a little history of the world: the greatest inventors of all time
世界小史：有史以來最偉大的發明家 （1）.
near heidelberg, in germany, somebody was once digging a pit when they came across a bone, deep down under the ground. it was a human bone.
在德國海德堡附近，曾經有人在挖坑時發現了一具地下深處的骨頭。 那是一具人骨。
a jawbone. but no human beings today h**e jaws like this one.
下頜骨。 但是現在的人們已經沒有這樣的顎骨了。
it was so massive and strong, and had such powerful teeth!
它又大又結實，牙齒特別強大！
whoever owned it must h**e been able to bite really hard. and must h**e lived a long time ago for the bone to be buried so deep.
有這種下巴的人必須有很強的咬合力。 它一定在很久以前就活了，才會被埋得這麼深。
on another occasion, but still in germany – in the neander valley – a human skull was found.
還有一次，在德國的尼安德特人山谷，發現了乙個人類頭骨。
and this was also immensely interesting because nobody alive today has a skull like this one either.
這也很有趣，因為今天的人們沒有這樣的頭骨。
instead of a forehead like ours it just had two thick ridges above the eyebrows.
這個男人的額頭不像我們，只有眉毛上方的兩個粗疙瘩。
now, if all our thinking goes on behind our foreheads and these people didn’t h**e any foreheads, then perhaps they didn’t think as much as we do.如果我們所有的想法都在額頭後面，而這些人沒有，那麼也許他們想得更少。
or at any rate, thinking may h**e been harder for them.
無論如何，思考對他們來說可能更加困難。
so the people who examined the skull concluded that once upon a time there were people who weren’t very good at thinking, but who were better at biting than we are today.
因此，檢查頭骨的人得出結論，過去的人不善於思考，但他們比今天的人更善於咀嚼。
but now you’re going to say: ‘stop! that’s not what we agreed. when did these people live, what were they like, and how did they live?’
停！ 現在你會說，“這不是我們所說的那樣。 這些人是什麼時候住的？ 他們是什麼樣子的，他們如何生活？ ”
your questions make me blush, as i h**e to admit that we don’t know, precisely.
你的問題讓我臉紅，因為我不得不承認我們不知道。
but we will find out one day, and maybe you will want to help.
但總有一天我們會知道的，也許你會想幫忙。
we don’t know because these people didn’t yet know how to write things down, and memory only takes us a little way back.
我們不知道，因為這些人還不知道如何把事情寫下來，而記憶只能把我們帶到乙個不那麼遙遠的時代。
but we are **new discoveries all the time.
但我們總是在不斷有新的發現。
scientists h**e found that certain materials, such as wood and plants and volcanic rocks, change slowly but regularly over a very long period of time.
科學家發現，某些物質，如木材、植物和火山岩，在很長一段時間內會緩慢但有規律地變化。
this means that we can work out when they grew or were formed.
這意味著我們可以計算出它們何時生長或形成。
and since the discoveries in germany, people h**e carried on searching and digging, and h**e made some startling finds.
自發現德國以來，人們不斷尋找和挖掘，並取得了一些驚人的發現。
in asia and africa, in particular, more bones h**e been found, some at least as old as the heidelberg jaw.
特別是在亞洲和非洲，發現了更多的骨頭，其中一些至少與海德堡顎骨一樣古老。
these were our ancestors who may h**e already been using stones as tools more than a hundred and fifty thousand years ago.
這些是我們的祖先，他們可能在 150,000 多年前就開始使用石頭作為工具。
they were different from the neanderthal people who appeared about seventy thousand years earlier and inhabited the earth for about two hundred thousand years.
他們與尼安德特人不同，尼安德特人出現在大約 70,000 年前，並在地球上居住了大約 200,000 年。
and i owe the neanderthal people an apology, for despite their low foreheads, their brains were no smaller than those of most people today.
我欠尼安德特人乙個道歉，因為他們儘管額頭很低，但他們的大腦並不比今天的大多數人小。