評論
打印
But perhaps the most exciting thing about this axe head is what it's made of: not the usual grey/brown tones that you find in British stones and flints-this axe is a beautiful striking green, because this tool is made from jade, or, to give it its precise geological term, jadeite.
但這把斧頭最令人興奮的還不是它的制作工藝，而是它的材質。它并沒有英國常見的石頭那種灰棕的色調，而是呈現(xiàn)出迷人的綠色。它是由玉石制細成的。
Jade is of course foreign to British soil-we tend to think of it as an exotic material from the Far East or from Central America; in fact, both the Chinese and the Central American civilisations are known to have valued jade far more highly than gold. But both these sources are thousands of miles away, so archaeologists were baffled for many years by where the jade in Europe could have come from. But there are actually sources of jade in continental Europe and, only a few years ago, in 2003-so six thousand years after our axe head was made-the precise origin of the stone it was made from was discovered…h(huán)is luxury object is Italian.
玉當然不是英國本地出產(chǎn)，我們一般傾向于認為，這是一種來自遠東或中美洲的外來材料。眾所周知，中華文明與中美洲文明都推崇美玉， 認為它比黃金更珍貴。但它們都離英國有數(shù)千英里之遙，這使得考古學家困惑多年，不知道歐洲的玉石究竟來自何處。但事實上，歐洲大陸本身就有玉石資源，2003年，在玉斧制作完成六千年后，終于有人發(fā)現(xiàn)了玉石的確切產(chǎn)地。這種奢侈品來自意大利。
Archaeologists Pierre and Anne-Marie Petrequin spent 12 hard years surveying and exploring the mountain ranges of the Italian Alps and the northern Apennines. Finally they found the prehistoric jade quarries that our axe comes from. Here's Pierre Petrequin:
考古學家彼得勒坎夫婦花了12年時間在意大利境內的阿爾卑斯山與北部的亞平寧山脈艱難地搜尋，最終找到了史前的玉石場，我們的玉斧便來自此處。皮埃爾彼得勒坎描述了他們的搜尋過程：
"Having worked in New Guinea, and studied how and where the stone for the axe heads came from there, that's what gave the idea of going up very high in the Alps to try and find the sources.
我們曾在巴布亞新幾內亞考察，得知他們制作斧頭的石材來自高山。受此啟發(fā),我們爬到阿爾卑斯山脈的高尋找歐洲玉石的來源。
