【1月3日】看軍聞學英語

■林國賓

原文：

In a dimly lit office in a corner of the French National Institute for Art History, Sudanese archaeologist Shadia Abdrabo studies a photograph of pottery made in her country around 7,000 B.C. She carefully types a description of the Neolithic artifact into a spreadsheet.

As the war between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces rages on, the curator from Sudan’s National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums is on a yearlong research grant in France with one mission: to build an online database of the African nation’s archaeological sites, museum collections and historical archives.

Soon after the war in Sudan started, in April 2023, museums were looted and destroyed. It’s unclear what exactly went missing, but Abdrabo says her task is to find out-and time is of the essence.

She says two regional museums in El Geneina and Nyala were almost completely destroyed, while in Khartoum, the National Museum-which held an estimated 100,000 objects before the war-was ransacked by militias.

The National Museum had pieces dating back to prehistoric times, including from the Kerma Kingdom and the Napatan era when Kushite kings ruled the region as well as from the Meroitic civilization that built Sudan’s pyramids.

Among its most valuable items were mummies dating back to 2,500 B.C., some of the oldest and most archaeologically significant in the world as well as royal Kushite treasures.

中譯：

在法國國家藝術史研究所角落一間燈光昏暗的辦公室裡，蘇丹考古學家阿布德拉博正凝視一張公元前約7000年的蘇丹陶器照片，並仔細在試算表中輸入這件新石器時代文物的描述。

隨著快速支援部隊與蘇丹武裝部隊持續交戰，這位來自蘇丹國家古物與博物館局的策展人，目前在法國進行為期一年的研究計畫，她肩負一項任務：建立這個非洲國家的考古遺址、博物館館藏及歷史檔案的線上資料庫。

2023年4月戰爭爆發後不久，蘇丹多座博物館遭到洗劫與破壞。目前仍不清楚究竟有哪些文物遺失，但阿布德拉博表示，她的工作就是找出答案，而時間所剩無多。

她指出，埃爾朱奈納和尼亞拉的兩座區域博物館幾乎全毀；在首都喀土穆，戰前收藏估計10萬件文物的國家博物館則遭民兵洗劫。

國家博物館的館藏追溯至史前時期，包括克爾瑪王國與庫什王國納巴塔時期君王統治的文物，以及建立蘇丹金字塔的麥羅埃文明遺產。

最珍貴的藏品包括可追溯至公元前2500年的木乃伊以及庫什王室珍寶，其中木乃伊是全球年代最久遠且具考古意義的遺體之一。

-關鍵軍語-

※militias：民兵

※mummies：木乃伊