纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 060基尔瓦陶器碎片（2）

 

For much of history, history itself has been landlocked. Most of us tend to think in terms of towns and cities, mountains and rivers, continents and countries, but if we stop thinking about, say, the Asian land mass or a history of India, and put the oceans in the foreground instead, then we get a completely different perspective¹ on our past. This week we've been looking at the ways in which ideas, beliefs, religions and people travelled along the great trade routes across Europe and Asia between the ninth and the thirteenth centuries. Today we're not on land, but on the high seas - sailing around the Indian Ocean. In the last programme we were at its eastern edge, in Indonesia; today I'm on the opposite shore, in Africa.

Africa and Indonesia are nearly five thousand miles apart, and yet they can reach each other easily, just as they can also reach the Middle East, India and China - thanks to the ocean winds. In stark² contrast to the Atlantic, where the winds make crossing extremely difficult, the winds of the Indian Ocean obligingly blow north-easterly for one half of the year and south-westerly for the other. This means that traders can sail long distances knowing they're going to be able to come back. Merchant sailors have been criss-crossing these seas for thousands of years and, as always, they carried not just cargoes³ of goods, but plants and animals, people, languages and religions. The shores of the Indian Ocean, however diverse⁴ and however far apart, nonetheless⁵ belong to one great community. And we can glimpse⁶ the extent⁷ and the complexity⁸ of this community in our broken bits of pot.

历史上相当长的一段时期，文字记载都局限于人类的陆上生活。多数人会就城镇与都市、河流与山川、大陆与国家展开思考。但如果不考虑诸如亚洲大陆、印度历史等背景，而将海洋放在显著位置，我们将会得到一个全新的历史视角。前面几节中我们探讨的都是九世纪到十四世纪时观念、信仰、宗教与人口沿着亚欧间的贸易路线扩散的方式。而这一贸易路线其实也曾穿越公海，跨越整个印度洋。

 

非洲与印度尼西亚相距约五千英里，但它们之间的交流仍能像与中东、印度和中国的交流一样畅行无阻，这都多亏了印度洋乐于助人的季风，它半年时间刮向东北，另外半年则刮向西南，远航的商人因而不必担心返程的问题。在数千年间，商人与水手的船只轨迹纵横在海洋上，运载的不只是物品，也包括植物、动物、人、语言与宗教。马达加斯加人能说一口印度尼西亚语并不是巧合。印度洋的各个海岸尽管相距遥远，民俗环境各不相同，仍属于同一个社会。本节中的这些陶器碎片便能助我们一探这个社会的规模与复杂程度。

 

1 perspective   

n.视角，观点，想法

参考例句：

• You can get a perspective of the whole city from here.从这里你可以看到城市的全景。
• We may get a clear perspective of the people's happy lives.我们知道人民对幸福生活的展望。

2 stark   

adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地

参考例句：

• The young man is faced with a stark choice.这位年轻人面临严峻的抉择。
• He gave a stark denial to the rumor.他对谣言加以完全的否认。

3 cargoes   

n.（船或飞机装载的）货物( cargo的名词复数 )；大量，重负

参考例句：

• This ship embarked cargoes. 这艘船装载货物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The crew lashed cargoes of timber down. 全体船员将木材绑牢。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 diverse   

adj.不同的；相异的；多种多样的；形形色色的

参考例句：

• Spain is a composite of diverse traditions and people.西班牙是一个汇集了多种传统和民族的国家。
• Society is now much more diverse than ever before.当今社会较之以往任何时候都要丰富多彩得多。

5 nonetheless   

adv.尽管如此，依然，然而

参考例句：

• Though he's fool,I like him nonetheless.虽然他很笨，我仍然喜欢他。
• His face is serious but nonetheless very friendly.他一脸严肃，但还是非常友好。

6 glimpse   

vt.瞥见；n.一瞥，一看

参考例句：

• One glimpse at himself in the mirror was enough.让他照着镜子看自己一眼就够了。
• She catches a glimpse of a car in the distance.她一眼就瞥见了远处的汽车。

7 extent   

n.程度，范围，限度；广度，宽度，大小

参考例句：

• The new race track is nearly six miles in extent. 这条新跑道将近六英里长。
• What's the extent of the damage? 损坏的程度如何?

8 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。