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By around 12,000 years ago, the Clovis people and their descendants had not only spread across North America, but had also reached the southernmost tip of South America. Not long after this, warming climate and melting ice raised sea levels sharply so that the land-bridge to Asia flooded once again. There was no way back.
大約在一萬兩千年前，克洛維斯人與他們的后裔，不僅僅已經遍布北美，同時到達了南美洲的最南端。沒過多久，全球氣候變暖，冰川融化，海平面大幅度回升，再次淹沒了通往亞洲的大陸架。沒有退路了。
For the next nine thousand years, in fact until European contact in the sixteenth century AD, the civilisations of the Americas would develop on their own. So, 12,000 years ago, we had reached a key moment in human history. With the exception of the islands of the Pacific, human beings had settled the whole habitable world.
于是在接下來的九千多年，直到公元十六世紀左右歐洲探險者重新發現了美洲，在此之間的悠悠歲月里，美洲文明將獨立發展，自成一體。因此，一萬兩千年前，我們到達了人類歷史上的關鍵時刻。隨了太平洋島嶼以后，人類差不多生息繁衍在了世界任何可居住的角落。
We seem to be hard-wired to keep moving, to want more, to find out what's beyond the next hill. Broadcaster and traveller Michael Palin has covered a good deal of the globe - what does he think drives us on?
我們似乎與生俱來有一種永遠向前的天性，想要得到更多，發現更多，去跨越下一座山峰。廣播員與旅行家邁克爾·佩林差不多走遍全世界了，那他又是什么力量驅動這種人性執著呢？
'In myself I've always been very restless and, from when I was very small, interested in where I wasn't, [in] what was over the horizon, [in] what was round the next corner. And the more you look at the history of 'homo sapiens', it's all about movement, right from the very first time they decided to leave Africa.
“對于我自己而言，我一向就很不安分了，就是呆不住。很小很小的時期，我對所有我沒去過的地方都感興趣，想去看看地平線之外有什么，下個轉彎處之后又有什么。而且當你看了越多的“智人”歷史，你就越感覺從他們決定離開非洲的那一刻起，那便是一部旅行探索的歷史。
It is this restlessness which seems a very significant factor in the way the planet was settled by humans. It does seem that we are not settled, we think we are, but we are still looking for somewhere else where something is better - where it's warmer, it's more pleasant.
現在看來似乎這種躁動不安的天性恰恰是一種非常重要的因素，決定了人類在這地球上的定居方式。其實并不是說我們沒能安居下來，我們覺得我們安頓好了，然而我們還是自然而然地想往別外尋找更好的地方，更溫暖，更恰人的地方。可能這是一種元素，精神元素。
Maybe there is an element, a spiritual element, of hope in this whole thing. You know, that you are going to find somewhere that is going to be wonderful. It's the search for paradise, the search for the perfect land - maybe that's at the bottom of it all, all the time.'
你知道你就是得去尋找這片樂土。這是在尋找天堂，在尋找極樂世界。也許這追求在是整個人類歷史上很本質的，一直就是。
Hope, as the defining human quality - wouldn't that be an encouraging note in which to end this first week of our history of the world?
希望是一種定義人性的要素，拿它來結束我們《百件物品中的世界歷史》這系列第一周五集節目豈不鼓舞人心？
What's stood out for me in this week's long journey of nearly two million years, is the constant human striving to do things better; to make tools that are not only more efficient but also more beautiful, to explore not just environments but ideas, to struggle towards something not yet experienced. The objects I've looked at this week have tracked that move - from tools for survival not so different from what other animals might use, to a great work of art and the beginnings of religion.
本周我們經歷了將近兩百萬年的漫長旅程，感受最深的一點是人類總是不斷努力著把事情做得更好，把工具制造得不僅僅更高效，而且更漂亮；探索的不僅僅是周圍的環境，而且是思想；向未知事物奮斗著。本周我介紹的各件物品，從一件可能動物也能使用、效用不高的生存工具開始，以一件意味著宗教起點的偉大藝術作品結尾。
Next week, I'm going to be looking at how, about ten thousand years ago, we began to transform the natural world by starting to farm. In the process, changing not just the landscape, but plants, animals and, above all, ourselves. And I'm going to be focussing on two favourite pastimes - food and sex.
下一周，我將繼續去探索近萬年前，我們是如何去將自然世界改造成農場。在此過程中，改變的不僅僅是地貌景觀，還有植被、動物，還有最重要的我們自身。而且我將聚集于人類最喜愛的兩種消遣方式——食欲與性欲的滿足。
