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It's pretty underwhelming to look at-in fact it's quite dull. It's made of brown-grey clay, a simple round pot about the size of the bucket that children play with on the beach, about six inches high, six inches across at the top, and its got it's got straight sides and a flat base, and it was made about seven thousand years ago in Japan.
其實(shí)它本身令人印象相當(dāng)之深刻。雖然它顏色其實(shí)很暗淡，原料是棕灰色的粘土，簡(jiǎn)簡(jiǎn)單單的圓型深缽，大小就像孩子們用在沙灘上玩耍的那種小塑料桶一樣，大概六英寸高，上邊端口直徑也差不多六英寸，兩側(cè)是筆直的直線，還有一個(gè)平底。它大概是制造于七千年前的日本。
When you look more closely, you can see that it was built up with coils of clay and then, into the outside, fibres have been pressed, so that when you hold it, you feel as though you are actually holding a basket. It looks and feels like a basket in clay.
當(dāng)你再仔細(xì)一點(diǎn)觀察，你就可以發(fā)現(xiàn)它其實(shí)是用一圈圈的粘土圈先繞成型的，然后外邊壓上繩索般的花紋。當(dāng)你拿起它的時(shí)候，就感覺(jué)像是在舉著一個(gè)籃子。其實(shí)它看起來(lái)就像一個(gè)粘土制成的籃子。
The basket - like markings on this and other Japanese pots of the same time, are in a cord pattern and that's in fact what their name is in Japanese. They are Jomon - or 'cord-pattern' pots.
這種仿照竹籃紋理的花紋，在這件陶器及其同時(shí)期日本陶罐上都可以找到，被人們稱(chēng)之為繩紋，事實(shí)上它們的命名在日文里就是這意思。它們就是繩紋陶器。
And the word Jomon has come to be used not just for the objects, but for the people that made them, and even the whole historic period in which they were lived. It was the Jomon people living in what is now northern Japan, who created the world's first pots. Simon Kaner, of the University of East Anglia, is a specialist in ancient Japanese culture:
現(xiàn)在繩紋一詞，已經(jīng)不僅僅是這些物品的名稱(chēng)，那時(shí)代的人類(lèi)，及他們生活的整個(gè)歷史時(shí)期都被稱(chēng)之為繩紋。正是這些生活在如今日本北部的繩紋人制造了世界上的首件陶器。東英吉利大學(xué)的西蒙?康爾是古日本文化的專(zhuān)家，他說(shuō)道：
'In Europe we've always assumed that people who've made pottery were farmers, and that it was only through farming that people were able to stay in one place, because they'd be able to build up a surplus that they could then subsist on through the winter months, and it was only if you were going to stay in one place all the year round, that you'd be making pottery, because it's an awkward thing to carry around with you.
“在歐洲，我們一向認(rèn)為制作陶器的古人類(lèi)肯定是農(nóng)耕人類(lèi)，因?yàn)橹挥幸揽哭r(nóng)業(yè)，人類(lèi)才能定居下來(lái)，他們可以長(zhǎng)年停留在同一地方，漸漸積蓄起余糧，培養(yǎng)起一種可持續(xù)的生活方式，能保證他們順利渡過(guò)寒冬里那幾個(gè)月。而且只有長(zhǎng)年居住在同一地方，才有制作陶器的必要，要不然如果你得東奔西跑，這種東西搬來(lái)搬去可真是不方便。”
'The Japanese example is really interesting, because what we have here is pottery being made by people who were not farmers, and it's one of the best examples that we've got from anywhere in the world really - from pre-history, of people who subsisted on fishing, gathering nuts and other wild resources, and hunting wild animals - that they also had a need for cooking pots.'
“日本這例子真是相當(dāng)有趣。因?yàn)檫@些陶器不是農(nóng)民做出來(lái)的。這絕對(duì)是我們?cè)谌澜绶秶鷥?nèi)收集到的關(guān)于史前文化的最好例子。這些人類(lèi)捕魚(yú)、采集堅(jiān)果及其他野生植物，同時(shí)也狩獵野生動(dòng)物，同時(shí)他們也需要煮東西的盆缽鍋罐。”
