The crossbow triggers and parts found in EmperorQin's mausoleum.

在秦始皇陵中发现的弩的扳机和部件。

One of the most astounding¹ archaeologicaldiscoveries of the 20th century is arguably the life-size terra-cotta armyburied alongside China'sfirst emperor. Now, scientists have figured out how the bronze triggers for thecrossbows of the 8,000 terra-cotta warriors² were manufactured.

埋藏在中国首位帝王身边真人大小的兵马俑是二十世纪最惊人的发现之一。现在，科学家已经发现了8000位人佣所持铜弩的扳机是如何被制造出来的了。

Teams of craftspeople workedin small groups to produce the bronze pieces in batches³ for the tomb of ancientEmperor Qin Shi Huang, according to a new study detailed⁵ in the March issue ofthe journal Antiquity⁶.

一个工匠团队分成小组工作，为秦始皇的陵墓来批量制作铜件。刊登在《古物》杂志三月刊上的一项新的研究对此进行了详细的叙述。

Prepared for theafterlife

为了来世作准备

Historical documents suggest that soon afterEmperor Qin Shi Huang ascended⁷ to the throne in 246 B.C., he began work on histomb near Xi'an, China. When the tomb was firstunearthed in the 1970s,it revealed thousands of lifelike terra-cotta statues ofartisans, musicians, officials, horses and soldiers. The epic⁸ effortconscripted 700,000 laborers⁹, many of whom were convicts or people who were indebt to the empire, said study co-author Xiuzhen Janice Li, an archaeologistwho was at the University College London at the time of the new work and is nowat the Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s MausoleumSite Museumin China.

历史文件表明，在秦始皇于公元前246年登上帝位的不长时间之后，他就开始着手在中国的西安建造自己的陵墓。当他的陵墓于上世纪70年代第一次出土时，发掘出了上千个活灵活现的人佣，有工匠，音乐家，官员，马匹和士兵。这项研究的共同作者Xiuzhen Janice Li说当时有70万名劳工被招来进行这项史诗般的工程，其中大部分是囚犯或欠朝廷债的人。Xiuzhen Janice Li曾经是伦敦大学的考古专家，现在工作于中国的秦始皇帝陵博物馆。

The massive undertaking¹⁰ had an important goal:ensuring the emperor's military power and resources in the afterlife.

这项宏伟工程有一个重要的目标：确保皇帝的军事力量和资源跟随他到来世。

As part of the huge project, craftspeoplesculpted about 8,000 colorful warriors — likely using real human beings asinspiration — and those warriors wore stone armor and "wielded"lances, swords and crossbows.

作为这项巨大工程的一部分，工匠们塑刻了大约8000个色彩鲜艳的勇士——他们很可能是以真正的人作为灵感，这些战士们身披石盔，手持长矛，短剑和弩。

But it wasn't clear exactly how these ancientweapons were made. The crossbows were made of wood or bamboo that rotted longago, and only the tips and triggers for the bows remained, Li told LiveScience.

但是目前还不清楚这些古老的武器究竟是如何被制造出来的。Li告诉《生动科学》（Live Science）说，那时候制造的木制或竹制弩身肯定在很久以前就腐烂了，只留下了这些小物件和扳机。

Small workshops

小作坊

To learn more about how the massive trove¹¹ wasbuilt, Li and her colleagues visually inspected and measured about 216 of thefive-part crossbow triggers from the mausoleum.

The lack of wear on the metal pieces suggeststhe weapons were never used in actual battle, but were instead built solely¹² forthe tomb, the researchers said.

为了更加了解这座巨大的宝库，Li和她的同事们观察测量了200多个弩扳机的组件，他们研究发现这些扳机几乎没有磨损，说明它们从没有在战场上被使用过，而是专门为秦始皇陵而制造的。

In addition, the team analyzed¹³ the spots wheretriggers were found in the tomb, as well as the variation in the size and shapeof the pieces.

此外，研究小组分析了发现这些扳机的那个地点，对比了其中碎块的大小样式。

The pieces were mostly uniform, suggesting theinterlocking trigger parts were made in the same or nearly-identical molds andproduced in small batches. Each batch⁴ of the trigger pieces was likely thenassembled in small cells, or workshops, perhaps headed by anoverseer. That model contrasts with the "assembly line"hypothesis that some archaeologists thought might have been used.

这些零碎的部件几乎是相同的，这表明那些连锁扳机结构的组件是用同一种或几乎相同的模子批量生产出来，他们很可能也在这些小作坊里进行装配，也许由监工负责。考古学家猜测某种类似于“装配线”的模式已经在那个时候被运用了。

Mirror of society

社会的倒影

The organization into small workshops wassimilar to the structure the emperor imposed on the rest of society in ancient China,said study co-author Marcos Martinón-Torres, an archaeologist at the UniversityCollege London.

该研究共同撰写人，伦敦大学考古专家Marcos Martinón-Torres提到，在古代中国，这种小作坊的组织结构与皇帝在其他社会领域中推行的很相似。

"He abolished any privileges inherited byblood, and the population was divided in small groups that were collectivelyresponsible for their adherence¹⁴ to imperial laws," Martinón-Torres wrotein an email to Live Science. "For example, if someone in one of thesegroups committed a crime, all of them were held responsible, unless they reportedthe culprit and allowed them to be punished."

“他废除了宗法制，在法律上对民众实行连坐制度” Martinón-Torres在他写给《生动科学》的电子邮件中说到：“举个例子，如果一组人中一个人犯了罪，其余所有人都要为此承担责任，除非他们举报责任人并让他接受惩罚。”

The manufacturing technique used in the workshopalso may have been used by weapon makers¹⁵ for the Emperor of Qin's real armies,though that's just speculation¹⁶, Martinón-Torres said.

Martinón-Torres还提到，这种工作间里的制造技术很有可能被工匠用来为皇帝制造真正的武器，但这只是一个假设。

"The cellular¹⁷ workshop model we postulatefor the weapons manufacture in the mausoleum would have also offered usefulflexibility for armies on the move," he said.

这种蜂窝式的工作间模式很可能为行动中的军队带来更高的灵活性，他说。