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第一段
1 .Good morning everyone.
大家早上好。
2 .Last week we were looking at the hunter - gatherers in Ireland, across the Irish Sea from England.
上周我们探讨了爱尔兰依靠狩猎和采集生活的人，他们是从英格兰横跨爱尔兰海而来。
3 .Today, we're going to move on to the period between four and six thousand years ago, known as the Neolithic period, which is when a total farming economy was introduced in Ireland.
今天，我们转到距今4千到6千年之间被称作新石器时代的一个时期，也是完整的农业经济被引入爱尔兰的时期。
第二段
1 .Now, there are several hypotheses about the origins of the first Neolithic settlers in Ireland but most of these contain problems.
现在有两种关于新石器时代第一批爱尔兰移民者的假设，但是基本上都存在一些问题。
2 .For instance, there are considerable archaeological difficulties about the theory that they came from England.
比如说，有种理论说他们是来自于英格兰，这种理论存在着大量的考古学上的难题。
3 .The evidence doesn't really add up.
也没有进一步证据证明此理论。
4 .But there are even greater practical problems about the theory that they came directly from continental Europe.
但是存在更严重实际问题的理论是说他们是直接从欧洲大陆过来的。
5 .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.
其中一点是，只有数量充足的男性和女性才能确保建立起一个可延续的人口群体，但却一直无法确定他们是怎样被运送到爱尔兰的。
6 .As you know, the hunter - gatherer economy which existed beforehand was based on small scattered groups.
你已经知道，之前存在的那种靠狩猎和采集为生的经济秩序是基于规模小而且分散的群体之上的。
7 .The farming economy would almost certainly have required much larger communities to do all the work needed to plant and tend sufficient crops to sustain them through the year.
然而农业经济却几乎需要大更多的群体来执行所有的耕种劳动，还需要一直照料这些庄稼让它们能够维持到第二年。
第三段
1 .The early farmers kept various animals, including cattle and sheep.
早期的农民拥有多种动物，其中包括牛和羊。
2 .There's also evidence of pigs, but it is possible that these could have been descended from the native wild species.
也有证据表明当时是有猪的，不过猪很可能是由当地野生的猪繁衍下来的。
第四段
1 .Now, we know from modern farming that if the level of breeding stock falls below about three hundred females, the future of the species locally is at risk.
那么，依据现代农业我们知道如果繁衍种群当中的雌性动物的数量水平低于300只的话，那么当地这个种群就会有灭绝的危险。
2 .So we must assume that from the beginnings of Neolithic farming the number of breeding sheep would have considerably exceeded three hundred, and the national cattle herd must have been of a similar size.
所以我们需要假设在新石器时代农业的开始阶段，种羊的数量必须要超出300只很多，而且牛群的规模也应该差不多才对。
3 .The question is how these were brought to the area and where they came from.
问题是他们是怎么被带到这个地方的，他们来自哪里。
第五段
1 .It's usually suggested that the Neolithic settlers used skin - covered boats to transport livestock.
之前通常认为新石器时代移民者是用动物皮覆盖的船来运送牲畜的。
2 .But this method would have severely restricted the range of the colonising fleets.
但是这种方式会严重的限制他们迁徙所能去到的范围。
3 .The sheer volume of animal transport necessary means it's unlikely that this livestock could have been brought from anywhere further than England.
必须要运送大量的动物意味着这些动物不太可能从远于英格兰的地方带过来。
第六段
1 .What about crops?
那么关于庄稼方面呢？
2 .Well, two main cereal crops were introduced to Ireland during this time: wheat and barley, both in several varieties.
是这样的，当时有两种主要的谷物庄稼被引入到爱尔兰：小麦和大麦，两者也都包含多种不同的品种。
3 .The main evidence for their presence consists of impressions on pottery, where a cereal grain accidentally became embedded in the surface of a pot before it was fired.
当时存在庄稼的主要证据是陶器上面留下来的痕迹，恰巧有一颗谷物在生火之前嵌在了锅的表面。
4 .The grain itself was destroyed by the firing, but it left an impression on the pot which could be studied and identified by botanists.
这颗谷物虽然被火烧掉了，但却在锅上面留下了一个痕迹，使得后来植物学家得以研究辨别出来。
第一段
1 .Let's turn our attention now to the farming technology available at that time.
现在我们把注意力转向当时的农业科技方面。
2 .Before the cereal crops could be planted, it would have been necessary to clear the forest and to break the ground by ploughing.
在谷物庄稼被种植前，还应该需要把森林清理出来，还要用犁来抛开土壤。
3 .The stone blade of a plough has been discovered during excavation in County Mayo in western Ireland.
有一个犁的石制刀刃在西爱尔兰美育郡开发古迹的时候被发现出来。
4 .The body of the plough would have been of wood and could have been drawn by people, but it's also likely that cattle were used.
犁的杆身是木质的，可以让人来拉，但有时候可能也会用牛来拉。
5 .Now, the cultivation of crops and the husbandry of livestock brought about changes in people's lifestyle such as the type of shelters they made.
庄稼的种植以及牲畜的畜牧业改变了人们的生活习惯，比如他们建造遮蔽物的类型。
6 .For one thing, instead of moving from place to place they needed permanent dwellings.
其中一点，为了取代到处迁徙，他们需要永久的居住地。
7 .The stone axes used to chop down trees to make these dwellings were far superior to any that the Stone Age hunter - gatherers used.
用石斧来砍树使得建造这些住宅比过去石器时代同样靠狩猎和采集为生的人们高效很多。
第二段
1 .To make the axes, sources of suitable stone had to be found and systematically exploited.
为了造出这些斧子，人们找到了合适的石材并且系统化的去开发这些石材。
2 .These so - called 'axe factories' were really quarries rather than factories, as the manufacture of the axes wasn't regularly performed on the quarry site.
那些被叫做“斧子工厂”的地方实际上更多的是采石厂而非工厂，因为在采石厂那里并没有进行成规模的斧子制造。
3 .However, after the axe had been chipped into shape, they needed water and sand for grinding and polishing, so a high mountainside wouldn't have been an appropriate place for this.
然而当斧子被凿出了应有的形状之后，他们再用水和沙子来进行打磨和抛光，所以在山上做这些工序就不合适了。
4 .So this final stage of the manufacture must have been carried out close to water and sure enough, there's ample evidence of this at coastal sites.
所以造斧子的最后阶段应该会被转移到离水很近的地方，而且可以确定的是海岸附近还有充足的证据可以证明这些。
第三段
1 .Now it's clear that these Neolithic axes were transported all over Ireland, as well as to Scotland and the south of England.
很显然这些新石器时代的斧子被运送到整个爱尔兰，同样还运到了苏格兰以及英格兰南部。
2 .It's not really surprising that axes from 'axe factories' in England have also been found in Ireland.
所以在爱尔兰发现有英格兰“斧子工厂”造出来的斧子也就不足为奇了。
3 .At the very least, this indicates that there was a link between the two islands during that period.
最起码来说，这表明了在那个时期这两个岛之间是存在联系的。
第四段
1 .One of the most useful innovations of the colonisers was pottery making, which was quite unknown to Irish hunter - gatherers.
当时这些移民者最有用的发明之一是陶器的制作，本身的那些爱尔兰狩猎者几乎不知道这些。
2 .The pottery was probably made by shaping clay into a ball with the hand, and then hollowing it until the walls were the right thickness.
陶器很可能是先用手将粘土捏成一个球型，然后再把里面掏空，直到陶器的器壁达到合适的厚度为止。
3 .After firing, the outside was often polished.
然后在烧制之后，锅的外侧经常会被抛光。
4 .This would have helped the pots to retain water, as they weren't glazed.
这样能让锅把水存住，因为这些锅都没有上釉。
5 .Now we know that the clay used usually came from local sources, which suggests that manufacture was on a fairly small scale, even though thousands of fragments are usually found at Neolithic sites.
我们现在知道这些粘土通常来自于当地的一些资源，这也意味着锅的制造规模是相对比较小的，即便有成千上万的碎片在新石器时代场址中被发现出来。
6 .In the course of time decoration began to appear.
装饰品在之后的一段时间也出现了。
7 .At first this looked like a series of stitches and was just around the tops of the pots.This could have been an imitation of earlier vessels which were made of leather sewn onto wood.
最开始这些装饰看上去像是一串缝上去的线，而且只在锅盖的周围有。这可能是对更早期容器的一种模仿，那种容器是用皮革缝在木头上做成的。
8 .Then eventually pots with decoration all over...
后来这些装饰遍布了锅的……