纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 014玉斧（4）

But perhaps the most exciting thing about this axe head is what it's made of: not the usual grey/brown tones that you find in British stones and flints-this axe is a beautiful striking green, because this tool is made from jade, or, to give it its precise geological term, jadeite.

但这把斧头最令人兴奋的还不是它的制作工艺，而是它的材质。它并没有英国常见的石头那种灰棕的色调，而是呈现出迷人的绿色。它是由玉石制細成的。

Jade is of course foreign to British soil-we tend to think of it as an exotic material from the Far East or from Central America; in fact, both the Chinese and the Central American civilisations are known to have valued jade far more highly than gold. But both these sources are thousands of miles away, so archaeologists were baffled for many years by where the jade in Europe could have come from. But there are actually sources of jade in continental Europe and, only a few years ago, in 2003-so six thousand years after our axe head was made-the precise origin of the stone it was made from was discovered…his luxury object is Italian.

玉当然不是英国本地出产，我们一般倾向于认为，这是一种来自远东或中美洲的外来材料。众所周知，中华文明与中美洲文明都推崇美玉， 认为它比黄金更珍贵。但它们都离英国有数千英里之遥，这使得考古学家困惑多年，不知道欧洲的玉石究竟来自何处。但事实上，欧洲大陆本身就有玉石资源，2003年，在玉斧制作完成六千年后，终于有人发现了玉石的确切产地。这种奢侈品来自意大利。

Archaeologists Pierre and Anne-Marie Petrequin spent 12 hard years surveying and exploring the mountain ranges of the Italian Alps and the northern Apennines. Finally they found the prehistoric jade quarries that our axe comes from. Here's Pierre Petrequin:

考古学家彼得勒坎夫妇花了12年时间在意大利境内的阿尔卑斯山与北部的亚平宁山脉艰难地搜寻，最终找到了史前的玉石场，我们的玉斧便来自此处。皮埃尔彼得勒坎描述了他们的搜寻过程：

"Having worked in New Guinea, and studied how and where the stone for the axe heads came from there, that's what gave the idea of going up very high in the Alps to try and find the sources.

我们曾在巴布亚新几内亚考察，得知他们制作斧头的石材来自高山。受此启发,我们爬到阿尔卑斯山脉的高寻找欧洲玉石的来源。