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These were the Cartiers or the Tiffanys of Bronze Age Europe.
他們是青銅時代歐洲的卡地亞與蒂凡尼。
But what kind of society could have produced this cape?
什么樣的社會才能制造出這樣的物品？
The sheer opulence and intricate details of the object, suggest that it must have come from a centre of great wealth and power, perhaps comparable to the contemporary courts of the pharaohs of Egypt or the palaces of Minoan Crete-for the cape must have been made around 1700 BC.
它的華麗與精細都表明，它一定來自一個曾經的政治與財富中心，說不定能與法老時代的埃及或是米諾斯的克里特相提并論。如此精美的設計需要高超的構圖與規劃能力，這表明這個社會已有悠久的奢侈品制作歷史。
But archaeology has revealed no obvious palaces, cities or kingdoms anywhere in Britain at this time.
但是考古學家至今尚未在英國發現這一時期的任何明顯的宮殿、域市或是王國。
There are the vast ceremonial monuments of Stonehenge and Avebury, hundreds of stone circles and thousands of burial mounds which would have dominated the landscape, but little survives of any dwelling places,
我們這片土地上有埃夫伯里石圈與巨石陣等大型紀念物，也有幾百處石頭擺成的圓環，幾千座墓葬堆，但是很少發現人類居所的遺跡。
and what does remain, suggests that these were extremely modest-thatched wooden roundhouses that would normally suggest tribal farming societies, led by chiefs.
從少數遺留下來的房屋來看，他們居住得相當簡陋，茅草頂的木制房屋表明他們生活在由族長領導的農業部落社群里。
In the past, it was easy to dismiss prehistoric societies as primitive people existing before recognisable civilisations emerged.
過去人們常認為，在可辨別的文明出現之前，英國的史前社會只是原始人聚居的社群。
With few settlements and only burials to work from, it is easy to see why these assumptions were made.
我們找到的人類居所極少，只有少數墓葬可供研究，因此做出這種假設無可厚非。
But it's partly through the discovery of rare objects like the Mold Gold Cape that in recent years we have come to see them very differently.
但隨著莫爾德黃金披肩這樣稀有物品的出現，我們對這些社群的看法已大有改觀。
For while it's unique in its complexity, the cape is just one example of a number of precious objects which tell us that societies in Britain must then have been extremely sophisticated, both in their crafts and in their social structures.
我們已有好幾樣類似的貴重物品，雖然沒有披肩這么精美，亦可以證明當時在英國生活的社群結構復雜，制作工藝發達。
And that their societies were not isolated, but part of a larger European trade network.
而且就如前文的玉斧一般，它們也足以表明，這些社群并不是孤立的，而是歐洲大型貿易網絡的一部分。
