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From its earliest days, Britain was an object of desire.
自远古时代起，不列颠就为人所觊觎。
Tacitus declared it "pretium victoriae" -- worth the conquest, the best compliment that could occur to a Roman.
塔西佗称其为"值得征服的土地"，在罗马人眼中，这无疑是最高的赞誉。
He had never visited these shores, but was nonetheless convinced that Britannia was rich in gold.
他从未踏足这片土地，尽管如此他仍坚信不列颠尼亚是一个黄金夹道的富庶之地。
Silver was abundant too. Apparently so were pearls, although Tacitus had heard they were grey, like the overcast, rain-heavy skies, and the natives only bother to collected them when cast up on the shore.
同样取之不尽的还有白银与珍珠，尽管塔西佗听说那里的珍珠就像那里常年阴霾笼罩的天空一般灰暗，却盈千累万，当地人都不需费心采撷，等着珍珠冲上岸就好。
As far as the Roman historians were concerned, Britannia might be well off at the edge of the world, but it was off the edge of their world, not in a howling barbarian wilderness.
古罗马历史学家曾认为，不列颠尼亚远在世界之端，但事实上她只是在罗马世界的边缘，且并非未开化的蛮夷之地。
If the same writers had been able to travel in time as well as space to the northernmost of our islands, the Orcades, our modern Orkney, they would have seen something much more astonishing than pearls.
假使这些作家可以穿越时空，游历至不列颠最北端，如今的奥克尼群岛，令他们瞠目结舌的将不仅是金山银海。
The unmistakable signs of a civilisation thousands of years older than Rome.
还有这里无疑早于罗马数千年的文明的遗迹。
There are remains of Stone Age life doted all over Britain and Ireland.
石器时代的遗迹遍布于不列颠与爱尔兰。
But nowhere as abundantly as Orkney, with its mounds, graves and bavol its great circles of standing stones like here at Brodgar.
尤以奥克尼群岛为最，大量鼓起的坟堆以及像布罗德盖石圈一样耸立着的巨石阵。
Vast, imposing and utterly unknowable.
雄伟壮观，并散发着不可知的神秘气息。
But Orkney boasts another Neolithic site, there is, in its way, even more impressive than Brodgar,
而岛上有一处新石器时代的遗址，甚至比布罗德盖更令人惊叹，
the last thing you would expect from the Stone Age, a shockingly familiar glimpse of ancient domestic life.
你永远想象不到遥远的石器时代远古的家庭生活，竟在这里揭开了神秘面纱。
