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Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in an ancient history class.
旁白：請聽一段古代歷史課講座的片段。
Professor: Ok, last time we were discussing trade and commerce during the Bronze Age.
教授：好的，上次我們討論了青銅時代的貿易與商業。
And I said a little over three thousand years ago, there was quite a lively trade among the countries along the Mediterranean Sea.
我曾提到，三千多年前，地中海沿岸國家之間有非常活躍的貿易往來。
People were making objects out of bronze and they were using bronze tools to make other goods.
人們用青銅制作器物，并用青銅工具生產其他商品。
And they develop trade networks to trade these goods with other countries around the Mediterranean. One of the things they traded was glass.
他們還建立了貿易網絡，與地中海周邊國家交換這些商品。其中一項貿易品是玻璃。
And recently there was an archeological excavation in Egypt, on the Nile River around where it enters the Mediterranean Sea where they discovered an ancient glass factory. Robert?
最近在埃及尼羅河入海口附近的一次考古發掘中，發現了一座古代玻璃工廠。羅伯特？
Robert: I thought our textbook said the Egyptians imported their glass from other countries.
羅伯特：我們的教科書說埃及人是從其他國家進口玻璃的。
Professor: Well, until now that's what the evidence seemed to suggest. I mean, we have some evidence that suggested that the Egyptians were making glass objects, but not glass.
教授：嗯，迄今為止的證據似乎支持這種說法。我的意思是，我們有證據表明埃及人制造玻璃制品，但并不生產玻璃。
Robert: Ok. Am...am I missing something? They are making glass but they are not making glass?
羅伯特：啊...我是不是沒聽懂？他們制作玻璃卻不生產玻璃？
Professor: I said they were making glass objects, right?
教授：我說的是他們制造玻璃制品，對嗎？
You see, it was previously thought that they weren't actually making the raw glass itself that they were importing unfinished glass from Mesopotamia, which today is a region consisting of Iraq and parts of Syria, Turkey and Iran, and simply reworking it.
此前學界認為，埃及人并未真正生產原始玻璃，而是從美索不達米亞（今伊拉克、敘利亞部分地區、土耳其和伊朗）進口半成品玻璃，再簡單地重新加工。
Most archeologists believed that the glass factories were in Mesopotamia because that's where the oldest known glass remains come from.
大多數考古學家認為玻璃工廠位于美索不達米亞，因為那里是已知最古老的玻璃遺跡的來源。
You see, there was two stages of glass making. The primary production stage where they made disks of raw glass.
玻璃制造分為兩個階段：第一階段是生產原始玻璃圓盤，
And there was the secondary stage where they melted the raw glass, the glass disks, and created decorative objects, or whatever.
第二階段是熔化這些原始玻璃，也就是玻璃圓盤，制成裝飾品等器物。
And from this new Egyptians' site, we learned that the primary production stage had several steps.
而從埃及新發現的遺址中，我們了解到原始玻璃生產包含多個步驟。
First they took quartz, a colorless transparent mineral and crushed it. Then they took that crushed quartz and mixed it with plant ash.
首先，他們把石英--一種無色透明的礦物--碾碎。然后將碎石英和植物灰混合在一起。
Plant ash is just what it sounds like, the ashes left after you burnt plant material.
植物灰顧名思義，就是燃燒植物后殘留的灰。
They slowly heated this mixture at a relatively low temperature in small vessels, containers like jars made out of clay. And that yielded a kind of glassy material.
他們用黏土罐等小型容器以較低溫度緩慢加熱混合物，最終得到一種玻璃態物質。
They took this glassy material and ground it up into a powder and then they used metallic dye to color it.
接著他們把這種玻璃狀的物質研磨成粉末，然后用金屬染料給它上色。
After that, they poured the colored powder out into disk-shaped molds and heated it up to very high temperatures. So that it melted.
之后，將染色粉末倒入圓盤形模具中高溫加熱，直至熔化。
After it cooled, they'd break the molds, and inside there were the glass disks. These disks were shipped off to other sites within Egypt and places around the Mediterranean.
在冷卻后，他們打破模具，取出玻璃圓盤。再將這些圓盤運往埃及境內及地中海周邊地區。
Then in the secondary phase, the disks were reheated, and shaped into decorative objects. Susan?
在第二階段，圓盤被重新加熱并塑造成裝飾品。蘇珊？
Susan: So what kind of objects were people making back then?
蘇珊：當時人們主要制作什么類型的物品？
Professor: Well, the most common objects we've found, mostly in Egypt and Mesopotamia, the most common objects were beads. One thing the Egyptian were very very good at was imitating precious stones.
教授：目前我們發現的最常見物品是珠子，尤其在埃及和美索不達米亞。埃及人當時非常擅長仿寶石。
They created some beads that look so much like emeralds and pearls that it was very difficult to distinguish them from the real thing.
他們制作的珠子與祖母綠和珍珠極為相似，很難將它們與真品區分開來。
Em, and... and also beautiful vessels, ah, with narrow necks. They were probably really valuable so they wouldn't have been used to hold cooking oil or common food items. They were most likely used for expensive liquids, like perfume.
此外還有細頸的精致器皿。這些器皿價值極高，不會用于盛放食用油或普通食物。它們很可能用于存放香水等貴重液體。
Now the glass made at this factory was mostly red. To get this red color, they used copper, in a sophisticated process.
這座工廠生產的玻璃多為紅色，而為了染上這種紅色，他們需通過復雜工藝使用銅元素。
Of course, any kind of glass was very valuable so these red bottles would only have been owned by wealthy people.
當然，任何玻璃制品在當時都極其珍貴，因此這些紅色器皿只可能由富人擁有。
In fact, because it was so difficult to make, and sort of mysterious and complicated, it was probably a product produced for the royal family. And they probably used glass to show their power.
事實上，由于制作難度高、工藝復雜且神秘，它可能是為皇室生產的產品。他們可能用玻璃彰顯權力。
Also, beautiful expensive objects made great gifts if you are looking to establish or strength the political alliances.
此外，如果你想建立或鞏固政治聯盟，那么精美昂貴的器物也是很好的贈禮。
And it is quite possible that the ancient Egyptians were actually exporting glass, not just making it or importing it.
古埃及人很可能不僅制造或進口玻璃，甚至可能出口玻璃。
The trade with Mesopotamian was probably a friendly mutual trade because a Mesopotamia glass was usually white or yellow.
與美索不達米亞的貿易可能是友好互惠的，因為當地的玻璃多為白色或黃色。
So Mesopotamians might accept something like, we will give you two white disks for two red disks. There is no proof of that, at least not yet.
美索不達米亞人很可能會同意“用兩個白色圓盤換兩個紅色圓盤”。不過至少目前還尚無證據支持這一猜想。
