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This week I've been in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Pakistan and India, seeing how five thousand years ago cities and states grew up along some of the great rivers of the world. We've explored their styles of leadership and their architecture, their writing and the international trading networks that let them acquire new skills and materials. But in the world beyond these great river valleys, the story was different.
本周我一直徘徊于埃及、美索不達米亞、巴基斯坦和印度,親身體會這些五千年前的城市和國家在一些世界偉大河流的陪伴下繁榮發展的歷史。我們探索賦予他們新技能和材料的領導風格及體系結構,他們的文字,國際貿易網絡。但世界上除了這些偉大的河谷外,也有著截然不同的故事。
From China to Britain, people continued to live in relatively small farming communities, with none of the problems or opportunities of the new large urban centres. What they did share with them was a taste for the expensive and the exotic, and thanks to well-established trade-routes even in Britain, on the outside edge of the Asian/European landmass, they had long been able to get what they wanted.
從中國到英國,人們一直在相對較小的農業社區生活,沒有新的大型城市中心的問題也得不到任何機會。他們所分享的是奢華且獨具異國情調的食物味道,甚至由于英國完善的貿易體系,在亞洲/歐洲大陸的邊緣,人們長期以來一直能夠得到想要的東西。
"I think it's an extraordinarily beautiful object; almost anybody presented with one of these things would just stop in their tracks, they're stunning!"
“我認為這是一件美極了的物品;幾乎所有面對的它的人都會發出驚嘆,真是太驚艷了！”
We're in Canterbury in this programme, around 4000 BC, where the supreme object of desire is a polished jade axe.
在本期節目中我們將前往公元前4000年左右的坎特伯雷,這件最杰出的物品是一把經過拋光的玉斧。
A history of the world.
世界歷史，
In a hundred objects.
百件藏品，
Jade axe approximately 6,000 years old discovered near Canterbury.
在坎特伯雷附近發現大約6000歲的玉斧。
