纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 045阿拉伯青铜手(4)（在线收听）

It's a pretty baffling series of names and places.

这一大串人名和地名确实有点儿让人头晕。

But if you're a historian trying to reconstruct the society and the religion of ancient Yemen, pretty well all you have to go on is inscriptions like this one.

但历史学家重建古代也门社会与宗教信仰的工作几乎全部建立在这样的铭文上，它们的信息量很大。

There are about 10,000 of them known, each one, it has to be said, more opaque than the other.

大约每个都有10000,不得不说,一个比另一个更晦涩难懂。

But if you actually unpick the inscription on this hand, it does in fact contain a great deal of information.

但是如果你真正破解出铭文后,它实际上包含大量的信息。

From it we learn that this bronze hand was dedicated at the temple of the god Ta'lab Riyam, in a place called Zafar, high in the Yemeni hills.

专家破译出文字后，我们了解到，这只手曾被供奉在也门山丘高处一个叫萨法城的地方的塔拉布里阳神庙里。

The owner of the hand, Wahab Ta'lab, tells us that he belongs to a clan, and that that clan in turn is part of a larger tribal organisation, whose god was Ta'lab.

手的原主人瓦哈塔拉布来自某个部落，而这个部落属于一个规模更大的、信奉塔拉布神的族群。

So, Wahab Ta'lab had obviously been named after his own god.

因此, 塔拉布的名字显然来自他所敬拜的神祇。

And as a further sign of faith he's dedicated his hand publicly to Ta'lab, at the centre of the city of Zafar, where it would have been seen along with other offerings of gold, bronze or alabaster, representing human figures, animals, arrows, spear heads, that sort of thing.

为了表现虔诚，他将自己的手公开献给萨法城中心的神庙，与人们献上的其他供品摆在一起，其中包 括塑造成人、动物、弓、箭头等形象的金、铜与雪花石奇制品。

But in return for these offerings, the god Ta'lab was expected, in general terms, to see the donors alright.

供奉者希望神能够赐福他们作为回报。

But Wahab Ta'lab must have been pretty alright to start with, only a man of real wealth could offer a bronze hand as beautifully made as this.

但瓦哈塔拉布一定相当富有，只有富人才能供奉如此精美的青铜手。

But, by the international standards of the day, his whole society was wealthy.

不过按照当时的国际标准，他整个族群的成员都很富有。

At the time of our hand most of south Arabia was effectively one state-a confederation of tribes like Wahab Ta'lab's, known to historians as the Himyarite kingdom.

青铜手制作时期，几乎整个阿拉伯半岛南部都属于一个国家，一个由类似塔拉布所属族群所组成的城邦联合体，历史学家称之为希米亚里特王国。