The latest Archaeological Discovery in the Ancles By modern standards, the hostile summit of Mount Llullaillaco, in the Arge

admin2013-07-08  41

问题                  The latest Archaeological Discovery in the Ancles
    By modern standards, the hostile summit of Mount Llullaillaco, in the Argentine Andes, is no place for kids. The ancient Inca saw things differently though, and so it was that one day, some 500 years ago, three children ascended the frigid and treacherous upper slopes of the 22,000-ft. peak. The three had spent time at the 17, 000-ft. level, taking part in rituals that can only be guessed at. Now, accompanied by a retinue of adults, they moved steadily upward. They would not return. Once at the summit, the children— two girls and a boy, between 8 and 15 years old—would be ritually sacrificed and entombed beneath 5 ft. of rocky rubble. They may even have been buried alive.
    And there the story might have ended but for the tireless efforts of Johan Reinhard, an independent archaeologist funded by the National Geographic Society. Reinhard’s specialty is scaling the Andes in search of sacrificial remains; he had already located 15 bodies, including the famed ice maiden he found in 1995. But these three, whose discovery he announced last week, are by far the most impressive. They were frozen solid within hours of their burial. Two of the bodies are almost perfectly preserved; the third was evidently (damaged by lightning. The children’s internal organs are not only intact but also still contain blood. Says Craig Morris, an expert on Andean archaeology at New York City’s American Museum of Natural History: "It is truly a fantastic discovery."
    What makes it so fantastic is not just the bodies themselves, but also the wealth of artifacts that were buried along with them: 36 gold and silver statues, small woven bags, a ceramic vessel, leather sandals, a small llama figure and seashell necklaces. One of the girls, says Reinhard, "has a beautiful yellow, geometrically designed cover laid over her." Her head sports a plume of feathers and a golden mask.
    Some of the bodies were provisioned with bundles of food wrapped in alpaca skin, which indicates that the children came from the Incan social elite—not surprising, since only people of high status would have been considered worthy of sacrifice. Little is known about the sacrificial ceremony itself; these objects, along with others found at the lower camp, should tell archaeologists plenty.
    The preserved bodies, meanwhile, will give scientists an unprecedented look at Incan physiology. Reinhard and his team took care to pack the children in plastic, snow and insulating foam before hauling them down the mountain, and the Argentine military whisked them off to the nearby town of Salta. There, experts will analyze their stomachs to find out what they ate for their last meal, their organs for clues about their diet and their DNA to try and establish their relationship to other ethnic groups. Reinhard will head back into the mountains. There is no telling how many more bodies remain to be found.
From the first paragraph we learn that ______.

选项 A、the summit of Mount Llullaiilaco was not hostile in the past
B、ancient Incans used to hold sacrificial rituals on top of the mountain
C、burying children alive was a common practice in ancient Incan society
D、the three children made the mountain climbing by themselves

答案B

解析 推理判断题。这一段描述了古印加人把孩子送到山顶祭祀的事情,由此可见古印加人曾经在山顶举行祭祀仪式。Hostile用于环境时通常表达的意思是“不利的,危险的,恶劣的”,山顶的自然环境在过去和现在并没有太大差别,因此[A]项是错误的。作者对于这些孩子的死亡方式用了might一词表示猜测,可见没有确凿的证据证明把孩子活埋是古印加社会常见的活动,所以[C]项不对。[D]项是错的,因为文中提到了accompaniedby a retinue of adults,说明他们是在成人的护送下登山的。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/NzO4777K
0

最新回复(0)