发现：埃及金字塔并非奴隶所建

New tombs found in Giza support the view that the Great Pyramids were built by free workers and not slaves, as widely believed, Egypt's chief archaeologist said on Sunday.

Films and media have long depicted slaves toiling away in the desert to build the mammoth pyramids only to meet a miserable death at the end of their efforts.

"These tombs were built beside the king's pyramid, which indicates that these people were not by any means slaves," Zahi Hawass, the chief archaeologist heading the Egyptian excavation team, said in a statement.

"If they were slaves, they would not have been able to build their tombs beside their king's."

He said the collection of workers' tombs, some of which were found in the 1990s, were among the most significant finds in the 20th and 21st centuries. They belonged to workers who built the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre.

Hawass had earlier found graffiti on the walls from workers calling themselves "friends of Khufu" - another sign that they were not slaves.

The tombs, on the Giza plateau on the western edge of Cairo, are 4,510 years old and lie at the entrance of a one-km (half mile)-long necropolis.

Hawass said evidence had been found showing that farmers in the Delta and Upper Egypt had sent 21 buffalo and 23 sheep to the plateau every day to feed the builders, believed to number around 10,000 - or about a tenth of Greek historian Herodotus's estimate of 100,000.

These farmers were exempted from paying taxes to the government of ancient Egypt - evidence that he said underscored the fact they were participating in a national project.

The first discovery of workers' tombs in 1990 came about accidentally when a horse stumbled on a brick structure 10 meters (yards) away from the burial area
埃及首席考古学家于上周日称，日前在吉萨发现的新墓群表明，大金字塔的建造者是自由工人，而非人们普遍认为的奴隶。

长期以来，影视作品和媒体报道所描绘的都是奴隶们为了建造宏伟的金字塔在沙漠中长期劳役，最终精力耗尽而惨死。

埃及发掘队的首席考古学家扎希．哈瓦斯说：“这些墓穴修建在埋葬国王的金字塔旁，这意味着这些人绝不是奴隶。”

“如果他们是奴隶，他们是不能把自己的坟墓建在国王的坟墓旁的。”

他说，这些劳工的坟墓是20世纪和21世纪最重要的发现之一，其中一部分坟墓发现于上世纪90年代。这些坟墓埋葬的是那些建造胡夫和哈夫拉金字塔的劳工。

之前哈瓦斯还在墙上发现了劳工们的涂鸦，他们自称为“胡夫的朋友”，再次证明这些人不是奴隶。

这些墓位于开罗西侧吉萨高原上长达一公里（半英里）的坟场的入口处，迄今已有4510年的历史。

哈瓦斯说，已发现的相关证据表明，当时（尼罗河）三角洲和埃及南部地区的农民每天都往建筑工地送21头水牛和23只羊，以解决工人们的吃饭问题，当时共有约1万名工人参与金字塔建造，仅为希腊历史学家希罗多德所估计的10万人的十分之一。

这些农民无需向古埃及政府缴纳赋税，哈瓦斯说这进一步证实了他们参与的是一个国家工程。

此类墓群于1990年首次发现，当时一匹马在距离坟地10米（码）远的一处土砖墙处跌倒，由此带来了这一偶然的发现。

Vocabulary:

mammoth: extremely large 极其巨大的；庞大的

excavation: the activity of digging in the ground to look for old buildings or objects that have been buried for a long time （对古物的）发掘，挖掘

Khufu: Egyptian Pharaoh of the 27th century BC who commissioned the Great Pyramid at Giza 胡夫，埃及第四王朝第二位法老，在位期间建造了大金字塔

Khafre: king of Egypt (c. 2550 bc) of the 4th dynasty. He built the second pyramid and is thought to have built the Sphinx at Giza 哈夫拉，埃及第四王朝的第三位法老，他继承了胡夫的王位，在吉萨建立了世界上第二大金字塔——哈夫拉金字塔和狮身人面像

graffiti: drawings or writing on a wall, etc. in a public place. They are usually rude, humorous or political. （公共墙壁等上通常含有粗俗、幽默或政治内容的）涂画，涂鸦

necropolis: a place where dead people are buried, especially a large ancient one 坟场；（尤指）古代大墓地

buffalo: a large cow with horns that curve upwards 水牛

Herodotus: 希罗多德，古罗马时代历史学家，被誉为“历史之父”，着有《历史》一书

exempt sb. from sth.: to release someone from the obligation to do something; to allow a person not to be affected by a rule or law 豁免某人，使某人免于做某事