可能永遠也找不到的十大珍寶(上)

Some of the world's most priceless artifacts have been lost in war, buried and then forgotten, or simply misplaced without explanation. Many have been missing so long they have transformed from treasure to legend to rumor. Some have made it to the black market. Some have been stowed away in private collections. Some are believed to have been destroyed completely.

世界上一些無價的工藝品有的已經在戰爭中遺失，有的被黃沙掩埋慢慢被人所遺忘，有的只是單純地被誤放了位置卻連隻言片語的解釋也沒有。很多寶藏由於遺失太久，慢慢的人們就把它當成了傳說。有的人把它拿到黑市販賣，有的人把它納爲私人收藏，有的人則相信它是徹底毀滅了。

Wright Brothers' Patent

10.萊特兄弟的專利

The National Archives store some of history's most prized and rarest documents. Security is tight in the most important anthropological storehouses in the world, yet this hasn't stopped thieves from making off with some of its priceless pieces.

國家檔案室裏儲藏着一些歷史珍貴文件。安全部門牢牢看管着這些珍惜文件，卻依然阻止不了竊賊盜走一些零星文件。

The patent papers that describe in detail Wilbur and Orville Wright's concept for a flying machine were lifted by an unknown crook without anyone noticing. Not until 2003 did anyone discover that it was missing, and since then, no one has been able to apprehend the culprit. Thefts at the Archives have become so common that an armed task force has been assigned to track down the missing pieces. The photos taken by astronauts during the Moon landing have been recovered, as have the audio tapes from the Hindenburg crash. But until someone tries to auction off hand-drawn airplane sketches from the early 1900s, we may never know where the patent papers took off to.

一個不知名的壞蛋悄無聲息盜走了萊特兄弟的專利文件，上面詳細記載了萊特兄弟寫的關於飛行器的概念。直到2003年人們才發現它丟失了，從那以後，也沒有人能抓住那個竊賊了。由於檔案室頻繁出現盜賊，於是專門派遣了一隻武裝工作隊追蹤丟失的文件。宇航員在登陸月球照的照片和興登堡號墜毀的錄音磁帶都已經被找回。但是如果不是在20世紀初，有人試圖拍賣手繪飛機草圖，我們永遠也不會知道這個專利文件去哪兒了。

o Mei-Kunimitsu

9.國光短刀

Stolen national treasures is not a purely US problem. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan, 109 items marked as national treasures or important artifacts have gone missing from their collection. The pieces were being kept by private owners, which makes it impossible for the agency to keep track of their whereabouts.

盜竊國寶的現象不止發生在美國。據日本文化廳統計，他們保管的國寶，包括重要的史前古器物已經丟失了109件。因爲私人收藏家收藏了這些珍寶，導致日本文化廳也不知其下落。

Of the listed items, 52 swords, 17 sculptures, and 10 paintings cannot be located. The report says that either they were stolen, the owners had moved, or no one had kept track of the items after an owner died. In the missing collection is a 13th-century tanto sword signed "Kunimitsu." The owner died, and the agency was not notified when the item became a very highly valued inheritance. As with so many pieces of its kind, the agency believes the owners are not aware of the policies in place to manage its location. They plan to start visiting the remaining owners on a regular basis to keep tabs on their whereabouts.

列出的52把刀劍，17座雕塑，10幅名畫皆不知去向。據報道，這些珍寶要麼是被偷了後私人轉移藏了起來，要麼就是私人擁有者死了後無人能探知其行蹤。失蹤的寶物是13世紀的一把刻有"國光"字樣的短刀。由於寶物持有者去世了，所以文化廳不能確定這件寶物是什麼時候成了價值連城的遺產。文化廳計劃開始時不時拜訪剩下的寶物持有者，隨時注意國寶的行蹤。

Of Paititi

8.失落之城－帕依提提

Many legends surrounds the lost city of Paititi. It is said to be the location where the ancient Incas, desperate to hide their treasure from marauding Europeans, stored all of their gold. Due to its location and relative obscurity, the city gradually became synonymous with the legendary El Dorado. The two eventually became one mythical location where one lucky explorer could find endless riches.

關於這座消失的帕依提提古城有很多傳說。傳說這兒居住着古印加人，他們千方百計地隱藏從歐洲掠奪而來的珠寶，把所有的黃金都儲存起來。由於這座城市的地理位置偏僻，並且相對默默無聞，所以人們逐漸認爲它和傳說的"黃金國"（西班牙文：El Dorado）是同一座城市。這兩座城市最終變成了一個神祕的地方，哪個幸運兒一旦發現就能獲得無盡財富的國度。

Explorers have been searching the jungle of Peru, mesmerized by the potential of the lost treasure. There are many settlements in the region that are remote, where explorers have found clues that they believe will lead them to their prize. Whether Paititi is simply another version of El Dorado or a real city in its own right—or if either of the two are real at all—remains to be seen.

探險家們對能在祕魯的叢林裏發現這個寶藏十分入迷，於是他們翻遍了祕魯的叢林。那個偏僻的地區有很多定居點，在那兒他們發現了些蛛絲馬跡，並且認爲這些蛛絲馬跡能引導他們找到戰利品。到底帕依提提就是傳說中的黃金國，還是它本身就是一座真實的城市？這兩個說法哪個是真的還有待觀察。

ala Necklace

7.帕夏拉項鍊

The Patiala Necklace was an item of rare beauty, designed by the house of Cartier in 1928. This gift to the Maharaja Sir Bhupinder Singh had five rows of platinum chains adorned with 2,930 diamonds. It was encrusted with Burmese rubies among other jewels. The centerpiece was the seventh-largest diamond in the world, the famed DeBeers Diamond, a 234.6-carat yellow diamond, roughly the size of a golf ball. The necklace was the prize piece until it disappeared in 1948. The last person known to wear it was his son Maharaja Yadavindra Singh.

帕夏拉項鍊稀有華美，由卡地亞於1928年設計。這條項鍊是贈給印度帕夏拉王公佈品達辛（Bhupinder Singh）的禮物，它是由5條白金項鍊排列而成，鑲嵌的鑽石多達2930顆。它的外層鑲嵌着緬甸紅寶石和其他種類的寶石，中心裝飾着世界第七大鑽石——著名的戴比爾斯鑽石（一顆重達234.6克拉的黃鑽，大約有一顆高爾夫球大小）。這條項鍊是作爲獎品而存在的，直到1984年它消失了。最後一個佩戴它的人是王公佈品達辛的兒子亞達維達王公。

The necklace itself was recovered by a Cartier representative in London over 50 years later, but it was missing its most impressive jewels. Among them were the Burmese rubies and the DeBeers diamond. Cartier restored the necklace as best they could, using cubic zirconium and other less expensive gems. The original, which is believed to have been dismantled and sold by the Maharaja's family members, would be worth $20–30 million today.

50年後，一位卡地亞代表人在倫敦重新找回了這條項鍊，但它最引人注目的寶石卻消失不見。其中就包括緬甸紅寶石和戴比爾斯鑽石。卡地亞竭盡所能修復了這條項鍊，用方晶鋯石代替鑽石，不太昂貴的寶石代替原來的真寶石。相信如果現在王公的家族成員把這條項鍊修復的部分拆除了，然後賣出去，也能值2-3千萬美元。

Mahogany Ship

6.紅木船

When a ship sinks miles off the coast with virtually no way for searchers to reach the bottom of the ocean, it can take decades or even centuries to find the wreck, if it's found at all. The Mahogany Ship, however, is a complete different story. It isn't miles out to sea, it's not at the bottom of the ocean, and it's not between a set of iffy coordinates that take precise measurements to calculate. It is, in fact, in the harbor, beneath the sand dunes in southwest Victoria, Australia.

如果一條船沉沒於距海岸數英里處，實際上搜尋者是沒有辦法到達海底的，這要花上幾十年甚至幾世紀才能找到它的殘骸。然而這艘船卻是完全不同的情況，它不是沉沒於數英里開外的海里、也不是沉沒於海底、更不是沉沒於無法測量的座標中。事實上，我們在澳大利亞的維多利亞港西南部一個沙丘下發現了這艘紅木船。

The legendary ship was made of dark wood, speculated to be mahogany (but probably a different material altogether). It's said to have sunk as part of a secret Portuguese mission to explore Australia in 1522. The wreck was allegedly spotted almost 350 years later, in 1847, before people lost track of it altogether. All the details are conjecture based on accounts by whalers and locals over 150 years ago. Though no one has managed to prove its existence, no one can disprove it, so the mystery endures to this day. Believers in the tale say that Captain Cook's HMS Endeavour, supposedly the first European ship to reach Australia, was not the first ship of its kind to make landfall on the remote island nation.

這艘神奇的船由烏木建造而成，推斷應該是紅木（但也可能是另外一種材料）。據說這艘船是在1552年執行葡萄牙探索澳大利亞的一次祕密任務中沉沒。又據說在人們失去這艘船消息的350多年後，在1847年，發現了它的船骸。所有關於這艘紅木船的消息也都是從大約150年前的捕鯨人和當地人口口相傳而來。儘管沒人能證實它的存在，卻也無人可以反駁，因此，關於紅木船的祕密也延續至今。一些信徒說庫克船長的三桅縱帆戰艦"奮進號"雖然可能是第一艘到達澳大利亞的歐洲船，但卻不是第一艘到達遙遠島國的船，因此，這艘紅木船應該不是庫克船長的奮進號。

翻譯:bansu 來源：前十網