纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 060基尔瓦陶器碎片（4）

 

"The city comes down to the shore and is surrounded by a wall and towers, within which there may be 12,000 inhabitants. The streets are very narrow, as the houses are very high, of three and four stories, and one can run along the tops of them upon the terraces, as the houses are very close together. And in the port are many ships."

Kilwa was the southernmost, and the richest, of a chain of towns and cities strung along the East African coast, running from Tanzania north though Mombasa in modern Kenya to Mogadishu in Somalia. These communities were always in touch with each other, sailing up and down the coast, and they also mixed constantly with traders coming across the ocean.

Back with the evidence of all this trade - the broken crockery - it's quite clear even to me that the pale green sherds are Chinese porcelain¹, fragments from beautiful, luxury bowls or jars - Celadon ware², which the Chinese were manufacturing in industrial quantities and exporting not just to south-east Asia but across the Indian Ocean to the Middle East and to Africa. Novelist Abdulrazek Gurnah remembers finding his own bits of Chinese pottery³ on the beach as a child:

这座城市一直延伸至海边，它被城墙和高塔环绕，共有约一万二千名居民…街道狭窄，房屋高耸，都有三到四层，相互挨得很紧，人们可以沿着一个个屋顶奔跑……海港中停泊着众多船只。

基尔瓦是东非沿海最南端，也最发达的城市。这条海滨城市链从坦桑尼亚一直向北，穿过今肯尼亚境内的蒙巴萨，到达索马里的摩加迪沙。各社群间交流密切，船队往来如织，和漂洋过海来到此地的商队接触频繁。

碎瓷便是这些贸易存在过的证据，它们包含了大量信息。连我都能一眼辨出那些灰绿色瓷片来自中国，应该是秀美昂贵的瓷碗或瓷罐的一部分。当时中国大规模生产的瓷器出口到整个东南亚，甚至穿过印度洋来到了中东和非洲。坦桑尼亚小说家阿卜杜勒-拉扎克·古纳还记得自己童年时在沙滩上捡到中国瓷器的情景：

 

1 porcelain   

n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的

参考例句：

• These porcelain plates have rather original designs on them.这些瓷盘的花纹很别致。
• The porcelain vase is enveloped in cotton.瓷花瓶用棉花裹着。

2 ware   

n.(常用复数)商品，货物

参考例句：

• The shop sells a great variety of porcelain ware.这家店铺出售品种繁多的瓷器。
• Good ware will never want a chapman.好货不须叫卖。

3 pottery   

n.陶器，陶器场

参考例句：

• My sister likes to learn art pottery in her spare time.我妹妹喜欢在空余时间学习陶艺。
• The pottery was left to bake in the hot sun.陶器放在外面让炎热的太阳烘晒焙干。