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Can you imagine a world without writing? Without any writing at all?
想象一个没有文字的世界,完全没有任何文字的世界?
No forms to fill in of course, no tax returns, but also no literature, no science, no 'history'.
当然就不需要填 表格，不用退税，但是也没有文学，没有先进的科学，没有历史。
It is almost beyond imagining, because our modern life, and above all our modern government, is based almost entirely on writing.
这样 的生活其实根本无法想象，因为现代生活及现代政府几乎是完全建立在文字上的。
Of all mankind's great advances, the development of writing is surely the giant:
在人类的一切进步中，文字的出现无疑是巨人般的一步，
I think you can say that it's had more impact on the evolution of human society than any other invention.
当然，它是否是人类进化史上影响最大的创造也许还有争议。
But when and where did it begin-and how?
但它是从何时何地开始的？又是如何开始的？
This programme's object is a piece of clay, made just over five thousand years ago in a Mesopotamian city.
在一块制作于五千年前的美索不达米亚的黏土板上，有我们已知的最早的文字。
It's one of the earliest examples of writing that we know; it's about beer and the birth of bureaucracy.
给我们留下乌尔旗的民族，也给我们留下了文字的最早范例。它的内容跟文学完全无关，而是记载了啤酒和政府机构的诞生。
"For me, it's a first sign of writing, but it also tells you about the growth of the early beginnings of a state."
“对我而言,这是关于文字写作的第一个标志,但它也告诉你关于一个国家早期的状态。”
"It's essential for the creation of what we think of as human civilisation. It has a creative capacity that may not even have been intended."
“这是我们所认为的人类文明必不可少的创造。它有一种创造性的能力,甚至超乎意料之外。”
A history of the world.
世界历史，
In a hundred objects.
百件藏品，
Clay writing tablet approximately 5,000 years old discovered in southern Iraq
在伊拉克南部发现大约5000岁的早期写字板
