Now listen to part of lecture on the topic you just read about.
现在来听一段有关你刚刚所阅读到的话题的演讲。
Unfortunately none of the arguments about what the Chaco great houses were used for is convincing.
不幸的是,关于查科峡谷巨屋是用来做什么的的观点,没有一个具有说服力。
First, sure, from the outside, the great houses look like later and native American apartment buildings,
首先,确实,从外面看,巨屋看起来像后来本地美国人的公寓大楼,
but the inside of the great houses casts serious doubt on the idea that many people lived there.
但是,巨屋里面却对很多人住在这里的观点提出了严重质疑。
I'll explain.
我将进行解释。
If hundreds of people were living in the great houses,
如果有几百人住在巨屋的话,
then there would have to be many fireplaces, where each family did its daily cooking, but there are very few fireplaces.
那么就会有很多每个家庭日常烹调都要用到的壁炉,但是,这里只有一些壁炉。
In one of the largest great houses, there were fireplaces for only around ten families.
在其中一个最大的巨屋里面,有的壁炉数量只够大约10户人家用。
Yet there were enough rooms in the great house for more than a hundred families,
但是巨屋里有足够多的房间供一百多户人家居住,
so the primary function of the houses couldn't have been residential.
所以,巨屋的首要作用不可能是居住。
Second, the idea that the great houses were used to store grain maize is unsupported by evidence.
第二,巨屋是用来储藏玉米的想法没有证据来支持。
It may sound plausible that large empty rooms were used for storage,
巨大的空房间用来储存听起来似乎很合理,
but excavations of the great houses have not uncovered many traces of maize or maize containers.
但是,对巨屋的挖掘没有发现很多玉米或者是玉米容器的踪迹。
If the great houses were used for storage, why isn't there more spilled maize on the floor?
如果巨屋是用来储藏的,为什么会没有更多的玉米溢出在地板上?
Why aren't there more remains of big containers?
为什么没有更多的大容器的遗迹?
Third, the idea that the great houses were ceremonial centers isn't well supported either.
第三,巨屋是仪式中心的观点也没有论据支持。
You know that mound at Pueblo Alto?
你们知道那个普韦布洛·阿尔托堆吧?
It contains lots of other materials besides broken pots, stuff you wouldn't expect from ceremonies.
除去破了的罐子它还含有很多其他的材料,一些你不会认为是仪式上必要的东西。
For example, there are large quantities of building materials, sands, stones, even construction tools.
比如,有大量的建筑材料,沙子、石头、甚至建筑工具。
This suggests that the mound is just a trash heap of construction material,
这表明,这个堆仅仅是一个垃圾堆,充满了建筑材料,
stuff that was thrown away or not used up when a house was being built.
被丢弃或者是建房子时没有用完的东西。
The pots in the pile could be regular trash too, leftover from the meals of the construction workers.
堆里的罐子也可能建筑工人们三餐中剩下的平常垃圾。
So the Pueblo Alto mound is not good evidence that the great houses were used for special ceremonies.
所以普韦布洛阿尔托堆不是巨屋是用于特殊仪式这一观点的好证据。