Ere Babylon was dust
Apr 10th 2008
From The Economist print edition
一场引人入胜的展览正在巴黎举行，这是一次对巴比伦历史，传说和艺术的探索之旅，展览的另外两站将是柏林和伦敦。
A fascinating exhibition exploring the history, legends and art of Babylon is now in Paris and will be moving on to Berlin and London
不同的人对巴比伦有着不同的解读。对于犹太人来说，他们的祖先在公元前586年被尼布甲尼撒二世从耶路撒冷掳掠至此，囚禁在巴比伦的河边，暗自伤怀。《创世记》中宣称正是这些犹太人建造了巴别塔，虽然并没有物证证明它的存在（同样不能证明的还有古代"世界七大奇迹"之一的"空中花园"）。
THE city has been all things to all men. To Jews, whose ancestors had been taken in captivity from Jerusalem in 586BC by King Nebuchadnezzar II, the rivers of Babylon were where they sat down and wept. Genesis claims that these Jews went on to build the Tower of Babel, although there is no physical evidence of its existence (or of the Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world).
Reformation Christians depicted Babylon as a whore, dedicated to orgies and feasting; Martin Luther compared the Rome of his day with ancient Babylon.
考古学家则持另一种看法。他们证明巴比伦是当时改革的中心，号称"宇宙之城"，它的历史可追溯到公元前3000年，并一直延续到公元前323年亚历山大大帝在巴比伦去世时。它在医药，天文学，占星术，数学和银行业方面都堪称一个伟大的改革者。甚至，古巴比伦人可能已经相信地球是圆的。
Archaeologists tell a different story. They show that Babylon was a centre of innovation, regarding itself as "the cosmic city", with a history stretching back to the third millennium BC and lasting until the death of Alexander the Great in Babylon in 323BC. It was a great innovator in medicine, astronomy, astrology, mathematics and banking; the Babylonians may even have believed that the world was round.
这些成就因为记录在经过太阳炙烤，经久耐用的陶板上而得以保存，已不再是秘密。然而，要想对它们有一个全面的了解，就意味着要访遍巴黎的卢浮宫，柏林的贝加蒙博物馆和伦敦的大英博物馆，关于巴比伦文明的重要考古发现都收藏在这三大博物馆里。不过，现在暂时不需要这么劳累了。巴黎正在举办一个旨在印证巴比伦历史与传说的大型展览，展期至6月2日结束。第二站柏林的展出时间是6月26日至10月15日，第三站伦敦由11月13日开始至明年3月15日截止。展览的组织者表示之前从未进行过类似的展出。从卢浮宫展厅里拥挤的人潮，我们就可以判断这场展出受欢迎的程度。
Because information was stored on durable clay tablets, baked hard in the sun, these accomplishments are no secret. Appreciating them fully, however, usually means travelling to the Louvre in Paris, the Pergamon Museum in Berlin and the British Museum in London, the three places where the major discoveries from Babylonian civilisation are housed. For a while, this is no longer necessary. A formidable exhibition designed to reconcile Babylonian history and legend is on show in Paris until June 2nd. It moves to Berlin from June 26th to October 5th and will then be in London from November 13th until March 15t
责任编辑:zhaotingting
