来源：《卫报》
原文刊登日期：2020年11月22日
Stonehenge is, with the sole exception of Big Ben, the most famous monument in the British Isles. Until the Covid-19 pandemic effectively stopped tourism, it was visited by 1.5 million people a year; from this single site, English Heritage would normally make about a fifth of its income. It is neither the largest nor the oldest of Britain’s 1,300 stone circles, but it is by far its most culturally generative, inspiring figures from Thomas Hardy to William Blake.
除了大本钟外，巨石阵是不列颠群岛最著名的遗迹。在新冠大流行有效地阻止旅游业发展之前，每年有150万游客到访；从这个景点获得的收取占英格兰遗产协会总收入的五分之一。在英国1300个石圈中，巨石阵既不是最大的，也不是最古老的，但它是迄今为止最具文化创造力的古迹，启发了许多文化人物，包括作家托马斯·哈代和诗人威廉·布莱克。
Until relatively recently, little was understood about the monument’s history and purpose, and even its precise age was unclear until the 1990s, when radiocarbon dating provided firm evidence that it was about 5,000 years old. Into this void flooded every kind of theory: that it was deposited there by aliens, that it was built by Romans or Vikings; that it depicts a map of the stars, that it had healing or acoustic properties; that it is a fertility symbol. The most influential current theory is that of Prof Mike Parker Pearson, who argues that Stonehenge was built as a monument to the dead.
直到最近，人们对这片遗迹的历史和用途还知之甚少，甚至它的确切年代也不清楚，直到20世纪90年代，放射性碳年代测定提供了确凿的证据，证明它大约有5000年的历史。各种各样的理论充斥着这片历史空白：它是由外星人存放在那里的，它是由罗马人或维京人建造的；它描绘了一幅恒星的地图，它具有治疗或声学特性；它是生育的象征。目前最有影响力的理论是迈克·帕克·皮尔森教授的理论，他认为巨石阵是为了纪念死者而建造的。
“Every age,” wrote archaeologist Jacquetta Hawkes, “has the Stonehenge it deserves.” It turns out that our age’s Stonehenge is one at the centre of a decades-long, expensive, bad-tempered planning dispute. Since as far back as the early 1990s, there have been debates over whether and how to widen the over-congested adjacent highway, the A303, and sink it into a tunnel. Now the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has given consent for a £1.7bn scheme to build a 3.2km tunnel.
考古学家杰奎塔·霍克斯写道：“每个时代都有它应得的巨石阵。”事实证明，我们这个时代的巨石阵是一场长达几十年、耗资巨大、脾气暴躁的规划争议的中心。早在上世纪90年代初，就有关于是否以及如何拓宽拥挤的A303高速公路并将其埋入隧道的争论。如今，英国交通大臣格兰特•沙普斯同意斥资17亿英镑修建一条3.2公里长的隧道。
But that hardly settles the debate. English Heritage and some archaeologists have welcomed the plans, pointing to an improved experience for visitors, who will be able to access the environs of the stones without their being bifurcated by a noisy highway. But, since the dual-carriageway tunnel entrances will have to be bored into land that lies firmly within the Unesco world heritage site – a unique territory rich with neolithic and bronze-age remains – plenty of others, including figures like Prof Parker Pearson, protest that irreparable damage will be caused. Many mourn too that the view of Stonehenge from the road will be lost – a sight that has added a touch of magic to millions of journeys.
但这很难平息争论。英国遗产管理局和一些考古学家对这一计划表示欢迎，他们指出这将为游客带来更好的体验，游客将能够在不被嘈杂的高速公路一分为二的情况下进入这些石头的周围。但是，由于双车道隧道入口必须钻入这片联合国教科文组织世界遗产内的土地——这是一块独特的土地，有着丰富的新石器时代和青铜时代遗迹——许多人，包括帕克·皮尔森教授等，对此表示抗议，认为这将造成无法弥补的破坏。许多人也为从公路上看不到巨石阵而悲伤——这一景象为数百万次旅行增添了一点魔力。
The truth is that Stonehenge is the victim of a typically unsatisfactory British fudge. If there must be a tunnel, it ought to be one whose creation does not deface the incalculably precious landscape that surrounds it. Simply put, it should be longer.
事实是，巨石阵是典型的不令人满意的英国式敷衍的受害者。如果一定要有一条隧道的话，它应该是一条不会破坏其周围无价景观的隧道。简单地说，这条隧道修得更长些，一切问题就都解决了。