龚鹏程x塔莱｜红海古卷与大金字塔

　　龚鹏程对话海外学者第一百一十一期：在后现代情境中，被技术统治的人类社会，只有强化交谈、重建沟通伦理，才能获得文化新生的力量。这不是谁的理论，而是每个人都应实践的活动。龚鹏程先生遊走世界，并曾主持过“世界汉学研究中心”。我们会陆续推出“龚鹏程对话海外学者”系列文章，请他对话一些学界有意义的灵魂。范围不局限于汉学，会涉及多种学科。以期深山长谷之水，四面而出。

　　

　　皮埃尔·塔莱教授（?Professor Pierre TALLET）

　　巴黎索邦大学埃及考古学教授

　　龚鹏程教授：您好。自 2011 年以来，您一直在考古港口遗址瓦迪·贾尔夫（Wadi al-Jarf）进行挖掘。 这个考古遗址提供了大量的考古发现。 请您介绍一下瓦迪·贾尔夫遗址，它与大金字塔有着怎样的联系？

　　皮埃尔·塔莱教授：龚教授，您好。瓦迪·贾尔夫（Wadi el-Jarf）与艾因·苏赫纳（Ayn Sukhna） 和梅莎·格瓦西斯（Mersa Gawasis） 一样，是最近在红海沿岸发现的三个“间歇性港口”之一。

　　古埃及人经常通过海路前往西奈半岛(苏伊士湾东岸)或神秘的庞特之地(位于曼德海峡、也门海岸、埃塞俄比亚和南苏丹海岸)。 瓦迪·贾尔夫港口始建于斯尼夫鲁统治期间，在第四王朝的前两个统治时期，即斯尼夫鲁和胡夫的统治期间，可能仅非常短暂地使用了大约 50 年。在卡夫拉(胡夫的第二继承人)的统治下，该港口被废弃，取而代之的是更接近当时行政中心的艾因·苏赫纳港口。

　　这种“间歇性港口”的原理很简单：将在红海航行的船只被拆解，以“船舶套件”的形式，由人和驴从尼罗河谷通过沙漠轨道运到海岸。然后在海边重新组装，以便在夏季使用时利于航行。在探险结束时，船只再次被拆解，然后存放在距港口几公里外的岩石上挖出的仓库走廊里，等候新的用途，有时甚至要等至几年后才会再次被使用。

　　在历史上的这个时期，瓦迪·贾尔夫港口的战略重要性尤为明显：从那时起，埃及人可以开始开采西奈半岛西南部丰富的铜矿。当时，他们对这种金属的需求日益增加，以制造可以切割美杜姆、代赫舒尔和吉萨巨型金字塔的石灰石块的工具。

　　因此，在胡夫时代，这个港口与大金字塔遗址有着直接联系：它是遍布全国的设施网络的一部分，用于收集和运输建造这座巨大遗址所需的大量材料。如在后面会提到的纸莎草纸所示，相同的团队在吉萨和这个港口站点工作。

　　The Wadi el-Jarf site is — along with Ayn Sukhna and Mersa Gawasis — one of the three “intermittent harbours” that have recently been identified on the Red Sea coast. These settlements were used by ancient Egyptians in the context of expeditions that were regularly sent by sea to either the Sinai Peninsula (on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Suez) or the still mysterious country of Punt, which must be placed in the region of Bab el-Mandab, and the coasts of Yemen, Ethiopia, and South Sudan. The wadi el-Jarf harbour was founded during the reign of Snefrou and was used only very briefly - may about 50 years only - during the two first reigns of the 4th dynasty, those of Snefrou and Khufu. Under Khafrê, 2nd successor of Khufu, the harbour was abandoned in favor of that of Ayn Sukhna, closer to the administrative centers of this time. The principle of such “intermittent harbours” is simple: the boats that were to navigate the Red Sea were transported dismanteled, in the form of “ship kits”, from the Nile valley to the coast though the desert tracks, by men and donkeys. They were then reassembled by the seashore, so that they could be used there during the summer season, which was favorable for navigation. At the end of the expedition, the boats were dismantled again, and then stored in warehouse-gallery dug into the rock a few kilometers from the port, awaiting new use, sometimes a few years later. The strategic importance of this harbour of Wadi el-Jarf is particularly evident at this time in history: it was from this point onwards that Egyptians could cast off to exploit the rich copper deposits in the south-west of the peninsula of Sinai. They had, at that time, an increased need for this metal, to make the tools with which one could cut the limestone blocks of the giant pyramids of Meidum, Dahshur and Giza. At the time of Khufu, this harbour was therefore in direct contact with the site of the Great Pyramid: it was part of a whole network of facilities set all over the country to collect and transport the enormous quantities of materials to be used in the construction of this gigantic monument. The same teams worked in Giza and on this port site, as the papyri found in the latter demonstrate.

　　Amongst the discoveries at the Wadi al-Jarf site are the Red Sea Scrolls, which are the oldest surviving written documents. You have written a captivating book about these scrolls entitled “The Red Sea Scrolls: How Ancient Papyri Reveal the Secrets of the Pyramids”. Amongst these scrolls, one document of particular importance is the Diary of Merer. Who is Merer and what does he describe in his diary?

　　龚鹏程教授：在瓦迪·贾尔夫遗址中发现的红海古卷是现存最古老的书面文件。 您为这些古卷曾撰写了一部引人入胜的书——《红海古卷：古代纸莎草纸如何揭示金字塔的秘密》。 在这些古卷中，有一份特别重要的文件是《梅勒日记》。 您可以介绍梅勒和他的日记吗？

　　皮埃尔·塔莱教授：瓦迪·贾尔夫纸莎草纸主要是在遗址 G1 长廊前发现的：在这里，在用于封闭洞穴的两块大石灰石块之间，有近1000份文件碎片，相当于至少30卷不同大小的纸莎草纸。这些包括会计文件和日志。

　　我们不可能知道这些文件和日志是因为不再有用而被丢弃了，还是被自愿留在现场的押金。 所有文件都是在胡夫统治末期间记录的：第13次大小牲畜普查的年份，可能对应于他统治的第26年，出现在这批文件中的一个会计文件上，其中也提到了这个档案的所有者：一群被称为“船的护卫”的水手，他们指定“将胡夫的王冠作为船首”。

　　梅勒探长的名字经常出现在这部文献的航海日志中，他是一个级别较低的经理，可能是一名海军军官，是这个团队中一个分部的负责人。他指挥着一个专门从事航海的 40 人编队（埃及语为“ZA-section”）。该档案记录的这一年中，他被赋予了多项不同的任务：特别是在尼罗河泛滥的几个月里，他负责将石头从图拉的采石场运送到吉萨高原，在那里它们将被用于建造国王的陵墓。他在日志中记录了他的团队每天做了什么，以及他们在哪里过夜。尽管内容非常重复，但多亏了其中一些文件（纸莎草纸 A 和 B），我们甚至仍然有可能跟随他的行动，了解到埃及人为了方便运送建造金字塔所用的材料，在吉萨高原脚下建造的液压装置。另一份文件（纸莎草纸 D）为我们提供了此时吉萨陵墓的写照，并命名了在那里建立的一些皇家机构（粮仓、皇家住所、档案馆、山谷神庙）。

　　通过这位目击者对建造大金字塔的证词，我们可以更精确地了解这座实际上也是当时埃及国家心脏的陵墓。

　　根据日志中的会计文件，虽然梅勒的团队中无疑都是是相对谦逊的人，但他们仍然是君主制下的永久雇员（而不是奴隶），似乎能享受到国家极好的待遇。

　　The Wadi el-Jarf papyri were mainly discovered in front of gallery G1 of the site: at this place, between two large blocks of limestone used to close the cave, nearly 1000 fragments of documents – corresponding to a minimum of about thirty rolls of papyrus of different sizes - were collected.These consist both of accounting documents and logbooks. It is impossible for us to know whether these were thrown away because they were no longer useful, or a deposit left voluntarily on site. All of these documents are dated from the end of the reign of Cheops: the year of the 13th census of large and small cattle, perhaps corresponding to year 26 of his reign, appears on one of the accounting documents in this lot, which also mentions the owner of this archive: a group of sailors called "the escorts of the boat named 'the Uraeus of Cheops is its prow'".

　　Inspector Merer, whose name appears regularly in the logbooks of this documentary lot, was a lower-level manager, probably a naval officer, who stood at the head of a subdivision of this team. He directs a formation of 40 people (a “ZA-section” in Egyptian) specialized in navigation. Throughout the year documented by this archive, he was entrusted with several different missions: he was in particular responsible for several months, when the Nile flooded, for transporting stones from the quarries of Tura to the Giza plateau, where they would be used in the construction of the king's funerary complex. The logbooks he writes indicates daily what his team did during that day, and where they spent the night. Although they are very repetitive, it is still possible, thanks to some of these documents (Papyrus A and B), to follow his movements, and even to get an idea of the hydraulic installations that the Egyptians had made at the foot of the Giza plateau, to facilitate the delivery of materials used in the construction of the monument. Another document (papyrus D) gives us a picture of the Giza necropolis at this time, naming some of the royal institutions established there (the Granary, the Royal Residence, the Archives, the Valley Temple). Through the testimony of this eyewitness to the construction of the Great Pyramid, we obtain more precise picture of this necropolis, which was in fact also the heart of the Egyptian state at that time. While Merer's team is undoubtedly made up of relatively modest people, they are nevertheless permanent employees of the monarchy (and not slaves) who seem to be treated particularly well by the state, according to the accounting documents found with the logbooks.

　　龚鹏程教授：除了红海古卷，在瓦迪·贾尔夫遗址还有哪些重要的考古发现？

　　皮埃尔·塔莱教授：瓦迪·贾尔夫遗址尤为重要：它是第四王朝初期的一个重要战略要地。红海边缘的这个定居点对依赖于金属供应的君主制工程至关重要。 皇家政府直接控制了这个港口：这就是为什么除了纸莎草纸之外，这个地方到处都有铭文标注着在那里工作的团队。

　　这些所谓的“控制标记”出现在用来封闭装有远征装备的洞穴的砌块上，在用来储存水的罐子上，以及在石头和金属工具上。 我们还收集了许多土陶片-——写在陶器或石头上的会计文件 -——以及数百个可以证明几名官员身份的印章。 所有这些元素都可以让我们更好地了解访问该地点的人员以及远征后勤组织的生活和工作环境。

　　但毫无疑问的是，最有趣的发现是在距离海岸 5 公里的洞穴群中发现的船只残骸及其设备。如果说船只本身可能是在遗址最终被废弃时被埃及人收回的，那么许多木头、绳索或帆上的织物碎片仍然为这个古代历史时期的海军建设提供了一个思路。

　　同样在海岸，对海上设施本身的研究也取得了丰硕的成果。我们在瓦迪·贾尔夫观察到迄今为止最古老的人工海港遗迹：测绘出一个用于保护停泊处免受北风影响的大型 L 形码头（东西长 200 米/南北长 200 米）。

　　在距离海岸200米远的码头正上方的营地中，出土了 105 个石锚，总重21 吨。它们在胡夫统治末期被小心地存放在那里，并且仍然有很多人用红墨水为他们装备的船只命名。 因此我们得知了胡夫在红海的最后一支舰队是由四艘船组成的。 我们有时会有一种时光倒流的感觉，仿佛这一切都发生在昨天——到目前为止，景观可能没有太大变化——而港口却在 4500 多年前就关闭了。

　　The Wadi el-Jarf site is particularly important: it was a major strategic point at the beginning of the 4th dynasty. From this settlement on the edge of the Red Sea depended the metal supplies that were vital for the projects of the monarchy. The royal administration controlled this port directly: this is the reason why, apart from the papyri, the site is littered with inscriptions identifying the teams who worked there. These so-called "control marks" are found on the blocks used to close the caves containing the expeditionary equipment, on the jars used to store water, as well as on the stone and metal tools. Numerous ostraca – accounting documents written on pottery or stones – were also collected, as well as hundreds of sealings identifying several officials. All these elements make it possible to better understand the personnel who visited the site, and the very conditions of the logistical organization of the expeditions.

　　But what undoubtedly gives us the most interesting piece of information are the remainders of boats and their equipment found in the complex of caves 5 km from the coast. If the boats themselves were probably taken back by the Egyptians during the final abandonment of the site, many fragments of wood, ropes, or fabric from the sails, still provide an idea on naval construction in this ancient period of history. Also on the coast, the study of the maritime installations themselves has been very fruitful. We observe at the Wadi el-Jarf the oldest remains so far of an artificial harbour built into the sea : a large L-shaped pier (200 m west-east / 200 m north-south), fitted out to protect the mooring area from the north wind, was surveyed and drawn there.

　　In the camps located directly above this jetty, 200 m from the coast, a deposit of 105 stone anchors - representing a total weight of 21 tons - was unearthed. They had been carefully stored there at the end of Khufu’s reign, and still bear, for a large number of them, inscriptions in red ink giving the name of the boats they equipped. Khufu’s last fleet in the Red Sea, composed of four ships, is thus known to us. We sometimes have the impression of going back in time, and that all this happened yesterday — and the landscape has probably not changed so much so far — while the closure of the port took place more than 4500 years ago.

　　龚鹏程教授：您可以和我们分享一下您的考古发现旅程和探险吗?

　　皮埃尔·塔莱教授：我们花了几年时间定位瓦迪·贾尔夫遗址的位置。

　　此前曾有过两次报告：19 世纪初由英国探险家詹姆斯·伯顿和约翰·加德纳·威尔金森和1950 年代由法国苏伊士运河飞行员弗朗索瓦·比西和勒内·夏博·莫里索所报告。 这两种報告，已对距离海岸5公里的洞穴区域进行了勘探，但尚未了解它们的功能，当时人们对法老文化在红海的活动一无所知。

　　正是利用前人留下的关于该遗址的笔记和研究卫星图像，我们才得以发现到它。

　　在1990年代末发现另一个法老港艾因苏赫纳后，我已经在红海研究了大约十年。

　　该港口仍位于苏伊士湾沿岸，向北100 公里。艾因苏赫纳港口在第四王朝中期（约公元前 2500 年）和第十八王朝（约公元前 1550-1450 年）之间断断续续地被占用着，对这个港口的研究，使我对埃及人在西奈方向发起的远征的后勤组织产生了更广泛的兴趣。

　　2006年，我还在西奈半岛西南部开展了一项调查，以整理埃及人在铜和绿松石开采遗址上留下的遗迹(矿山、纪念探险的岩石铭文、营地、矿石加工高炉)。在这些沙漠任务中有许多发现，特别是在 Wadi Ameyra 发现的前王朝时期或原始王朝时期的铭文，或者在 Seh Nasb 发现的一个巨大的古王国冶金建筑群。

　　It took several years to relocate the site of the wadi el-Jarf. It had been reported twice before: by English explorers James Burton and John Gardner Wilkinson in the early 19th century, and thereafter by French Suez Canal pilots Fran?ois Bissey and René Chabot Morisseau in the 1950s. In both cases, the area of thecaves, 5 km from the coast, had been explored, but their function had not been understood yet, at a time when nothing was known of the activities of the pharaonic culture on the Red Sea. It was by using the notes left by our predecessors about the site and by studying satellite images that we were able to find it back.

　　I had already been working on the Red Sea for about ten years, following the discovery at the end of the 1990s of another pharaonic port in Ayn Soukhna, 100 km further north, still on the coast of the Gulf of Suez. The study of this port, occupied intermittently between the middle of the 4th dynasty (c. 2500 BC) and the 18th dynasty (c. 1550-1450 BC) led me to take a more general interest in the logistical organization of the expeditions launched by the Egyptians in the direction of Sinai.

　　In 2006, I had also launched a survey in the south-west of the Sinai Peninsula proper, to curate an inventory of the vestiges left by the Egyptians on the very sites of the exploitation of copper and turquoise (mines, rock inscriptions commemorating expeditions, camps, ore processing furnaces). Many discoveries were made during these missions in the desert, in particular that of inscriptions of the pre or proto-dynastic period at Wadi Ameyra, or of a huge Old Kingdom metallurgical complex at Seh Nasb.

　　It was in 2008 that we were able to visit for the first time the site of Wadi el-Jarf : we first identified dry stone camps, located on the top of limestone mounds, then quickly found, 500 m further the west, the system of warehouse-galleries which is the most spectacular part of the site. Those caves had all remained open, following the last Egyptian expedition, probably during the reign of Khafrê. This king had undoubtedly commissioned a systematic recovery operation of the material they contained. But, despite the significant accumulation of silt and sand in most of those caves, the abundance of archaeological material sometimes still visible on the surface, including jars inscribed in red ink, fragments of wood and fabrics, immediately demonstrated the potential of the site. It was then necessary to wait three more years to obtain the authorizations to work on the site, but the first excavation campaign, in June 2011, immediately confirmed that this site was truly exceptional.

　　龚鹏程

　　龚鹏程，1956年生于台北，台湾师范大学博士，当代著名学者和思想家。著作已出版一百五十多本。

　　办有大学、出版社、杂志社、书院等，并规划城市建设、主题园区等多处。讲学于世界各地。并在北京、上海、杭州、台北、巴黎、日本、澳门等地举办过书法展。现为中国孔子博物馆名誉馆长、台湾国立东华大学终身荣誉教授、美国龚鹏程基金会主席。

　　举报/反馈