纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 014玉斧（6）

So, with the Canterbury axe head, that was from the same block as one that was found in Dorset, and it's clear that people must have gone back to that block at different times, it might be centuries apart, but because it's distinctive compositionally, it's now possible to say...yep, that was the same block...chips off the old block!"

坎特伯雷斧头与多塞特斧头的原料来自同一块石头。很明显，人们曾在不同的时间来到了同样的地点，中间可能相隔几个世纪。 但根据它们的结构特点，我们能确定，他们来自相同的石头，都是从那块旧岩石上凿下来的。

The boulder from which the British Museum axe was chipped six thousand years ago sits today, as then, in a landscape high above the earth and sometimes above the clouds, with spectacular vistas stretching as far as the eye can see.

六千年前曾被釆下大英博物馆玉斧原料的岩石，至今仍端坐在高处，偶尔还坐在云端之上。于彼处极目远眺，能看到壮丽的美景。

The jade-seekers seem to have deliberately chosen this special spot-they could easily have taken jade that was lying loose at the base of the mountains, but they climbed up through the clouds-probably because there they could take the rock that came from a place midway between our world on earth and the celestial realm of gods and ancestors.

玉石的开釆者似乎有意选择了这样一个特别的地点，他们本可以从山脚轻松地捡 拾到玉石块，却选择一直攀缘到云端，也许就是为了在自己居住的世界与神灵和祖先居住的天国之间釆集一块石头。

And so this jade was treated with extreme care and reverence, as if it contained special powers.

因此这块石头受到了特别 的呵护与礼遇，似乎带有非凡的力量。

Having quarried rough slabs of jade, the stone-workers and miners would then have had to labour to get the material back down to a place where it could be crafted.

采下玉石厚片之后，工匠们还得辛苦地将材料运回它们的加工地。

It was a long, arduous task, completed on foot and using boats.

这是漫长又艰辛的过程，靠脚力与小船的协助完成。

Amazingly, big blocks of this desirable stone have been found over 120 miles away-an astonishing achievement-and some of the material had an even longer journey to make.

大批的这种石头在 距离采集地约二百公里之外的地方被发现，这已经是惊人的成就，但有的甚至走过了更长的旅途。

Jade from here eventually spread throughout northern Europe-some even as far as Scandinavia.

来自意大利阿尔卑斯山的玉石横跨了整个北欧，最远的甚至到达了斯堪的纳维亚。

We can only guess-but we can, I think, make some guesses-about the journey of our particular axe.

我们只能对本节中的玉斧所经过的旅途进行一些猜测，但这样的猜测也是有依据的。