纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 005克洛维斯石矛头（1）

005: EPISODE 5 - Clovis point 克洛维斯石矛头

Abstract摘要 :

Clovis point (made over 13,000 years ago). Stone spearhead found in Arizona

 

第五集——克洛维斯石矛头，距今约于一万三千年前以上，出土于美国亚利桑利州。

MP3听力原文：

Imagine. You're in a green landscape studded with trees and bushes. You're working in a team of hunters quietly stalking a herd¹ of mammoths.

想象一下,你所在之处，一片绿树荫荫、灌木繁茂，收眼尽是舒心的绿。你是一群猎人中的成员，正在采取团队作战术悄悄地盯梢着一群猛犸象群。

One of the mammoths, you hope, is going to be your supper. You're clutching a light spear with a sharp, pointed³ stone at the end of it.

你期望着这其中某头猛犸象将会成为你今天的晚餐。你握紧手中轻盈的长矛，尖端上石制的矛尖锋芒毕露。

You get closer - you hurl⁴ your spear - and it misses. The mammoth² you wanted to kill snaps the shaft⁵ under its foot.

你期望着这其中某头猛犸象将会成为你今天的晚餐。你握紧手中轻盈的长矛，尖端上石制的矛尖锋芒毕露。

That spear is useless now. You take another one, and you move on. And you leave behind you on the ground something that's not just a killing⁶ tool that failed, but a thing that's going to become a message across time, because thousands of years after the mammoth trod on your spear, humans will find that pointed stone spearhead and know that their ancestors were in this place far earlier than anyone had imagined.

现在那把长矛成了废物了。你拿起另一把长矛，继续你的旅程。然而那被你刚刚遗弃到地上的物品，可不止止是一件失败的杀器，它将成为一个跨越时光的使者；因为在那猛犸象踩碎了你的长矛之后的几千年后，后来人将会发现这件尖尖的石矛头，从而知道原来很久很久以前，超出他们想象的早，他们遥远的祖先曾经在这里留下了足迹。

'It looks so tiny and then it's only sort of two or three inches in length.'

“它看起来是真小啊，才差不多两三寸英寸长。”

'These are people on the move - explorers, and I can really feel quite a bit of empathy, and I can really feel what it must've been like to enter a country that nobody had told you about, that nobody had actually been in before you.'

“这些人类永远在旅行中，是探险者。我还真有点跟他们产生共鸣了；当你走进一个你一无所知的国家，没有告诉你这是一片前人从来踏足过的土地时，那种感觉，我可以真切地感受到。”

It's 13,000 years ago, and you're in America.

现在从概是一万三千年前，你所在的地方是美洲。

Clovis spearpoint, made of stone, 13,000 years old and found in Arizona, United States of America.

克洛维斯石矛头，距今约于一万三千年前以上，出土于美国亚利桑利州。

Things that are thrown away or lost can tell us as much about the past as any objects carefully preserved for posterity⁷.

其实被丢弃或遗失的东西，也如同那些被视如珍宝一样精心保存的物品，能向我们诉说那过去的故事。

Broken things tell poignant⁸ stories - in fact, mundane⁹ everyday items discarded long ago as rubbish, are as much a defining characteristic of being human as great art, and these modest but essential things can tell us some of the most important stories of all in human history.

残破的物品诉说着凄美的往事。事实上，当年那些当成日常垃圾抛弃掉的物品，在多年后的今天极可能与那些不朽艺术品同样拥有定义我们作为人类本质特性的力量，并且往往是这些不太体面却十分纯粹的东西，向我们进述了人类历史上那些最重要的故事。

In the case of this programme, how modern humans - the toolmakers and the artists we've been following this week - took over the world. How, after populating Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe, they finally got to America.

 

在这期节目中，这故事是关于现代人类，像我们前两期已经介绍过的那些工匠与艺术家们，是如何改造这个世界；又是如何继非洲、亚洲、欧洲之后，最后到达了美洲大陆。

1 herd   

n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• He had no opinions of his own but simply follow the herd.他从无主见，只是人云亦云。

2 mammoth   

n.长毛象；adj.长毛象似的，巨大的

参考例句：

• You can only undertake mammoth changes if the finances are there.资金到位的情况下方可进行重大变革。
• Building the new railroad will be a mammoth job.修建那条新铁路将是一项巨大工程。

3 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

4 hurl   

vt.猛投，力掷，声叫骂

参考例句：

• The best cure for unhappiness is to hurl yourself into your work.医治愁苦的最好办法就是全身心地投入工作。
• To hurl abuse is no way to fight.谩骂决不是战斗。

5 shaft   

n.(工具的)柄，杆状物

参考例句：

• He was wounded by a shaft.他被箭击中受伤。
• This is the shaft of a steam engine.这是一个蒸汽机主轴。

6 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

7 posterity   

n.后裔，子孙，后代

参考例句：

• Few of his works will go down to posterity.他的作品没有几件会流传到后世。
• The names of those who died are recorded for posterity on a tablet at the back of the church.死者姓名都刻在教堂后面的一块石匾上以便后人铭记。

8 poignant   

adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的

参考例句：

• His lyrics are as acerbic and poignant as they ever have been.他的歌词一如既往的犀利辛辣。
• It is especially poignant that he died on the day before his wedding.他在婚礼前一天去世了，这尤其令人悲恸。

9 mundane   

adj.平凡的；尘世的；宇宙的

参考例句：

• I hope I can get an interesting job and not something mundane.我希望我可以得到的是一份有趣的工作，而不是一份平凡无奇的。
• I find it humorous sometimes that even the most mundane occurrences can have an impact on our awareness.我发现生活有时挺诙谐的，即使是最平凡的事情也能影响我们的感知。