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BBC 100件藏品中的世界史004:Swimming Reindeer对游水的驯鹿

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BBC 100件藏品中的世界史

004: EPISODE 4 - Swimming Reindeer 大英博物馆百件物品之4: 对游水的驯鹿

Swimming reindeer (made around 13,000 years ago). Sculpture carved from mammoth tusk, found at Montastruc, central France

猛犸象象牙雕“一对游水的驯鹿”,距今约于一万三千年前,出土于法国中部的Montastruc地区。

What does the past sound like? Of course, when we're as far back in deep time as we are this week, we can have no real idea.

过去的世界聆听起来如何?当然,即使我们像本周一样,努力追溯回宇宙洪荒的远古时代,我们仍旧没能得到任何确切的答案。

Our modern human species, 'homo sapiens' ('thinking man' in the Latin), evolved in Africa at least 150,000 years ago.

我们的现在人种“智人”(拉丁语中意为“有思想的人”)是至少约十五万年前,在非洲进化而来的。

But around 50,000 years ago, something dramatic seems to have happened to the human brain, because across the world, humans start to make patterns that decorate and intrigue, to make jewellery to adorn the body, and representations of the animals that share their world with them.

然后大概就在约五万年前,人类大脑似乎发生在某些戏剧性的变化;因为当时全世界各地的人类纷纷不约而同,开始使用形形色色的装饰性与或满足好奇心的图案,使用珠宝首饰来装饰身体,创造出大自然分享给他们的各种动物的栩栩形态。

They are making objects that are less about physically changing the world than about exploring the order and the patterns that they see in it. In short, they are making art. Why? Why do all modern humans share the compulsion to make works of art? Why does man the toolmaker everywhere turn into man the artist?

他们进行物品创造的目的,再也不仅仅是为了纯粹的从物理上去改变周遭的世界,而更是为了去探索他们在大自然中观察出来的众多规律与模式。简而言之,他们在创造艺术。为什么呢?为什么所有现代人类有这种创造艺术品的通性?为什么全球范围内原来是工具创造者的人类变成了艺术创造者的人类?

Our two reindeer represent the oldest piece of art in any British art gallery or museum, and it's alarmingly delicate. We keep it in a climate-controlled case and we hardly ever move it, because with any sudden shock it could just crumble to dust. It was made during the end of the last Ice Age, around 13,000 years ago. And it's a sculpture carved from the tusk of a mammoth - it must have been towards the end of the tusk, because it's slim, slightly curved, and it's about eight inches long.

我们这件双驯鹿展品代表着任何英国艺术画廊或博物馆馆藏的最古老艺术品,它却是如此惊人地脆弱。我们一直把它保存在严格控制气候变化的展示台里,几乎不曾移动过;因为任何突然震动都可能使它瞬间崩溃,化为一地尘埃。这艺术品成型于最后一次冰河时期,大约一万三千年左右,一件雕刻在猛犸象牙上的雕塑作品。肯定利用的是象牙的接近尾端部分,因为其型状纤细、略呈弧形;它约八英寸长。

The two reindeer swim closely, one behind one the other, and the sculptor has brilliantly exploited the tapering shape of the tusk. The smaller, female reindeer is in front with the very tip of the tusk forming the tip of her nose; and behind her, in the fuller part of the tusk, comes the larger male.

这对游水中驯鹿紧紧相随,一前一后;而且雕塑家极巧妙地完全利用了象牙尾端逐渐变细的特点。雌鹿在前,象牙细细的尖端构成了它的鼻子尖;紧随其后的是雄鹿,身型较大,就占据了型状较粗的象牙主体部分。

Because of the curve, both animals have their chins up and their antlers are tipped back, exactly as they would when swimming - and along the undersides, their legs are at full stretch, giving a marvellous impression of streamlined movement. It's a superbly observed piece - and it can only have been made by somebody who has spent a long time watching reindeer swimming across rivers.

因为这象牙天然的曲线,这对动物都仰着下巴,鹿角翘向背部,游水的神态活灵活现;顺着下面两侧的边缘,它们四腿充分伸展,栩栩如生地重现出流线型运动之感。这艺术确是精确入致观察的结晶。只有花费很长时间观察过驯鹿游水过河的人,才能创造出这件艺术品。

And it's probably no coincidence that it was found by a river, in a rock shelter at Montastruc in central France.

而它出土于法国中部 Montastruc河畔边的一处岩石庇护处,这点也可能不是巧合。

This carving is an amazingly realistic representation of the reindeer who, 13,000 years ago, were roaming in great herds across Europe.

这雕塑品逼真而惊人地重现了一万三千年前驯鹿群的姿态,成千上万,浩浩荡荡,游遍欧洲大陆。

The continent at this time was far colder than it is today; the landscape consisted of open, tree-less plain, rather like the landscape of Siberia now and, for human hunter-gatherers in this unforgiving terrain, reindeer were one of the best hopes for survival. Their meat, skin, bones and antlers could supply pretty well all the food and the clothing you needed, as well as the raw materials for tools and weapons.

当时的欧洲大陆远比现代更加冷寒;主要地貌是一空旷无限、寸木不生的辽原,与现代的西伯利亚景观颇为相似;对于作为狩猎采集者的远古人类而言,在这种严酷无情的地形中,驯鹿便是其生存最大希望之一。它们的肉、皮毛、骨骼与鹿角给你提供了可避寒、可裹腹的衣食,同时还是制作工具与武器的原材料。只要你能捕猎到驯鹿,一切都会好起来的。

As long as you could hunt reindeer, you were going to be alright. So, it's not surprising that our 'homo sapiens' artist knew the animals very well, and that he chose to represent them.

因此,我们的“智人”艺术家对驯鹿的一切了如指掌,而且选择将这种动物运用到艺术品中去,也就不足为奇了。

The larger, male reindeer displays an impressive set of antlers, which run along almost the whole length of his back, and we can sex him quite confidently as the artist has carved his genitals under his belly. The female has smaller antlers and four little bumps on her underside that look just like teats.

体型较大的雄鹿展现出一对令人印象深刻的鹿角,长度几乎延伸完它整个后背,而且通过艺术家雕刻在它腹部下边的生殖品也可以清晰判断出它的性别。母鹿鹿角较小,而且腹部下边四个小凸起似乎就是四个奶嘴。

But we can be much more specific than this even, because we're clearly looking at these animals in the autumn, at the time of rutting and migration to winter pastures. Only in the autumn do both male and female have full sets of antlers and coats in such wonderful condition.

我们还可以更进一步地具体描绘,显然我们观察到的是秋天时向冬季牧地进行大迁移的驯鹿。因为也只有在冬天,雌雄驯鹿同时长有鹿角,而且拥有如此光泽油亮的好皮毛。

On the female's chest, the ribs and the sternum have been beautifully carved. This object was clearly made not just with the knowledge of a hunter but also with the insight of a butcher, someone who not only looked at his animals, but cut them up.

雌鹿的胸部部位上,肋骨民胸骨雕刻得精致传神。显然制作这件艺术品的人,不仅仅拥有猎人的知识,还拥有屠夫的见识;不仅仅观察过这些动物,而且屠宰过。

By an astonishing stroke of luck, we know that this detailed naturalism was only one of the styles that Ice Age artists had at their disposal.

通过极妙的机缘巧合,我们认识到这种细节逼真的自然主义风格仅仅冰河时代艺术家们进行艺术创造的众多风格之一。

In the case next to the reindeer, the British Museum shows another sculpture found in that same cave at Montastruc.

在驯鹿雕塑品旁边的展位台上,显现的是大英博物馆的另一件同是出土于 Montastruc河畔的雕塑品。

By happy symmetry, where our reindeer are carved on mammoth tusk, the other sculpture shows a mammoth carved on a reindeer antler.

可喜可叹的是,我们刚刚谈论的是一对驯鹿雕刻在猛犸象牙上,那另一件雕塑品却是一头猛犸象雕刻到驯鹿鹿角上。

But the mammoth, although instantly recognisable, is drawn in a quite different way - simplified and schematised, somewhere between a caricature and an abstraction, and this is no one-off accident; Ice Age artists display a whole range of artistic styles and techniques: abstract, naturalistic, even surreal - as well as using perspective and sophisticated composition. These are modern humans with modern human minds, just like our own. They still live by hunting and gathering, but they're interpreting the world through art. So what's driving this? Here's Professor Steven Mithen:

然而即使这猛犸象即使形象可以马上识别,展示的艺术手法却迥然不同,更加的简化、更加的速写,介于一种漫画与抽象画之间。这事实也绝非是一种偶然性,冰何时代艺术家们显示出丰富多样的艺术风格与技巧:抽象的、自然的、甚至是超现实的,还有使用角度因素与复杂的各种组合。这些人类已经是拥有现代头脑的现代人,就跟我们自己一样。他们的生存方式仍旧是狩猎与采集,然而他们已经通过艺术来诠释世界。那么,究竟是什么力量在驱动这些?史蒂芬·米森教授说道:

'I think what probably happens - around 100,000 years ago - is different bits of the brain get connected together in a new way, and they can combine different ways of thinking.

“我觉得大约十万年前,可能我们头脑的不同部位以一种崭新的方式连接了起来,使得人类开始可以结合不同思维方式进行思考。”

So they can combine what they know about nature with what they know about making things, and this gives them a new capacity to produce pieces of art.

“因此,他们能够把自己对大自然的认知结合到制造物品的知识中去,从而给予了他们创造艺术品的新能力。

We can imagine the unchanging sounds of nature - wind, rain, sea, river - but for us, history is silent.

我们可以想象大自然里永恒不变的声音——风声雨声,或苍海河流的涛声依旧。

But if we can't hear the past, we can certainly see it. I'd like to introduce you to an object that's 13,000 years old, made by one of our ancestors who wanted to show his own world to himself and, in doing so, relayed that world with astonishing immediacy, to us.

然而历史对于我们,却是沉默的。但或许我们无法聆听历史,我们却可以看得到它。我想向你介绍这件拥有一万三千年历史的物品,也许当初我们某一位远古祖先想把自己生存的世界展示给自己,其结果恰好也将那世界以无比亲密、让人惊叹的方式传达给今天的我们。

It is, I think, a masterpiece of Ice Age art, and it's also evidence of a huge change in the way in which the human brain was working. Steven Mithen, professor at the University of Reading, and Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, have both thought about this, in very different ways, and we'll hear more from them later in the programme.

我认为这是一件冰河时代的艺术杰作,同时它也是人类运转方式产生巨大变化的鲜明证据。雷丁大学的史蒂文·文森教授及坎特伯雷大主教罗文·威廉斯也都在通过非常不同的方式思考这同一问题。节目中他们将会与我们分享更多的想法。

'You can feel that here's somebody making this, who was projecting themselves with huge imaginative generosity into the world around, and saw and felt in their bones that rhythm.' (Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams)

“你可能感受到制作这艺术品的人运用巨大的想象力去感知自己周遭的世界,审视那节奏,并将其融合他们的骨雕作品中去。”坎特伯雷大主教罗文·威廉斯说道。

'Something, between say 100,000 and 50,000 years ago, happens in the human brain, that allows this fantastic creativity, imagination, artistic abilities, to emerge.' (Professor Steven Mithen)

“大约在五至十万年前之间,人类大脑产生了变化,允许了这梦幻般的创造力、想象力,审美能力的涌现。”史蒂文·文森教授说道。

In the last two programmes, we looked at stone tools, which raised the question of whether it's making 'things' that makes us human.

在上次两期节目中,我们介绍了石制工具,并因些提出这个问题:是否制造“物品”使我们人类之所以成为人类呢?

Could you conceive of being human without using objects to negotiate the world? I don't think I can. But there's another question that follows quite quickly once you start looking at these very ancient things.

你能否想象作为人类,却不使用物品去应付这个世界?我不能想象。然而当你再次审视这些非常古老的物品时,却引发了另一个问题。

游水的驯鹿

 

Our modern human species, 'homo sapiens' ('thinking man' in the Latin), evolved in Africa at least 150,000 years ago.

我们的现在人种“智人”(拉丁语中意为“有思想的人”)是至少约十五万年前,在非洲进化而来的。

But around 50,000 years ago, something dramatic seems to have happened to the human brain, because across the world, humans start to make patterns that decorate and intrigue, to make jewellery to adorn the body, and representations of the animals that share their world with them.

然后大概就在约五万年前,人类大脑似乎发生在某些戏剧性的变化;因为当时全世界各地的人类纷纷不约而同,开始使用形形色色的装饰性与或满足好奇心的图案,使用珠宝首饰来装饰身体,创造出大自然分享给他们的各种动物的栩栩形态。

They are making objects that are less about physically changing the world than about exploring the order and the patterns that they see in it. In short, they are making art. Why? Why do all modern humans share the compulsion to make works of art? Why does man the toolmaker everywhere turn into man the artist?

他们进行物品创造的目的,再也不仅仅是为了纯粹的从物理上去改变周遭的世界,而更是为了去探索他们在大自然中观察出来的众多规律与模式。简而言之,他们在创造艺术。为什么呢?为什么所有现代人类有这种创造艺术品的通性?为什么全球范围内原来是工具创造者的人类变成了艺术创造者的人类?

Our two reindeer represent the oldest piece of art in any British art gallery or museum, and it's alarmingly delicate. We keep it in a climate-controlled case and we hardly ever move it, because with any sudden shock it could just crumble to dust. It was made during the end of the last Ice Age, around 13,000 years ago. And it's a sculpture carved from the tusk of a mammoth - it must have been towards the end of the tusk, because it's slim, slightly curved, and it's about eight inches long.

我们这件双驯鹿展品代表着任何英国艺术画廊或博物馆馆藏的最古老艺术品,它却是如此惊人地脆弱。我们一直把它保存在严格控制气候变化的展示台里,几乎不曾移动过;因为任何突然震动都可能使它瞬间崩溃,化为一地尘埃。这艺术品成型于最后一次冰河时期,大约一万三千年左右,一件雕刻在猛犸象牙上的雕塑作品。肯定利用的是象牙的接近尾端部分,因为其型状纤细、略呈弧形;它约八英寸长。

The two reindeer swim closely, one behind one the other, and the sculptor has brilliantly exploited the tapering shape of the tusk. The smaller, female reindeer is in front with the very tip of the tusk forming the tip of her nose; and behind her, in the fuller part of the tusk, comes the larger male.

这对游水中驯鹿紧紧相随,一前一后;而且雕塑家极巧妙地完全利用了象牙尾端逐渐变细的特点。雌鹿在前,象牙细细的尖端构成了它的鼻子尖;紧随其后的是雄鹿,身型较大,就占据了型状较粗的象牙主体部分。

Because of the curve, both animals have their chins up and their antlers are tipped back, exactly as they would when swimming - and along the undersides, their legs are at full stretch, giving a marvellous impression of streamlined movement. It's a superbly observed piece - and it can only have been made by somebody who has spent a long time watching reindeer swimming across rivers.

因为这象牙天然的曲线,这对动物都仰着下巴,鹿角翘向背部,游水的神态活灵活现;顺着下面两侧的边缘,它们四腿充分伸展,栩栩如生地重现出流线型运动之感。这艺术确是精确入致观察的结晶。只有花费很长时间观察过驯鹿游水过河的人,才能创造出这件艺术品。

And it's probably no coincidence that it was found by a river, in a rock shelter at Montastruc in central France.

而它出土于法国中部 Montastruc河畔边的一处岩石庇护处,这点也可能不是巧合。

This carving is an amazingly realistic representation of the reindeer who, 13,000 years ago, were roaming in great herds across Europe.

这雕塑品逼真而惊人地重现了一万三千年前驯鹿群的姿态,成千上万,浩浩荡荡,游遍欧洲大陆。

The continent at this time was far colder than it is today; the landscape consisted of open, tree-less plain, rather like the landscape of Siberia now and, for human hunter-gatherers in this unforgiving terrain, reindeer were one of the best hopes for survival. Their meat, skin, bones and antlers could supply pretty well all the food and the clothing you needed, as well as the raw materials for tools and weapons.

当时的欧洲大陆远比现代更加冷寒;主要地貌是一空旷无限、寸木不生的辽原,与现代的西伯利亚景观颇为相似;对于作为狩猎采集者的远古人类而言,在这种严酷无情的地形中,驯鹿便是其生存最大希望之一。它们的肉、皮毛、骨骼与鹿角给你提供了可避寒、可裹腹的衣食,同时还是制作工具与武器的原材料。只要你能捕猎到驯鹿,一切都会好起来的。

As long as you could hunt reindeer, you were going to be alright. So, it's not surprising that our 'homo sapiens' artist knew the animals very well, and that he chose to represent them.

因此,我们的“智人”艺术家对驯鹿的一切了如指掌,而且选择将这种动物运用到艺术品中去,也就不足为奇了。

The larger, male reindeer displays an impressive set of antlers, which run along almost the whole length of his back, and we can sex him quite confidently as the artist has carved his genitals under his belly. The female has smaller antlers and four little bumps on her underside that look just like teats.

体型较大的雄鹿展现出一对令人印象深刻的鹿角,长度几乎延伸完它整个后背,而且通过艺术家雕刻在它腹部下边的生殖品也可以清晰判断出它的性别。母鹿鹿角较小,而且腹部下边四个小凸起似乎就是四个奶嘴。

But we can be much more specific than this even, because we're clearly looking at these animals in the autumn, at the time of rutting and migration to winter pastures. Only in the autumn do both male and female have full sets of antlers and coats in such wonderful condition.

我们还可以更进一步地具体描绘,显然我们观察到的是秋天时向冬季牧地进行大迁移的驯鹿。因为也只有在冬天,雌雄驯鹿同时长有鹿角,而且拥有如此光泽油亮的好皮毛。

On the female's chest, the ribs and the sternum have been beautifully carved. This object was clearly made not just with the knowledge of a hunter but also with the insight of a butcher, someone who not only looked at his animals, but cut them up.

雌鹿的胸部部位上,肋骨民胸骨雕刻得精致传神。显然制作这件艺术品的人,不仅仅拥有猎人的知识,还拥有屠夫的见识;不仅仅观察过这些动物,而且屠宰过。

By an astonishing stroke of luck, we know that this detailed naturalism was only one of the styles that Ice Age artists had at their disposal.

通过极妙的机缘巧合,我们认识到这种细节逼真的自然主义风格仅仅冰河时代艺术家们进行艺术创造的众多风格之一。

In the case next to the reindeer, the British Museum shows another sculpture found in that same cave at Montastruc.

在驯鹿雕塑品旁边的展位台上,显现的是大英博物馆的另一件同是出土于 Montastruc河畔的雕塑品。

By happy symmetry, where our reindeer are carved on mammoth tusk, the other sculpture shows a mammoth carved on a reindeer antler.

可喜可叹的是,我们刚刚谈论的是一对驯鹿雕刻在猛犸象牙上,那另一件雕塑品却是一头猛犸象雕刻到驯鹿鹿角上。

But the mammoth, although instantly recognisable, is drawn in a quite different way - simplified and schematised, somewhere between a caricature and an abstraction, and this is no one-off accident; Ice Age artists display a whole range of artistic styles and techniques: abstract, naturalistic, even surreal - as well as using perspective and sophisticated composition. These are modern humans with modern human minds, just like our own. They still live by hunting and gathering, but they're interpreting the world through art. So what's driving this? Here's Professor Steven Mithen:

然而即使这猛犸象即使形象可以马上识别,展示的艺术手法却迥然不同,更加的简化、更加的速写,介于一种漫画与抽象画之间。这事实也绝非是一种偶然性,冰何时代艺术家们显示出丰富多样的艺术风格与技巧:抽象的、自然的、甚至是超现实的,还有使用角度因素与复杂的各种组合。这些人类已经是拥有现代头脑的现代人,就跟我们自己一样。他们的生存方式仍旧是狩猎与采集,然而他们已经通过艺术来诠释世界。那么,究竟是什么力量在驱动这些?史蒂芬·米森教授说道:

'I think what probably happens - around 100,000 years ago - is different bits of the brain get connected together in a new way, and they can combine different ways of thinking.

“我觉得大约十万年前,可能我们头脑的不同部位以一种崭新的方式连接了起来,使得人类开始可以结合不同思维方式进行思考。”

So they can combine what they know about nature with what they know about making things, and this gives them a new capacity to produce pieces of art.

“因此,他们能够把自己对大自然的认知结合到制造物品的知识中去,从而给予了他们创造艺术品的新能力。

游水的驯鹿

 

But also I think those Ice Age conditions were critical as well. That was a very challenging time for people living in harsh, long winters - the need to build up really intense social bonds, the need for ritual, the need for religion, I think is all related to this flowering of fantastically creative art at the time.

但我认为当时冰河时代的客观条件也是极为关键的。当时对于要渡过恶劣而漫长冬季的人类而言,那是一段非常具有挑战性的岁月,从而他们延伸出建立非常亲密的社交纽带的渴望、祭祀的需求、宗教的需求;我认为这一切都与同时期,如此多的创造性艺术极戏剧化的如灿烂繁花般涌现有关。

There must have been astonishing places ... you can imagine the mammoths, and the herds of horses and deer. And the birds, the migrating birds, would have had a massive impact on these hunter-gatherers. So I think part of the art is an overwhelming sense of delight and appreciation and celebration of the natural world.'

当时肯定有很多震振人心的地方……你能想像那些猛犸象、大群大群的野马与鹿群。还有形形色色的鸟,各种候鸟,肯定会对当时那些狩猪采集者产生多么巨大的影响。因此,我因为艺术中的一部分是一种让人难以控制的喜悦、一种对大自然世界的赏识与庆贺。”

And an appreciation not just of the animal world - these people know how to make the most of the rocks and minerals.

而且不仅仅是对动物世界的赏识,这些人类已经知道如何物尽其能地利用岩石与矿物。

If you look closely, you can see that this little sculpture is the result, in fact, of four separate stone technologies.

细细观察一下这个小小的雕塑品,你就清楚这是件由四种独立石器工艺制作出来的成果。

First, the tip of the tusk was severed with a chopping tool; then the contours of the animals were whittled with a stone knife and scraper.

首先用砍砸器将这象牙尖从象牙上砍断;然后用石头刀与石刮刀将动物的轮廓削出来。

Then the whole thing was polished using a powdered iron oxide mixed with water, probably buffed up with a chamois leather.

接下来用一种氧化铁和水混合液体来抛光打磨整件物品,极可能是拿着块麂皮来弄的。

And finally the markings on the bodies and the details of the eyes were carefully incised with a stone engraving tool. In execution as well as in conception, this is a very complex work of art. And it seems to me that it has all the qualities of precise observation and interpretation that you'd look for in any great artist.

最后,再利用一种石制雕刻工具对诸如身体与眼神等部位细节进行精雕细琢。无论是实际操作还是概念构思上,这无疑是一件极为复杂的艺术品。在我看来,它完全具备在你能在任何伟大艺术家身上找到的属性,那入微的观察力与精准的表达力。

Why would you go to such trouble to make an object with no practical purpose? Here's Archbishop Rowan Williams:

但你怎么可能费那么大心思去创造一件毫无实际用途的物品?大主教罗文·威廉斯说道:

What I think you see in the art of this period is human beings trying to enter fully into the flow of life around them, so that they become part of the whole process of animal life that's going on around them, in a way which I think isn't just about managing the animal world, or guaranteeing them success in hunting or whatever.

“在我看来,这时期你所看到的艺术,反映出人类试图更充分地融入自己周遭的生命之河中,使自己成为这周而复始、生生不息的动物生命过程的一部分;而且在我看来,是通过一种不仅仅是管理动物世界,或者能保证他们成功地捕获猎物之类的方式。我认为意义不止于此。

I think it's more than that. It's really a desire to get inside and almost to be at home in the world at a deeper level, and I think that that's actually a very deeply religious impulse, to be at home in the world.

其实真的是一种渴望,渴望在更深层次上,去认知世界,在世界中寻找到归属感;我觉得这种在世界中寻找归属感的渴望,是具有要当深刻的宗教情绪。

We tend to identify religion with not being at home in the world sometimes, as if the real stuff were elsewhere in heaven; and yet actually if you look at religious origins, if you look at a lot of the mainstream themes in the great world religions, it's the other way round - it's how to live here and now and how to be part of that flow of life.'

我们习以为常地倾向于把宗教认知为一种超尘出世的感觉,似乎真谛只是存在远方的天堂乐园中;然而假如你追溯回所有宗教的根源,假如你细细观察这世界上所有主流的伟大宗教的主流主题,情况恰恰是相反的——它是关于如何活在现在,活在世上,如何成为生命之流的一部分。”

This carving of the two swimming reindeer had no practical function, only form. Was it just 'art'? An image made just for its beauty? Or does it have a different purpose? By representing something, by making a picture or a sculpture of it, you give it a different kind of life, a kind of magical power, and you assert your relation to it in a world you're able not just to experience, but to imagine. Is it going too far to suggest that art like this is the earliest physical evidence for religion? Rowan Williams again:

这对游水的驯鹿雕刻品其实也没有任何实际功能,具有一种形式。难道它仅仅是“艺术”?一件纯粹为美而制造的形象物品?还是它还蕴含着不同的目的?通过重新诠释一样物品,例如为它绘制一幅画或者雕一件雕塑,你赋于了给另一种全新的生命,一种神奇的力量;同时你不止通过体验,还有想像,重新定位了你与它在这世上间的关系。如果说这样的艺术品便是宗教艺术最早的实物证据,会不会太言过其实了呢?罗文·威廉斯大主教再次说道:

'At the beginning, of course, you can't really pull apart religion and art can you? Art is sacred because it is taking you to this space where you're not just doing the subject/object arm's-length approach to nature, it takes you to a new place and that's a religious activity. It's only as time goes on that religion becomes much more involved with issues around power, and art becomes much more involved with issues around self-expression, and these days, the two often look at each other from separate mountain peaks, peering in a puzzled kind of way through the mists.

“在最开始的时候,你肯定不能真正地把宗教与艺术区分开来的,不是吗?艺术是神圣的,因为它将你带领到另一个空间,让你不仅仅是主体与客体方式对待大自然,并且保持着一臂之距的疏离感。它同时带领你走进一个新领域,这便是一种宗教行为。只是在勿勿时光流逝中,宗教演变得越来越是涉及围绕权力之类的问题,而艺术越来越成为一种表达自我的方式;到了今天,两者往往是分别高居于两座巍然屹立的高峰之上,透过迷雾用谜一般的眼光审视着对方。”

'I don't think that primitive human beings just had a ready-made word in their heads that sounded like 'God', and they immediately knew what it was. They were discovering how to be human in a world that was much more complicated because of their intelligence, and because of the new environmental challenges they were working with, and slowly the world - how should I say it? - almost reshapes itself. With that, and in your identification with the processes of the world, you begin to understand or intuit what in the 'Old Testament' is called 'wisdom', a kind of principle of cohesion or cohesiveness underlying it all, and you identify that eventually with the mind of God.'

“我不认为远古人类脑中能有现成‘神’这个字,并能立刻感知‘神’的含义。随着他们自身智力发展,及他们自身正在对付的各种挑战,这世界变得越来越复杂,而他们还正在探索着如何成为这世界中的人类;慢慢地,这世界就,怎么说呢,几乎重新塑造了自身。凭借这点,加上在你自身识别这世界的过程中,你开始理解了,或者直觉地感受到了那《旧约》中所称的‘智慧’,一种最本质最基础的凝聚力或融合力,最终你能够定义了‘神’的含义。”

It seems that much of the art made around the world at the time of the Ice Age did have a religious dimension, although we can only guess at any ritual use. This art is part of a tradition still very much alive today, and it's also part of an evolving religious consciousness which still shapes many human societies. Objects like this sculpture of swimming reindeer take us into the minds and imaginations of people like us - into a world unseen but understood. And I think it's that ability to see beyond the functional and the physical - to use our imaginations - that ultimately makes us modern. At the time our swimming reindeer were carved in Europe, the people of north-east Asia were about to settle the Americas. That's for the next programme.

看来,冰河时代时世界各地的艺术品确实大部分都渲染上宗教的色彩,尽管我们只能猜测究竟是运用于什么仪式用途。这种艺术仍然是当代非常活跃的一种传统,同时也是一种不断塑造着人类社会、演化中的宗教意识。像这种游水驯鹿雕塑像这样的物品,把我们带近那些具有与我们相同的思想与想象力的原始人类,进入一个看不见但了解得到的世界。我想正是这种能超越功能与物质的见解能力,最终使我们成为现代人。当欧洲的定居者雕刻出我们这件驯鹿雕塑时,东北区地区的人类即将要在美洲安家。这将是下期节目的内容。

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