揭露中國兵馬俑武器的祕密

The crossbow triggers and parts found in EmperorQin's mausoleum.

在秦始皇陵中發現的弩的扳機和部件。

One of the most astounding archaeologicaldiscoveries of the 20th century is arguably the life-size terra-cotta armyburied alongside China'sfirst emperor. Now, scientists have figured out how the bronze triggers for thecrossbows of the 8,000 terra-cotta warriors were manufactured.

埋藏在中國首位帝王身邊真人大小的兵馬俑是二十世紀最驚人的發現之一。現在，科學家已經發現了8000位人傭所持銅弩的扳機是如何被製造出來的了。

Teams of craftspeople workedin small groups to produce the bronze pieces in batches for the tomb of ancientEmperor Qin Shi Huang, according to a new study detailed in the March issue ofthe journal Antiquity.

一個工匠團隊分成小組工作，爲秦始皇的陵墓來批量製作銅件。刊登在《古物》雜誌三月刊上的一項新的研究對此進行了詳細的敘述。

Prepared for theafterlife

爲了來世作準備

Historical documents suggest that soon afterEmperor Qin Shi Huang ascended to the throne in 246 B.C., he began work on histomb near Xi'an, China. When the tomb was firstunearthed in the 1970s,it revealed thousands of lifelike terra-cotta statues ofartisans, musicians, officials, horses and soldiers. The epic effortconscripted 700,000 laborers, many of whom were convicts or people who were indebt to the empire, said study co-author Xiuzhen Janice Li, an archaeologistwho was at the University College London at the time of the new work and is nowat the Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s MausoleumSite Museumin China.

歷史文件表明，在秦始皇於公元前246年登上帝位的不長時間之後，他就開始着手在中國的西安建造自己的陵墓。當他的陵墓於上世紀70年代第一次出土時，發掘出了上千個活靈活現的人傭，有工匠，音樂家，官員，馬匹和士兵。這項研究的共同作者Xiuzhen Janice Li說當時有70萬名勞工被招來進行這項史詩般的工程，其中大部分是囚犯或欠朝廷債的人。Xiuzhen Janice Li曾經是倫敦大學的考古專家，現在工作於中國的秦始皇帝陵博物館。

The massive undertaking had an important goal:ensuring the emperor's military power and resources in the afterlife.

這項宏偉工程有一個重要的目標：確保皇帝的軍事力量和資源跟隨他到來世。

As part of the huge project, craftspeoplesculpted about 8,000 colorful warriors — likely using real human beings asinspiration — and those warriors wore stone armor and "wielded"lances, swords and crossbows.

作爲這項巨大工程的一部分，工匠們塑刻了大約8000個色彩鮮豔的勇士——他們很可能是以真正的人作爲靈感，這些戰士們身披石盔，手持長矛，短劍和弩。

But it wasn't clear exactly how these ancientweapons were made. The crossbows were made of wood or bamboo that rotted longago, and only the tips and triggers for the bows remained, Li told LiveScience.

但是目前還不清楚這些古老的武器究竟是如何被製造出來的。Li告訴《生動科學》（Live Science）說，那時候製造的木製或竹製弩身肯定在很久以前就腐爛了，只留下了這些小物件和扳機。

Small workshops

小作坊

To learn more about how the massive trove wasbuilt, Li and her colleagues visually inspected and measured about 216 of thefive-part crossbow triggers from the mausoleum. The lack of wear on the metal pieces suggeststhe weapons were never used in actual battle, but were instead built solely forthe tomb, the researchers said.

爲了更加了解這座巨大的寶庫，Li和她的同事們觀察測量了200多個弩扳機的組件，他們研究發現這些扳機幾乎沒有磨損，說明它們從沒有在戰場上被使用過，而是專門爲秦始皇陵而製造的。

In addition, the team analyzed the spots wheretriggers were found in the tomb, as well as the variation in the size and shapeof the pieces.

此外，研究小組分析了發現這些扳機的那個地點，對比了其中碎塊的大小樣式。

The pieces were mostly uniform, suggesting theinterlocking trigger parts were made in the same or nearly-identical molds andproduced in small batches. Each batch of the trigger pieces was likely thenassembled in small cells, or workshops, perhaps headed by anoverseer. That model contrasts with the "assembly line"hypothesis that some archaeologists thought might have been used.

這些零碎的部件幾乎是相同的，這表明那些連鎖扳機結構的組件是用同一種或幾乎相同的模子批量生產出來，他們很可能也在這些小作坊裏進行裝配，也許由監工負責。考古學家猜測某種類似於“裝配線”的模式已經在那個時候被運用了。

Mirror of society

社會的倒影

The organization into small workshops wassimilar to the structure the emperor imposed on the rest of society in ancient China,said study co-author Marcos Martinón-Torres, an archaeologist at the UniversityCollege London.

該研究共同撰寫人，倫敦大學考古專家Marcos Martinón-Torres提到，在古代中國，這種小作坊的組織結構與皇帝在其他社會領域中推行的很相似。

"He abolished any privileges inherited byblood, and the population was divided in small groups that were collectivelyresponsible for their adherence to imperial laws," Martinón-Torres wrotein an email to Live Science. "For example, if someone in one of thesegroups committed a crime, all of them were held responsible, unless they reportedthe culprit and allowed them to be punished."

“他廢除了宗法制，在法律上對民衆實行連坐制度” Martinón-Torres在他寫給《生動科學》的電子郵件中說到：“舉個例子，如果一組人中一個人犯了罪，其餘所有人都要爲此承擔責任，除非他們舉報責任人並讓他接受懲罰。”

The manufacturing technique used in the workshopalso may have been used by weapon makers for the Emperor of Qin's real armies,though that's just speculation, Martinón-Torres said.

Martinón-Torres還提到，這種工作間裏的製造技術很有可能被工匠用來爲皇帝制造真正的武器，但這只是一個假設。

"The cellular workshop model we postulatefor the weapons manufacture in the mausoleum would have also offered usefulflexibility for armies on the move," he said.

這種蜂窩式的工作間模式很可能爲行動中的軍隊帶來更高的靈活性，他說。