Part A :

Good morning, everyone.

大家早上好。

I've been invited to talk about my research project into Australian Aboriginal rock paintings.

我受邀来说一说我的研究项目，关于澳大利亚土著人的岩石壁画。

The Australian Aborigines have recorded both real and symbolic images of their time on rock walls for many thousands of years.

几千年来，澳大利亚土著人都在岩石墙上记录有关时间的真实的以及象征的图像。

Throughout the long history of this tradition, new images have appeared and new painting styles have developed.

这一传统历史悠久，发展出新的图像和绘画风格。

And these characteristics can be used to categorize the different artistic styles.

这些特征可以用来区分不同的艺术风格。

Among these are what we call the Dynamic, Yam and Modern styles of painting.

其中有我们所谓的Dynamic, Yam和Modern风格。

One of the most significant characteristics of the different styles is the way that humans are depicted in the paintings.

区分不同风格的重要特征之一就是图像如何描绘人类。

The more recent paintings show people in static poses.

越是现代，图像越是静止。

But the first human images to dominate rock art paintings, over 8,000 years ago, were full of movement.

但是，8000多年前的岩石壁画上，人们都是动态的。

These paintings showed people hunting and cooking food and so they were given the name 'Dynamic' to reflect this energy.

这些画表现了人们狩猎和烹煮食物，所以把这些图像命名为Dynamic，以反映这种动态能量。

It's quite amazing considering they were painted in such a simple stick-like form.

那时就会用简单的棍状图形描绘人类，这是非常惊人的。

In the Yam period, there was a movement away from stick figures to a more naturalistic shape.

在Yam时期，人形就开始脱离简单的棍状，变得更加自然更加贴近人形。

However, they didn't go as far as the Modern style, which is known as "X-Ray" because it actually makes a feature of the internal skeleton as we" as the organs of animals and humans.

然而这个时期并没有Modern时期贴近人形，因为Modern时期都用一种近乎X射线的方式来描绘，会画出动物和人的内部骨骼以及器官。

The Yam style of painting got its name from the fact that it featured much curvier figures that actually resemble the vegetable called a yam, which is similar to a sweet potato.

Yam风格的绘画的名字由来，是源于那个时期的图像曲线优美，会很像一种蔬菜叫做甘薯，甘薯和地瓜很像。

The Modern paintings are interesting because they include paintings at the time of the first contact with European settlers.

现代绘画很有意思，因为上面有第一次接触欧洲殖民者时期的图像。

Aborigines managed to convey the idea of the settlers' clothing by simply painting the Europeans without any hands, indicating the habit of standing with their hands in their pockets!

土著人通过画出没有手的欧洲人来表现他们的服饰，来说明他们习惯手插口袋站着!

Size is another characteristic.

画的大小是另一个特点。

The more recent images tend to be life size or even larger, but the Dynamic figures are painted in miniature.

越是现代，图像就越是接近真实大小，甚至更大，但是Dynamic的图像都比较微型。

Aboriginal rock art also records the environmental changes that occurred over thousands of years.

土著岩石艺术还记录了几千年来的环境变化。

For example, we know from the Dynamic paintings that over 8,000 years ago, Aborigines would have rarely eaten fish and sea levels were much lower at this time.

例如，我们可以从Dynamic的画中看出，8000年前，土著人就很少吃鱼和海平面也低很多。

In fact, fish didn't start to appear in paintings until the Yam period along with shells and other marine images.

事实上，直到Yam时期才出现鱼和贝壳以及其他海洋生物的图像。

The paintings of the Yam tradition also suggest that, during this time, the Aborigines moved away from animals as their main food source and began including vegetables in their diet, as this feature prominently.

也可以从Yam传统中看出，在这段时间里，土著人渐渐放弃动物作为他们的主要食物来源，然后在他们饮食中加入蔬菜。

Freshwater creatures didn't appear in the paintings until the Modern period from 4,000 years ago.

直到4000年前的Modern时期，才出现了淡水生物的图像。