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 mammothpyramids 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 excavationteam, 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 Khufuand 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 graffition 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。

Hawass said evidence had been found showing that farmers in the Delta and Upper Egypt had sent 21 buffaloand 23 sheep to the plateau every day to feed the builders, believed to number around 10,000 - or about a tenth of Greek historian Herodotus's estimate of 100,000.

哈瓦斯说，已发现的相关证据表明，当时（尼罗河）三角洲和埃及南部地区的农民每天都往建筑工地送21头水牛和23只羊，以解决工人们的吃饭问题，当时共有约1万名工人参与金字塔建造，仅为希腊历史学家希罗多德所估计的10万人的十分之一。

These farmers were exempted frompaying taxes to the government of ancient Egypt - evidence that he said underscored the fact they were participating in a national project.

这些农民无需向古埃及政府缴纳赋税，哈瓦斯说这进一步证实了他们参与的是一个国家工程。

The first discovery of workers' tombs in 1990 came about accidentally when a horse stumbled on a brick structure 10 meters (yards) away from the burial area.

此类墓群于1990年首次发现，当时一匹马在距离坟地10米（码）远的一处土砖墙处跌倒，由此带来了这一偶然的发现。