評(píng)論
打印
Writing seems to have emerged independently in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and Central America-all of them expanding population centres-but there's fierce debate and much rivalry about who got to writing first.
文字似乎在各個(gè)人口規(guī)模很大的中心地區(qū)，如美索不達(dá)米亞、埃及、 中國(guó)和中美洲都獨(dú)立發(fā)展起來(lái)了。但關(guān)于誰(shuí)第一個(gè)開(kāi)始書寫，仍然爭(zhēng)議不斷。
At the moment, the Mesopotamians seem to be in the lead, but that may simply be because their evidence-being in clay-has survived.
美索不達(dá)米亞人目前似乎暫時(shí)領(lǐng)先，但這很可能只是因?yàn)樗麄兊淖C據(jù)—這些黏土板留存了下來(lái)。
I began this week looking at how rulers, trying to control their subjects in the new populous cities of Egypt and Mesopotamia, used military force to coerce them.
如前所述，埃及和美索不達(dá)米亞的統(tǒng)治者起初用武力來(lái)控制他們?nèi)丝谥饾u增多的城市。
But in writing, they found an even more powerful weapon of social control.
但后來(lái)他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，書寫是更有力的控制社會(huì)的武器。
Even a reed pen turned out to be mightier than the sword.
蘆葦筆的力量比刀劍更強(qiáng)。
