Lesson 3
An unknown
goddess
无名女神
Some time ago, an interesting
discovery was made by archaeologists
on
the Aegean
island of
Kea. An American team explored a temple which stands in an ancient
city on the promontory of Ayia(阿伊亚) Irini（依里尼）. The city at one time must
have been prosperous, for it enjoyed a high level of civilization.
Houses -- often three storeys（story）
high --
were built of stone. They had large rooms with beautifully
‘decorated
walls. The
city was equipped with a drainage system, for a great
many clay pipes were found be`neath(重音)the narrow
streets.
The temple which the archaeologists explored was used as a place of
worship from the fifteenth century B.C. until Roman times. In the
most sacred room of temple, clay fragments of fifteen statues（两个读音）
were found. Each of these represented a goddess and had, at one time, been painted. The
body of one statue was found among remains dating from the fifteenth century B.C. It's
missing head happened to be among remains of the fifth century B.C.
This head must have been found in Classical times and carefully preserved. It was very old and precious even then. When the
archaeologists reconstructed the fragments, they were
amazed to find that the goddess turned out to be a very
modern-looking woman. She stood three feet high and her hands
rested on her hips. She was wearing a full-length skirt which swept
the ground. De`spite her great age, she was very graceful indeed,
but, so far, the archaeologists have been unable to discover her
identity.
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