BBC 100件藏品中的世界史010:Jomon Pot繩紋陶缽

BBC 100件藏品中的世界史

010:EPISODE 10 - Jomon Pot

第十集——繩紋陶缽

Jomon pot (made around 5,000 BC). Clay, found in Japan

繩紋壺，粘土陶器，距今約五千年，出土于日本。

Thousands of years ago, one of our ancestors must accidentally have made their first pot. We can imagine that a lump of wet clay somehow ended up in the fire, dried out, hardened and formed a hollow shape; a shape that could hold things, in a tough material.

數(shù)千年前,我們某一祖先在偶然間創(chuàng)造出了首件陶器。我們可以想象一塊濕泥巴最后在火上燒制，烘干，變硬，形成一件形狀中空的器皿，材料簡陋，不過可以盛放東西。

Until now, for the Ice Age cook, leaves were soggy, baskets and skins leaked and burned, and meat charred. Suddenly, when that wet clay hardened, a whole world of culinary possibilities and ceramic design opened up.

從冰河時代的廚師們，到此之前，人類學會了浸漬樹葉，編制籃子，革制獸皮，烘烤獸肉。然而當人類掌握了用火烤硬濕粘土的技術，忽然之間，開辟了一個新興烹飪技術與陶瓷設計的嶄新世界。

The miraculous accident that produced pottery coincided with some great developments in human history. In the previous four programmes, I've been looking at the way humans began to rear animals and to cultivate plants. As a consequence, they started to cook differently, to eat new things and therefore to live differently - they settled down. Today, we're in Japan, about seven thousand years ago, with an ancient pot made in a tradition that goes back almost ten thousand years before that.

這化腐朽為神奇、偶然間的陶器制作，正好與人類歷史上其他偉大的發(fā)展相呼應。之前的四集節(jié)目里，我一直在介紹人類是如何馴化牲畜、培育作物。因此，他們開始采用不同的方式來烹制食物，吃的方式也改變了;然后過上了一種全新的定居生活。今天，我們來到了大約七千前年的日本，來尋找一件無意間創(chuàng)造出來的陶器。然而制作似類陶器的歷史，卻可以追溯到萬年之前。

'The earliest dates we've got for pottery are around about 16,500 years ago, and that in itself has caused quite a fuss because this is still what most people recognise as the Old Stone Age - with people hunting big game animals. We don't really expect to find pottery quite as early as that.' (Simon Kaner)

“迄今為止我們發(fā)現(xiàn)的最早陶器大約16500年的歷史。這發(fā)現(xiàn)本身真是一石激起千層浪呵，因為那是大家公認的舊石器時代，當時原始人類還在依靠狩獵大型野生動物謀生。我們根本沒料到居然會出現(xiàn)那么早期的陶器。”西蒙·康爾說道。

It was in Japan that the world's first pottery was born - and with it, possibly the world's first stew.

世界上第一件陶器是在日本誕生的，也很可能相應地促成了世界第一缽燉湯的出現(xiàn)。

You'll find pots in museums all around the world and in the Enlightenment Gallery of the British Museum, we have pots from all over the world; Greek vases with heroes fighting on them, Ming bowls from China, pot-bellied African jars and beautiful Wedgwood tureens.

你會在世界各地的博物館以及大英博物館的啟蒙展館找到各種各樣的盆缽鍋罐;我們收藏有來自世界各地的展品，來自希臘的陶罐，上邊描繪了戰(zhàn)斗中的英雄，來自中國的明代古碗，來自非洲的大腹罐，還有美麗的韋奇伍德砂鍋。

The world's pots are so ubiquitous that we take all of them for granted, but human history is told and written in pots perhaps more than in anything else; as Robert Browning put it: 'Time's wheel runs back or stops; potter and clay endure'.

這世界上的鍋碗瓢盆、罐頭缽頭隨處可見，我們都已經(jīng)習已為常了;然而這些盆盆罐罐可以講述或記錄的人類歷史，卻可能比其他任何物品都要多。下如羅伯特·布朗寧說的：“不管滄海桑田、時光流逝，陶器與粘土生命永恒。”

This Jomon pot is an extremely important pot. It's pretty underwhelming to look at - in fact it's quite dull. It's made of brown-grey clay, a simple round pot about the size of the bucket that children play with on the beach, about six inches high, six inches across at the top, and its got it's got straight sides and a flat base, and it was made about seven thousand years ago in Japan.

這件繩紋缽極其重要。其實它本身令人印象相當之深刻。雖然它顏色其實很暗淡，原料是棕灰色的粘土，簡簡單單的圓型深缽，大小就像孩子們用在沙灘上玩耍的那種小塑料桶一樣，大概六英寸高，上邊端口直徑也差不多六英寸，兩側是筆直的直線，還有一個平底。它大概是制造于七千年前的日本。

When you look more closely, you can see that it was built up with coils of clay and then, into the outside, fibres have been pressed, so that when you hold it, you feel as though you are actually holding a basket. It looks and feels like a basket in clay.

當你再仔細一點觀察，你就可以發(fā)現(xiàn)它其實是用一圈圈的粘土圈先繞成型的，然后外邊壓上繩索般的花紋。當你拿起它的時候，就感覺像是在舉著一個籃子。其實它看起來就像一個粘土制成的籃子。

The basket - like markings on this and other Japanese pots of the same time, are in a cord pattern and that's in fact what their name is in Japanese. They are Jomon - or 'cord-pattern' pots.

這種仿照竹籃紋理的花紋，在這件陶器及其同時期日本陶罐上都可以找到，被人們稱之為繩紋，事實上它們的命名在日文里就是這意思。它們就是繩紋陶器。

And the word Jomon has come to be used not just for the objects, but for the people that made them, and even the whole historic period in which they were lived. It was the Jomon people living in what is now northern Japan, who created the world's first pots. Simon Kaner, of the University of East Anglia, is a specialist in ancient Japanese culture:

現(xiàn)在繩紋一詞，已經(jīng)不僅僅是這些物品的名稱，那時代的人類，及他們生活的整個歷史時期都被稱之為繩紋。正是這些生活在如今日本北部的繩紋人制造了世界上的首件陶器。東英吉利大學的西蒙·康爾是古日本文化的專家，他說道：

'In Europe we've always assumed that people who've made pottery were farmers, and that it was only through farming that people were able to stay in one place, because they'd be able to build up a surplus that they could then subsist on through the winter months, and it was only if you were going to stay in one place all the year round, that you'd be making pottery, because it's an awkward thing to carry around with you.

“在歐洲，我們一向認為制作陶器的古人類肯定是農(nóng)耕人類，因為只有依靠農(nóng)業(yè)，人類才能定居下來，他們可以長年停留在同一地方，漸漸積蓄起余糧，培養(yǎng)起一種可持續(xù)的生活方式，能保證他們順利渡過寒冬里那幾個月。而且只有長年居住在同一地方，才有制作陶器的必要，要不然如果你得東奔西跑，這種東西搬來搬去可真是不方便。”

'The Japanese example is really interesting, because what we have here is pottery being made by people who were not farmers, and it's one of the best examples that we've got from anywhere in the world really - from pre-history, of people who subsisted on fishing, gathering nuts and other wild resources, and hunting wild animals - that they also had a need for cooking pots.'

“日本這例子真是相當有趣。因為這些陶器不是農(nóng)民做出來的。這絕對是我們在全世界范圍內(nèi)收集到的關于史前文化的最好例子。這些人類捕魚、采集堅果及其他野生植物，同時也狩獵野生動物，同時他們也需要煮東西的盆缽鍋罐。”

The Jomon way of life seems to have been pretty comfortable. They lived near the sea and they relied on fish as a main source of food, that is, a food that came to them, so they didn't have to move around as land-roaming hunter-gatherers did.

繩紋人似乎生活得挺舒適愜意的。他們當時居住在海邊，所以主要就以捕魚為生，所以就沒必要像世界其他地區(qū)的陸地狩豬采集者一樣到處奔波遷徙。

They also had easy access to abundant plants with nuts and seeds, so there was no imperative to domesticate animals or to cultivate particular crops. Perhaps because of this plentiful supply of fish and food, farming took a long time to establish itself in Japan, compared to the rest of the world. Simple agriculture, in the shape of rice, arrived in Japan only two thousand five hundred years ago, but in pots, the Japanese were very much ahead of the game.

同時繩紋人也能很輕松地找到數(shù)量又多種類又全的堅果和種子植物，所以也沒必要馴養(yǎng)動物或培育特定的農(nóng)作物。也許也就是因為這些資源豐富的魚類與充足的其他食品供應，，與世界其他地區(qū)相比，農(nóng)業(yè)在日本的建立時間是相當之緩慢。簡單農(nóng)業(yè)，比如稻米的種植，二千五百年前左右才流傳到日本;然而在制造陶器方面，日本的表現(xiàn)絕對是全世界領先了。

Before the discovery of the pot, people stored their food in holes in the ground or in baskets - both vulnerable to thieving creatures and, in the case of the baskets, to wear and to weather. Putting your food in sturdy clay containers that you can cover, keeps freshness in and mice out and, as for the shape and decoration of the new pots - well, having no pottery tradition to learn from, the Jomon looked at what they already had - baskets.

在發(fā)明這些陶罐陶缽以前，人類只能將食物儲存在地洞里或者樹皮樹藤編織的籃子里，這樣很容易被老鼠之類小動物偷吃，同時也很受天氣影響。比如籃子吧，磨損得快，也容易受干受潮。但如果把食物放在堅固的粘土容器里，再加上個蓋子，這樣食物不大受天氣影響，老鼠也無從下爪或下嘴了。而且看看這樣新出現(xiàn)盆缽鍋罐上的造型與裝飾，由于制陶是史無前例的新經(jīng)驗，繩紋人就自然而然借鑒了他們編籃的習慣了。

So it's not surprising that they make pots that look like baskets, and indeed, look like each other. Professor Takashi Doi is Senior Archaeologist at the Agency of Cultural Affairs in Japan:

因此這些陶罐陶缽造型外觀居然那么像籃子，也就毫不奇怪了。日本文化事務局的高級考古學家隆土井教授說道：

'For Jomon people the decorations are derived from what they saw around them in the natural world - the motifs were inspired by trees, plants, shells, animal bones.

“對于繩紋人，這些裝飾花紋的靈感源于他們周遭的大自然界，這些主題都是受到樹木、植物、貝殼、獸骨等等的啟發(fā)。

The basic patterns are applied using twisted plant fibres or twisted cords, and there is an amazing variety in the ways you can twist your cords - there is an elaborate regional and chronological sequence that we have identified. Over the years of the Jomon period we can see over four hundred local types or regional styles. You can pin down some of these styles to 25-year time slots, they were so specific with their cord markings.'

最基本的模式是捻搓纏繞的植物纖維或繩索形狀，而捻搓繩索的方式可謂是千變?nèi)f化。事實上根據(jù)我們已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)的，那些花紋在相當明顯而精致的區(qū)域性與時間順序上的特點。通過觀察整個繩紋文化時代，我們已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)了四百多種地方類型或者區(qū)域風格。你甚至可以根據(jù)花紋把時間精確到二十五年左右這樣的時間段。這些人類捻繩的技巧真是爐火純青了。”

As well as making attractive and stylised storage pots, the Jomon must have been also thrilled at the leak-proof, heat-proof properties of their new kitchenware. The menu would have included vegetables and nuts, but they also cooked shellfish - oysters, cockles and clams. Meat was pot-roasted or boiled - and so Japan appears to be the birthplace of the soup and the stew. Simon Kaner again:

除了能創(chuàng)造出好看美觀的儲物罐，那些繩紋人肯定也十分得意于他們這種新型器皿的防漏性與隔熱性。他們的菜單肯定包括了各種蔬菜和堅果，也可能會需要烹煮各種貝類，牡蠣、蛤文蛤等等。肉類也可以用鍋烤或者水煮。所以日本似乎也是湯與燉品的發(fā)源地。西蒙·康爾又說道：

'We're quite lucky they weren't very good at washing up, these guys - and so they've left some carbonised remains of foodstuffs inside these pots, there are black deposits on the interior surfaces.

“我們走運了，看樣子這些繩紋人似乎不太擅長清洗廚具，所以在這些陶罐陶缽里頭還殘留有一些已經(jīng)碳化了的食物殘渣，就是這種器皿內(nèi)部表面存留的黑色沉淀物。

In fact, some of the very early ones, some of those ones that are now dated to about 14,000 years ago - there's black incrustations, and its that carbonised material that has been dated - we think they were probably used for cooking up some vegetable materials?

事實上有些器皿中的黑色陳淀物差不多了一萬四千年歷史了。這些黑色碳化物已經(jīng)被科學家年代定位了，我們在猜想也許當初繩紋人是在烹飪一些蔬菜湯?

Perhaps they were cooking up fish broths? And it's possible they were cooking up nuts, using a wide range of nuts - including acorns - that you need to cook and boil for a long time before you can actually eat them.'

或者是鮮魚湯?也有可能是在燉堅果，像橡子之類的，那種東西可真是要熬很久時間可以吃。”

I think that this is a really interesting point - that pots change your diet. New foods become available and useable only once they can be boiled. Heating shellfish in water forces the shells to open, making it easier to get at the contents, but also, and no less importantly, it sorts out which ones are bad - bad ones stay closed. It's alarming to think of the trial-and-error involved in discovering which foods are in fact edible - there must have been plenty of horrible accidents along the way - but it's a process that was going on all over the world.

說起來真是有趣，這種罐頭缽頭可以改變你的飲食。通過煮沸，就出現(xiàn)了很多可食用的新食物了。把貝殼類水煮一下，殼就打開了，吃里頭的肉就輕而易舉。而且，同樣重要的是，人類是摸著石頭過河，一路試吃試過來的。歷史上不乏第一個吃螃蟹的人的例子。不過在這過程中，這種盲目性很強的冒險行為肯定導致了相當多的意外事件;然而這在全世界各地都是一種不可避免的過程。

The Jomon hunter-gatherer way of life, enriched and transformed by the making of Jomon pottery, didn't radically change for over 14,000 years.

繩紋陶器的制作，豐富與改造了繩紋人這種狩獵與采集的生活方式;而后在一萬四千年的漫漫歲月中，一切沒有多大的改變。

Although the oldest pots in the world were made in Japan, the technique didn't spread from there.

雖說日本人制造出世界上最古老的陶罐陶缽，這種技術并不能從那里蔓延開來。

Pottery seems to have been invented in different places at different times right across the world. The first pots known from the Middle East and North Africa were made a few thousand years after the earliest Jomon pots, and in the Americas it was a few thousands of years after that.

制陶似乎是在世界各地不同時期、不同地區(qū)獨立發(fā)明的。比最早期繩紋盆晚了幾千年，在中東與北非出現(xiàn)了當?shù)氐谝慌掌鳎诿乐?，那是還要再晚幾千年的事。

But almost everywhere in the world, the invention of the pot was connected with new cuisines and a more varied menu.

然而在全世界各地，鍋碗瓢盆的出現(xiàn)，毫無例外地促成了新烹飪與人類更加豐富多樣的菜譜。

Nowadays Jomon pots are used as cultural ambassadors for Japan in major exhibitions around the world. Most nations look back to imperial glories or invading armies - and I think it's extraordinary that a technologically, economically powerful nation like Japan proudly places the very origins of its identity in the early hunter-gatherers.

如今繩紋陶器已經(jīng)充當起日本文化大使的角色，在世界各地的大型展覽與人們見面。大多數(shù)國家都以自己帝國時代的輝煌或軍隊的入侵略擴張為榮，我認為像日本這種技術領先、經(jīng)濟實力強大的民族可以很自豪地向世人展示最早期的狩獵采集者身份，無疑是件了不起的事。

As an outsider, I find the meticulous attention to detail and the patterning of the surface, and the long continuity of Jomon traditions, already very Japanese. Professor Takashi Doi again:

作為一個局外人，我發(fā)現(xiàn)繩紋陶品上那種對細節(jié)一絲不茍還有精致的表面圖案，再加上長期連續(xù)的繩紋傳統(tǒng)，真是相當?shù)娜毡尽Ｂ⊥辆淌谡f道：

'Japan has the longest pottery-making tradition in the world. The fine porcelains made by Japan's top craftsmen and women today have an inheritance lasting over 17,000 years. Jomon pots and culture have great resonance for many Japanese people today, perhaps because it speaks of the distinctive nature of Japanese culture that often stresses continuity through change.'

“日本擁有世界上最長的制陶傳統(tǒng)。由日本頂尖工匠與婦女們制造出精細瓷器是一種長達一萬七千年的傳統(tǒng)。繩紋陶器與文化在許多當今的日本人民心頭仍然可以產(chǎn)生強烈的共鳴，也許是因為它敘說了日本文化的獨特性質，強調(diào)改變需要在傳承性與連續(xù)性中進行。”

But the story of our small Jomon pot doesn't end here, because I haven't yet described to you what is perhaps the most extraordinary thing of all about it - that the inside is, when you look, carefully lined with lacquered gold leaf.

但是我們這小小繩紋缽的故事并不是就這么結束了。因為我還沒開始告訴你這件物品中最不尋常的事情呢。來瞧瞧這缽的里頭，仔細瞧瞧這精心貼上的漆金箔內(nèi)襯。

What's fascinating about trying to tell a history through objects is that they go on to have lives and destinies never dreamt of by those who made them - and that's certainly true of this pot.

通過物品講述歷史最迷人之處就是，這些物品自身擁有的生命與命運，遠遠超越了當時制造人的想象。這件陶器也并不例外。這些漆金箔內(nèi)襯大概是在公元十七或十九世紀貼上去的，當時古代陶器開始陸續(xù)出土，被日本學者們收集跟展覽起來。

That gold leaf was applied somewhere between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, when ancient pots were being discovered, collected and displayed by Japanese scholars. And it was probably a wealthy collector a couple of hundred years ago who had the inside of the pot lacquered with a thin layer of gold. After seven thousand years of existence, our Jomon pot then began a new life - as a 'mizusashi', or water jar, for that quintessentially Japanese ritual, the Tea Ceremony.

這件陶器可能在幾百年前，曾經(jīng)輾轉落入一個富有的收藏家手中，他就在這陶缽內(nèi)壁貼上了一層薄薄的漆金箔內(nèi)襯。經(jīng)過七千多年的歷史塵封，幾百年前我們這繩紋缽被重新賜于了第二生命，變成一個水サシ，或水罐子，運用于最典型的日本文化禮儀之一的茶道。

I don't think that its maker would have minded. We know there were all sorts of rituals and ceremonies involving pots in the time of the Jomon. In that society, as in virtually all others, pots quickly went beyond their functional purpose to become objects of desire and display.

我并不覺得它最初的制造者會介意這點?，F(xiàn)在我們知道在繩紋時期，已經(jīng)存在了各種與陶器相關的禮儀與儀式。在那個社會里，幾乎像其他社會一樣，陶器很快就超越了其最初的功能性價值，變成一種人類愛好與展示的物品。

In their many manifestations, pots resonate throughout human history, from the most primitive domestic meal or drink to the Last Supper; from a nomadic snack to an international banquet. If mealtimes are a microcosm of society, then pots are the very glue that binds hosts and guests, indeed the whole of society, together.

在它們眾多的表現(xiàn)方式中，縱觀人類歷史，從最原始農(nóng)耕時代的部落飲食，到“最后的晚餐”，從游牧民族簡陋的一頓飯到國際盛宴，這些鍋碗瓢盆奏響一曲永恒的絕唱。假如說進餐時間是一個社會的縮影，那么這些鍋碗瓢盆便是粘合主人與客人，甚至整個社會的有機結合物。

This week we've traced the beginnings of farming and settlement; in the next programmes, we're with the consequences: the world's first cities.

本周我們追尋了人類農(nóng)耕時代與定居生活的開始。在下期節(jié)目中，我們將繼續(xù)探討隨之而產(chǎn)生的世界第一座城市。