纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 045阿拉伯青铜手(2)（在线收听）

The first four programmes this week have been about religions that have millions, or hundreds of millions, of followers, but 1,700 years ago there were far more religions in the world than today, and many, many more gods. Gods at this date tended to have strictly local responsibilities, not the worldwide embrace that we're used to now. In Mecca, for example, before Mohammed, pilgrims worshipped in a temple which had a statue of a different god for every day of the year. Today's programme is about one of those numberless Arabian gods, that didn't survive the coming of Mohammed.

本周我们为您带来的前4件物品有数百万或成千上万的追随者,约1700年前，世界上的宗教与神远比现在要多。当时的神多具有地域性，而非像现在一样通常为全球各地的人民信仰。例如在麦加，在人们追随穆罕默德之前，朝圣者们进神庙敬拜，每天敬奉的神像都不相同。我们这部分的最后一件文物便是献给后来被穆罕默德禁信的众多阿拉伯本土神祇之一的。

His full name was Ta'lab Riyam, meaning "the strong one of Riyam"-a Yemeni hill town-and he protected the local hill people. Yemen in the third century was a prosperous place, a hub of international trade that produced some of the most sought-after commodities for the vast market of the Mediterranean, the Middle East and India. It was Yemen that supplied the whole Roman Empire with frankincense and myrrh.

他的全称是塔拉布·里阳，意为“里阳的神”。里阳是也门的一座山丘城镇，而塔拉布庇佑着这里的山区百姓。公元三世纪的也门是个繁华之地,它是一个国际贸易集散地,出产一些在地中海、中东和印度市场都需求极大的物品，并为整个罗马帝国提供乳香和没药。

I'm in the study room of the British Museum, and I'm holding the hand of a man called Wahab Ta'lab. It's a life-sized hand, just slightly smaller than my own, made of bronze, and it is surprisingly heavy. It's very lifelike, but as it's got no arm attached to it, it does look as though it's been severed. But according to Jeremy Field, orthopaedic and hand surgeon at Cheltenham General Hospital, this is not the case:

我现在正身处大英博物馆，我们这只铜手的原主人名为瓦哈·塔拉布。它的大小与真人的手相当，仅比我的略小一号，由青铜制成，很有分量。这手看起来惟妙惟肖，但没有手臂，仿佛是从手臂上切下来一般。但切尔滕纳姆综合医院的整形外科及手外科医生杰瑞米·费尔德认为，事实并非如此：