纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 008埃及彩绘陶牛（6）（在线收听）

These people had farming villages, and I happen to have excavated sites in the Naqada region. And we found remains of animal enclosures, as well as evidence for the consumption of cattle. We found the bones of these animals. And these items, these models of cattle, were probably produced a millennium or more after cattle were introduced into Egypt.'

“这些人类生存在农耕村落里，我碰巧发掘过Naqada地区附近的考古遗址。我们发现了一些动物外壳遗骸，以及人类食用牛的证据。我们发掘了这些动物的骨头。这些物品，这些陶牛模型，可能大概出现在驯化牛被引进埃及的千年之后。”

Study of the bones of these cattle from ancient times shows the ages at which the animals were killed. Surprisingly, many of them were old, at least too old if they were being kept only for food. So unless the early Egyptians enjoyed very tough steak, these are not in our sense beef cattle.

对于这些远古时期驯化牛骨骼的研究结果告诉了我们这些家畜宰杀时的年龄。令人惊讶的是，其中大部分已经是老牛了，至少对于肉用牛而言，真是太过老了。因此除非三埃及人真的相当享受啃着又干又硬的老牛排，这些牛绝对不是我们印象中的肉用牛。

And they must have been kept alive for other reasons - perhaps to carry water or possessions on journeys. But it seems more likely they were tapped for blood which, if you drink it or add it to stews, gives you essential extra protein - it's something we find in many parts of the world, and it's still done today by the nomadic peoples in Kenya.

那么，它们肯定是人类为了其他目的而养育起来的。有可能是在人类迁徙过程中做些挑水或负重之类的工作吧。不过看上去似乎还有另一种可能性——人类的目的是牛血，例如直接饮用，或者添加到炖菜里头，可以补充额外的蛋白质。这种用途我们已经在世界上很多地区都发现了，而且如今肯尼亚的游牧人民仍旧这么做。

So are our four cows a walking blood bank? The more obvious answer, that they were dairy cows, we can probably rule out, because for several reasons milk was unfortunately off the menu. Not only did these early domesticated cows produce very little milk but, more importantly for humans, drinking cows' milk is very much an acquired skill. Martin Jones again:

这样说来我们那四只陶牛岂不是四只活动血库的缩影？奶牛这种更明显的答案我们大概已经可以排除，因为很不巧的基于若干原因，牛奶是上不了当时人类菜谱的了。首先这些早期驯化牛根本就产生不了多少牛奶，但最重要的仍是，对人类而言，喝牛奶其实是一种获得性的技能。马丁·琼斯再次说道：