英语听力：自然百科 古罗马雕像

Israeli archeologists have discovered a rare, well-preserved, 1800-year-old figurine in Jerusalem. Dating from the time of the Roman Empire, the two-inch marble bust depicts the head of a man with a short curly beard .Archeologists believe it was used as a weight for a hanging scale of a type common in the Roman period. The Israeli Antiquities Authority says it is unusual because it was made of marble, the first known of its kind.

"We know many other weights that look alike, but all of them were made out of bronze and other metals, but not out of marble and so far in Jerusalem and in Israel, this is why it’s unique, because this is the only item that was made out of marble.”

Archeologists think the figurine could portray an athlete, possibly a boxer and that / was most likely carried to Jerusalem by a merchant. It was found in the ruins of a building destroyed by an earthquake in the 4th or 5th Century. The dig is at the site of a parking lot in a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. It is part of broader archeological excavations of the site, known to Israeli scholars as the City of David.