Good morning everyone.Last week we were looking at the hunter-gatherers in Ireland,across the Irish Sea fromEngland.
大家早上好。上周我們介紹了與英格蘭隔愛爾蘭海相望的愛爾蘭的原始狩獵族。
Today,we're going to move on to the period between four and six thousand years agomknown as the Neolithic period,
今天,我們介紹4千至6千年前的新石器時代,
which is when a total farming economy was introduced in Ireland.
正當農耕經濟引入愛爾蘭。
Now,there are several hypotheses about the origins of the first Neolithic settlers in Ireland,but most of these contain problems.
現在有幾種關于首批愛爾蘭新石器時代定居者的假設,但是多數都存在問題。
For instance,there are considerable archaeological difficulties about the theory that they came from England.
有很多考古學上的困難,比如他們是如何從英格蘭遷徙的。
The evidence doesn't really add up.
證據有些說不通。
But there are even greater practical problems about the theory that they came directly from continental Europe.
但是還有更大的實際問題是他們直接從歐洲大陸來。
For one thing,it's not clear just how sufficient numbers of men and women could have been transported to Ireland to establish a viable population.
首先,我們不知道這些大量的男男女女是如何抵達愛爾蘭并繁衍生息的。
As you know,the hunter-gatherer economy which existed beforehand was based on small scattered groups.
如你所知,之前狩獵經濟的存在是以小型分散族群為基礎。
The farming economy would almost certainly have required much larger communities to do all the work needed to plant
農耕經濟需要更多的人來種莊稼和打理莊稼,
and tend sufficient crops to sustain them through the year.
以維持他們一年的生活。