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These people had farming villages, and I happen to have excavated sites in the Naqada region. And we found remains of animal enclosures, as well as evidence for the consumption of cattle. We found the bones of these animals. And these items, these models of cattle, were probably produced a millennium or more after cattle were introduced into Egypt.'
“這些人類生存在農(nóng)耕村落里，我碰巧發(fā)掘過Naqada地區(qū)附近的考古遺址。我們發(fā)現(xiàn)了一些動物外殼遺骸，以及人類食用牛的證據(jù)。我們發(fā)掘了這些動物的骨頭。這些物品，這些陶牛模型，可能大概出現(xiàn)在馴化牛被引進埃及的千年之后。”
Study of the bones of these cattle from ancient times shows the ages at which the animals were killed. Surprisingly, many of them were old, at least too old if they were being kept only for food. So unless the early Egyptians enjoyed very tough steak, these are not in our sense beef cattle.
對于這些遠古時期馴化牛骨骼的研究結果告訴了我們這些家畜宰殺時的年齡。令人驚訝的是，其中大部分已經(jīng)是老牛了，至少對于肉用牛而言，真是太過老了。因此除非三埃及人真的相當享受啃著又干又硬的老牛排，這些牛絕對不是我們印象中的肉用牛。
And they must have been kept alive for other reasons - perhaps to carry water or possessions on journeys. But it seems more likely they were tapped for blood which, if you drink it or add it to stews, gives you essential extra protein - it's something we find in many parts of the world, and it's still done today by the nomadic peoples in Kenya.
那么，它們肯定是人類為了其他目的而養(yǎng)育起來的。有可能是在人類遷徙過程中做些挑水或負重之類的工作吧。不過看上去似乎還有另一種可能性——人類的目的是牛血，例如直接飲用，或者添加到燉菜里頭，可以補充額外的蛋白質(zhì)。這種用途我們已經(jīng)在世界上很多地區(qū)都發(fā)現(xiàn)了，而且如今肯尼亞的游牧人民仍舊這么做。
So are our four cows a walking blood bank? The more obvious answer, that they were dairy cows, we can probably rule out, because for several reasons milk was unfortunately off the menu. Not only did these early domesticated cows produce very little milk but, more importantly for humans, drinking cows' milk is very much an acquired skill. Martin Jones again:
這樣說來我們那四只陶牛豈不是四只活動血庫的縮影？奶牛這種更明顯的答案我們大概已經(jīng)可以排除，因為很不巧的基于若干原因，牛奶是上不了當時人類菜譜的了。首先這些早期馴化牛根本就產(chǎn)生不了多少牛奶，但最重要的仍是，對人類而言，喝牛奶其實是一種獲得性的技能。馬丁·瓊斯再次說道：
