritage department said a joint project had been mooted with the antiquities department of the Louvre in Paris, but had fallen through.
“Many unique discoveries which are like nothing in the world are waiting their moments in the storage departments of Turkmen museums,” said the employee who asked not to be named
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