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At first sight our axe looks like thousands of others in the British Museum collection, but it's thinner and it's wider than most of them. I'm holding it now very carefully, because it still looks absolutely brand new-and very sharp. It's the shape of an oversized tear drop-about seven inches long and at the base about two or three inches wide. It's cool to the touch and extraordinarily, pleasingly, smooth.
第一眼看过去，这把玉斧看起来就像大英博物馆馆藏的成千上万其他斧子一样,但相比这绝大多数，它显得更薄,更为宽阔。我现在非常小心地握着,因为它看起来仍然是崭新,而且非常锋利。它的形状好似一个超大号的泪珠—约7英寸长,底部约两至三英寸宽。摸起来很酷而且感觉令人异常愉悦，光滑。
Axes occupy a special place in the human story, the farming revolution in the Near East took generations to spread across the breadth of mainland Europe, but eventually, about six thousand years ago, settlers reached British and Irish shores in skin-covered boats, bringing with them crop seeds and domesticated animals. They found thick forests covering the land. It was the axe that enabled them to clear the spaces they needed to plant their seeds and graze their beasts. With axes the settlers made for themselves a new wooden world: they felled timber and built fences and trackways, houses and boats. These were the people who would also construct huge, mysterious monuments like the first Stonehenge. Stone axes were the revolutionary tool that enabled our ancestors to create a green and pleasant land.
斧子在人类历史中起到非常特殊的作用, 近东农业的革命经过世代演变蔓延到欧洲大陆,但最终,大约6000年前,移民依靠皮毛船只抵达英国和爱尔兰海岸,随之而来的还有农作物种子以及家畜。他们发现浓密的森林覆盖这片土地。于是斧头帮助他们清除他们播撒种子及放牧野兽所需的空间。定居者们还依靠斧子为自己创造了全新的木制世界:他们砍伐木材,建造栅栏，道路,房屋和船只。这些人也建造巨大的神秘遗迹和第一座巨石阵。石斧是革命性的工具,使我们的祖先能够创造绿色且适宜人类生存的土地。
