苏格兰现“组装”木乃伊 身体部位分属6人

Researchers say that a pair of 3,000-year-old mummified corpses that were recently discovered in Scotland are actually composed of body parts originating from six different people.

The mummified corpses were discovered in Cladh Hallan, an archaeological site on the island of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. It is the only location in Great Britain where prehistoric mummies have been discovered.

National Geographic reports that isotopic dating and DNA experiments revealed the unusual pairing of body parts. The tests also revealed that the body parts were assembled and buried together more than 600 years after death, meaning that the assemblage was almost certainly deliberate.

But lead researcher and University of Manchester professor Terry Brown says the answer could be simple and somewhat morbid: The original body parts may have simply been plugged in as a convenience to replace missing pieces.

"Maybe the head dropped off and they got another head to stick on," he said.

Meanwhile, fellow researcher and University of Sheffield professor Mike Parker Pearson tells LiveScience the parts could have been more specifically put together to show the connected lineage between families other time.

"Rights to land would have depended on ancestral claims, so perhaps having the ancestors around 'in the flesh' was their prehistoric equivalent of a legal document," Parker Pearson said.

"Merging different body parts of ancestors into a single person could represent the merging of different families and their lines of descent," Parker Pearson said.

Brown tells National Geographic he believes researchers will discover more composite-like bodies on the island. In fact, he said such mummified corpses may have already been discovered but can only be verified by comparing the DNA of various body parts.

(Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

双语资讯

(Agencies)

研究人员日前表示，近来在苏格兰出土的两具3000年前的木乃伊是由六具尸体的不同部位“组装”而成的。

研究人员在苏格兰外赫布里底群岛的南尤伊斯特岛的一处考古遗址发现了这两具木乃伊。这是英国史前木乃伊的唯一一处发现地。

据《国家地理杂志》报道，同位素定年和DNA检测结果显示，这两具木乃伊的身体部位“不寻常”。检测显示，在死后600多年，尸骸与其他死者的部分躯体“组装”成一副完整尸体，继而掩埋，这意味着几乎可以肯定地说，这种“组装”是故意的行为。

研究负责人、英国曼彻斯特大学教授特里•布朗说，答案可能“简单却恐怖”：原始的身体部位被“组装”可能就是为了补上缺损的部分。

他说：“可能原尸体的头遗失了，有人给它找另一个头安上。”

研究人员、英国谢菲尔德大学教授迈克•帕克•皮尔逊告诉《生活科学》，在当时的年代，特定的尸体“组合”可能与家族血缘有关。

帕克•皮尔逊说：“对土地的所有权可能与祖先的所有权有关，因此有祖先‘亲自’在身边等同于史前的一种法律证明。”

“将几位祖先不同的身体部分组合在一起能够代表不同家族以及后代的融合。”

布朗告诉《国家地理杂志》，他相信研究人员可能在该岛发现更多“组装”木乃伊。他认为类似的木乃伊之前就被发现过，但只能通过对比身体不同部位DNA的方式加以鉴定。

Vocabulary:

morbid: 恐怖的