考古專家稱秦始皇兵馬俑靈感可能來自古希臘

Archaeologists believe that the appearance of the Terracotta Warriors in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China was inspired by ancient Greeks, the BBC reported last Tuesday.

BBC上週二報道稱，考古學家們認爲中國第一位皇帝秦始皇陵墓中的兵馬俑的出現，是受到了古希臘人的啓發。

Ancient Greeks were even thought to have directly trained local artisans of the Qin Empire (221-206 BC).

他們甚至還認爲古希臘人直接對秦朝（公元前221年——206年）的當地工匠展開了培訓。

The latest finding broke the theory that the first direct contact between China and the west was through Marco Polo in the 13th century.

最近的發現打破了中西方之間的直接交流始於13世紀由馬克·波羅爲橋樑的這一理論。

"There is evidence that the earliest contacts between China and Europe was made before the opening of the ancient 'Silk Road'. It is much earlier than what the current record shows," said Li Xiuzhen, renowned archaeologist in the Emperor Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum Site Museum.

秦始皇帝陵博物院著名考古學家李秀珍表示：“有證據表明，中歐之間最早的聯繫要在古'絲綢之路'開闢之前。這比當前顯示的記錄要早很長時間。”

The Terracotta Warriors in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang were discovered accidentally by a farmer in Lintong County, northwest China's Shannxi province in 1974.

秦始皇陵墓兵馬俑是於1974年被一位農民在中國西北部陝西省臨潼縣偶然間發現的。

There was no tradition of building human statues as large as what is now known as the Terracotta Army before the Qin Empire, and a more reliable explanation of the phenomenon is that it is the result of foreign influence, according to Li.

根據李秀珍的說法，在秦朝之前並沒有修築兵馬俑這麼大的人物雕像的傳統，還有更多可靠證據表明，這是受到國外影響的結果。