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As the last Ice Age came to an end, somebody picked a pebble out of a small river not far from Bethlehem. It's a pebble that must have been tumbled downstream, banged and smoothed against other stones as it went, in the process that geologists poetically describe as 'chattering'.
隨著最后一個冰河時代宣告結束，有人從伯利恒附近流水淙淙的小溪邊，撿起了一枚鵝卵石。這肯定是一枚來自下游的卵石了，逐流而下的過程中，受流水沖刷，在砂石間反復翻滾摩擦，直到棱角盡失，成為圓滑可愛的卵石。地質學家們很詩意地將這過程描述為“千錘百煉，終成正果”。
But about 11,000 years ago, a human hand then shaped and chipped this beautifully chattered, rounded pebble into one of the most moving objects in the British Museum. It shows two naked people literally wrapped up in each other. It's the oldest known representation of a couple having sex.
然后大約在一萬一千年前左右，一雙人手巧妙地將這枚“終成正果”的美麗卵石雕刻成了如今大英博物館館藏展品中最動人的一件。它顯示了一對赤身裸體的人纏綿緊擁的姿態，這是世界上最早描繪男女性愛的物品。
'Well it's the classic thing that we always imagine that we discovered sex, and that all other ages before us were kind of rather prudish and simple, whereas in fact obviously human beings have been emotionally sophisticated since at least 8,000 BC when this sculpture was made, and just as sophisticated as us, I'm sure.'
“這么經典的東西總能引發我們的想象，我們發現了性愛，而后在當代人之前的漫長歲月里，在這話題上我們總是顯得那么拘謹避諱。然而在公元前八千年左右這件雕塑制造出來時，顯然我們人類在這方面早已擁有復雜的情感。我相信當時的人類情感之復雜，大概與你我一樣。”
'And I think it's clear that sexuality was a very very important part of the symbolic and social world.'
“我認為很明顯的，在當時整個人類象征性與社會性的世界里，性行為已經占據了相當重要的一部分。”
Ain Sakhri lovers，A stone sculpture discovered near Bethlehem , approximately 11,000 years old
Ain Sakhri的戀人塑像，石雕，距今約一萬一千年前，出土于伯利恒地區附近。
At the end of the last Ice Age, as the climate warmed up across the world, humans gradually shifted from hunting and gathering to a settled way of life based on farming - and in the process, our relationship to the natural world was transformed.
在最后一次冰河時代后期，隨著全球氣候變暖，人類逐漸由過去狩獵與采集過渡到定居農耕的生活方式；在這個過程中，我們與大自然世界的關系在產生了巨變。
From living as a minor part of a balanced ecosystem, we start trying to overcome nature, to take control. In the Middle East the warmer weather brought a spread of rich grasslands. People had been moving around, hunting gazelle and gathering the seeds of lentils, chick peas and wild grasses. But in the new, lusher savannah, gazelle were plentiful and they tended to stay in one place throughout the year, so the humans settled down with them.
以前我們僅僅是作為一個平衡生態大系統中的一小部分因子，現在我們開始嘗試來克服大自然，想要贏得主動權。在中東地區，轉暖的氣候帶來了一望無際的浩瀚草原，水草豐茂，土質肥沃。人類曾經遷徙奔波，獵捕瞪羚，采集小扁豆、鷹嘴豆與各種野草的種子；然而在這片嶄新而肥沃的稀樹大草原之上，瞪羚的數量十分充足，往往常年累月停留在同一地方不遷移，因此人類也隨之定居下來。
