纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 015早期的写字板(8)

Writing seems to have emerged independently in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and Central America-all of them expanding population centres-but there's fierce debate and much rivalry about who got to writing first.

文字似乎在各个人口规模很大的中心地区，如美索不达米亚、埃及、 中国和中美洲都独立发展起来了。但关于谁第一个开始书写，仍然争议不断。

At the moment, the Mesopotamians seem to be in the lead, but that may simply be because their evidence-being in clay-has survived.

美索不达米亚人目前似乎暂时领先，但这很可能只是因为他们的证据—这些黏土板留存了下来。

I began this week looking at how rulers, trying to control their subjects in the new populous cities of Egypt and Mesopotamia, used military force to coerce them.

如前所述，埃及和美索不达米亚的统治者起初用武力来控制他们人口逐渐增多的城市。

But in writing, they found an even more powerful weapon of social control.

但后来他们发现，书写是更有力的控制社会的武器。

Even a reed pen turned out to be mightier than the sword.

芦苇笔的力量比刀剑更强。