古代的石圈可能是雷击的管道吗?

Ancient stone circles such as Stonehenge and the Callanish Stones have long perplexed archaeologists and captured our collective consciousness. How were they built? What was their purpose? Why were they placed where they were?

像巨石阵和卡拉尼什石阵这样的古老石阵一直困扰着考古学家，并抓住了我们的集体意识。它们是如何建造的?他们的目的是什么?为什么把它们放在这里?

Now a startling new finding at a hidden stone circle site located on an island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland might finally begin to offer us some answers. There, researchers have discovered evidence of a massive lightning strike right at the center of the circle, reports Phys.org.

现在，在苏格兰大陆西海岸外的岛链上的一个隐藏的石圈遗址上的一个令人吃惊的新发现，可能终于开始为我们提供一些答案。据Phys.org报道，研究人员在那里发现了大范围闪电袭击圆心的证据。

BRYAN NELSON

"Such clear evidence for lightning strikes is extremely rare in the UK and the association with this stone circle is unlikely to be coincidental," said project leader Dr. Richard Bates, of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of St. Andrews.

圣安德鲁斯大学地球与环境科学学院的项目负责人理查德·贝茨博士说:“如此明确的证据表明闪电袭击在英国极为罕见，与这个石圈的联系不太可能是巧合。”

"Whether the lightning at [this site] focused on a tree or rock which is no longer there, or the monument itself attracted strikes, is uncertain. However, this remarkable evidence suggests that the forces of nature could have been intimately linked with everyday life and beliefs of the early farming communities on the island."

“目前还不确定是闪电击中了已经不在的树或岩石，还是纪念碑本身吸引了闪电。然而，这一显著的证据表明，大自然的力量可能与岛上早期农耕社区的日常生活和信仰密切相关。”

Bates is part of the Calanais Virtual Reconstruction Project, an effort to virtually reconstruct what many of these ancient sites might have looked like when they were first built. The photo at the top of this article is one such example, depicting the lost stone circle of Na Dromannan.

贝茨是Calanais虚拟重建项目的一部分，该项目旨在虚拟重建这些古代遗址最初建成时的样子。这篇文章上面的照片就是这样一个例子，描述了Na Dromannan丢失的石头圈。

As part of their surveys, the team has uncovered a number of other lost circles buried beneath the peat, revealing the extent to which this region is dotted with these mysterious ancient structures.

作为调查的一部分，研究小组发现了埋在泥炭下面的一些其他的失落的圆圈，揭示了这个地区点缀着这些神秘的古代建筑的程度。

Perhaps their most startling finding, however, has been the stone circle with the lightning strike. Geophysics revealed a massive, star-shaped magnetic anomaly in the center. While it's unclear whether this anomaly was the result of a single, large lighting strike or many smaller strikes on the same spot, chances are that the stone circle was built here because of the lighting-- either to mark the spot, or perhaps to manufacture it.

然而，也许他们最令人吃惊的发现是被闪电击中的石圈。地球物理学家发现了一个巨大的星状磁异常。虽然目前还不清楚这一反常现象是由于一次大规模的闪电袭击，还是在同一地点发生了多次小规模的闪电袭击，但很有可能是因为闪电——要么是为了标记这个地点，要么是为了制造它。

Further investigation has revealed that the lightning strike (or strikes) hit the spot more than 3,000 years ago, which was before the peat would have buried it. This timing lines up well with when the circles were built.

进一步的调查显示，早在3000多年前，这里就遭到了雷击，当时泥炭还没有将其掩埋。这个时间安排与圆圈形成的时间吻合得很好。

"The dramatic results of survey ... demonstrate that we have to understand the landscapes that surrounds these ritual monuments and the role that nature and natural events, including lightning, played in creating the rituals and beliefs of people many thousands of years ago," said Professor Vincent Gaffney of the School Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bradford.

“调查的戏剧性结果.表明我们必须了解这些仪式纪念物周围的景观，以及大自然和自然事件，包括闪电、戏剧在千万年前创造人们的仪式和信仰时所起的作用。布拉德福德大学的学校考古科学教授VincentGaffney教授说。

The project has also helped to reveal how many of these ancient stone circles are astronomically aligned. It's all part of piecing together why they were built, and what they might have signified to their builders.

该项目还帮助揭示了这些古代石圈中有多少是天文学上的排列。这些都是拼凑它们被建造的原因，以及它们可能对建造者意味着什么。

"There is much still to find out about the so-called 'satellite' circles of Neolithic Calanais and this provides an important first step. The modelling of Na Dromannan also helps us investigate whether this circle was astronomically aligned," added Dr. Alison Sheridan, Director of Urras nan Tursachan, the Calanais-based charitable trust that partnered with this research.

“关于新石器时代的加莱纳斯所谓的‘卫星’圈还有很多有待发现，这是重要的第一步。Na Dromannan的模型也帮助我们调查这个圈是否是天文上的对齐，”与这项研究合作的卡纳伊萨亚斯慈善信托组织Urras nan Tursachan的主任艾莉森·谢里丹博士补充道。