評論
打印
Can you imagine a world without writing? Without any writing at all?
想象一個沒有文字的世界,完全沒有任何文字的世界?
No forms to fill in of course, no tax returns, but also no literature, no science, no 'history'.
當然就不需要填 表格，不用退稅，但是也沒有文學，沒有先進的科學，沒有歷史。
It is almost beyond imagining, because our modern life, and above all our modern government, is based almost entirely on writing.
這樣 的生活其實根本無法想象，因為現代生活及現代政府幾乎是完全建立在文字上的。
Of all mankind's great advances, the development of writing is surely the giant:
在人類的一切進步中，文字的出現無疑是巨人般的一步，
I think you can say that it's had more impact on the evolution of human society than any other invention.
當然，它是否是人類進化史上影響最大的創造也許還有爭議。
But when and where did it begin-and how?
但它是從何時何地開始的？又是如何開始的？
This programme's object is a piece of clay, made just over five thousand years ago in a Mesopotamian city.
在一塊制作于五千年前的美索不達米亞的黏土板上，有我們已知的最早的文字。
It's one of the earliest examples of writing that we know; it's about beer and the birth of bureaucracy.
給我們留下烏爾旗的民族，也給我們留下了文字的最早范例。它的內容跟文學完全無關，而是記載了啤酒和政府機構的誕生。
"For me, it's a first sign of writing, but it also tells you about the growth of the early beginnings of a state."
“對我而言,這是關于文字寫作的第一個標志,但它也告訴你關于一個國家早期的狀態。”
"It's essential for the creation of what we think of as human civilisation. It has a creative capacity that may not even have been intended."
“這是我們所認為的人類文明必不可少的創造。它有一種創造性的能力,甚至超乎意料之外。”
A history of the world.
世界歷史，
In a hundred objects.
百件藏品，
Clay writing tablet approximately 5,000 years old discovered in southern Iraq
在伊拉克南部發現大約5000歲的早期寫字板
