汉代海上丝绸之路的西段(三)——索科特拉岛的考古新发现

Socotra on the Maritime Silk Road(Ⅲ):Historical Significance of the New Archaeological Discovery from Cave Hoq

索科特拉岛地处印度洋海上交通的十字路口。21世纪初,考古工作者在该岛霍克洞发现了大批公元最初几个世纪的铭文和刻画图案,其语种既有来自西方的南阿拉伯文、阿克苏姆文、希腊文和帕尔米拉文,亦有来自东方的婆罗迷文、佉卢文和巴克特里亚文。它们是阿拉伯半岛、非洲东北、地中海世界和印度西北海岸的商旅在该岛逗留时创作的。在这丰富语料库所勾画的庞大贸易网络中,东方商人的身影尤为活跃,他们来自婆卢羯车等印度西北海岸港口,包括刹帝利和吠舍种姓印度人,以及塞种、耶婆那人和贵霜人。许多铭刻带有浓郁的宗教色彩,从中可分辨出佛教、婆罗门教、基督教、帕尔米拉神祇以及本土神祇因素。

Socotra Island is located at the crossroad where the Gulf of Aden and the western Indian Ocean meet.At the beginning of the century,archaeologists discovered a number of inscriptions and drawings which belong to the first centuries of the Common Era in Cave Hoq on the island.The graffiti,which were inscribed by the visitors from Arabia Felix,Ethiopia,the Mediterranean world and the northwestern coast of the Indian subcontinent,were written in the scripts of South Arabian,Aksūmite,Greek and Palmyrene from the West,while Brāhmī,Kharosthī and Bactrian from the East.The linguistic diversity of the corpus outlines a huge commercial network,in which the oriental merchants were especially active.The caravans,which came from Barygaza and other ports on the Gujarat coast,were organized by the Indians of Kshatriya and Vaishya,as well as the Saka people,Yavanas and Kushans.Remarkably,many graffiti bear religious characters,from which we can recognize Buddhism,Hinduism,Christian,Plamyrene divinity and native gods.