New tombs found in Giza support the view that the Great Pyramids were built by free workers and not slaves, as widely believed, Egypt's chief archaeologist said on Sunday.

埃及首席考古学家于上周日称，日前在吉萨发现的新墓群表明，大金字塔的建造者是自由工人，而非人们普遍认为的奴隶。


Films and media have long depicted slaves toiling away in the desert to build the mammoth pyramids only to meet a miserable death at the end of their efforts.

长期以来，影视作品和媒体报道所描绘的都是奴隶们为了建造宏伟的金字塔在沙漠中长期劳役，最终精力耗尽而惨死。

　　
"These tombs were built beside the king's pyramid, which indicates that these people were not by any means slaves," Zahi Hawass, the chief archaeologist heading the Egyptian excavation team, said in a statement.

埃及发掘队的首席考古学家扎希·哈瓦斯说：“这些墓穴修建在埋葬国王的金字塔旁，这意味着这些人绝不是奴隶。”

　　
"If they were slaves, they would not have been able to build their tombs beside their king's."

“如果他们是奴隶，他们是不能把自己的坟墓建在国王的坟墓旁的。”

　　
He said the collection of workers' tombs, some of which were found in the 1990s, were among the most significant finds in the 20th and 21st centuries. They belonged to workers who built the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre.

他说，这些劳工的坟墓是20世纪和21世纪最重要的发现之一，其中一部分坟墓发现于上世纪90年代。这些坟墓埋葬的是那些建造胡夫和哈夫拉金字塔的劳工。

　　
Hawass had earlier found graffiti on the walls from workers calling themselves "friends of Khufu" - another sign that they were not slaves.

之前哈瓦斯还在墙上发现了劳工们的涂鸦，他们自称为“胡夫的朋友”，再次证明这些人不是奴隶。

　　
The tombs, on the Giza plateau on the western edge of Cairo, are 4,510 years old and lie at the entrance of a one-km (half mile)-long necropolis.

这些墓位于开罗西侧吉萨高原上长达一公里（半英里）的坟场的入口处，迄今已有4510年的历史。

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