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In Africa, the animals that dominate European cave paintings
歐洲壁畫由動物主導 但在非洲
are accompanied by humans.
它們還有人類相伴
They appear as stylised, elongated figures.
他們以固定風格的 細長的形象出現
Sometimes they're shown while becoming transformed into beasts.
有的時候他們還以野獸化的形象出現
Men with the heads of antelopes,
長著羚羊頭的人
creatures that could never have been observed from life,
這是生活中看不到的生物
but which arose from the trance-struck imagination of the shamans.
而是源自于薩滿的迷幻想象
In the rock art of Africa, these hybrids were painted.
在非洲的巖畫中 畫著這些獸人
In Europe, where there were far fewer of them,
在歐洲 獸人形象相比非洲少很多
they went three-dimensional.
但他們變成了三維立體的
In 1939, the fragments of this lion-man,
1939年在德國的石洞中發現了
carved from mammoth ivory, were found in a German cave.
這個用猛犸象牙雕刻而成的獅人的碎片
They remained an unsolved puzzle for 30 years
它們成了一個三十年未解之謎
before archaeologists realised that they formed a single figure
直到考古學家發現它們拼在一起是一個人物形象
made between 35,000 and 40,000 years ago.
距今三萬五千到四萬年
This may be a shaman in the middle of a transformation.
這可能是一個正在變身的薩滿
It may be the very first of the beast gods,
它可能是最早的獸神
around which Pagan religions would build their mythologies.
異教的神話就是圍繞它們創造的
