PBS高端访谈:庞贝古城的壁画以及关于古人类的新发现

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　　The ancient city, close to modern-day Naples, is famous for being frozen in time, preserved as it was when the volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted more than 1,900 years ago, in 79 AD.

　　Pompeii, buried in tons of volcanic¹ ash, along with the remains² of some 2,000 people killed, was first excavated³ in the 1800s.

　　Those early discoverers poured plaster on the recovered bodies to better preserve them, but little was known about them.

　　So, last month, researchers brought in a CAT scan machine, like the one you might find in a doctor's office.

　　The machine penetrates⁴ the thick plaster and creates a 3-dimensional image of each body. The CAT scans reveal two big discoveries.

　　First, many victims did not die from suffocation⁵, as previously⁶ thought, but from the falling buildings.

　　MASSIMO OSANNA, DIRECTOR: From the analysis carried out on the bones, we have found a lot of broken skulls⁷. This tells us many died from falling roofs under the pressure of the pumice. The pumice is very light but when it builds up two meters, it can collapse⁸ roofs and many died because of this.”

　　MEGAN THOMPSON: Second, the researchers are finding many of Pompeii's victims had practically perfect teeth, a reflection, perhaps, of a healthy Mediterranean⁹ diet low in sugar and high levels of fluoride in their water supply.

　　MASSIMO OSANNA, DIRECTOR: From the study, we discovered the absence of cavities in the teeth. This is very interesting, it is not completely surprising because we know about the Mediterranean diet and it's positive aspects.

　　MEGAN THOMPSON: The researchers plan to scan all 86 casts of the human remains to help us learn more about not only how the people of Pompeii died, but how they lived.

 

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