a little history of the world: the greatest inventors of all time
世界小史：有史以来最伟大的发明家 （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.
在德国海德堡附近，曾经有人在挖坑时发现了一具地下深处的骨头。 那是一具人骨。
a jawbone. but no human beings today h**e jaws like this one.
下颌骨。 但是现在的人们已经没有这样的颚骨了。
it was so massive and strong, and had such powerful teeth!
它又大又结实，牙齿特别强大！
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.
有这种下巴的人必须有很强的咬合力。 它一定在很久以前就活了，才会被埋得这么深。
on another occasion, but still in germany – in the neander valley – a human skull was found.
还有一次，在德国的尼安德特人山谷，发现了一个人类头骨。
and this was also immensely interesting because nobody alive today has a skull like this one either.
这也很有趣，因为今天的人们没有这样的头骨。
instead of a forehead like ours it just had two thick ridges above the eyebrows.
这个男人的额头不像我们，只有眉毛上方的两个粗疙瘩。
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.如果我们所有的想法都在额头后面，而这些人没有，那么也许他们想得更少。
or at any rate, thinking may h**e been harder for them.
无论如何，思考对他们来说可能更加困难。
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，检查头骨的人得出结论，过去的人不善于思考，但他们比今天的人更善于咀嚼。
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！ 现在你会说，“这不是我们所说的那样。 这些人是什么时候住的？ 他们是什么样子的，他们如何生活？ ”
your questions make me blush, as i h**e to admit that we don’t know, precisely.
你的问题让我脸红，因为我不得不承认我们不知道。
but we will find out one day, and maybe you will want to help.
但总有一天我们会知道的，也许你会想帮忙。
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.
我们不知道，因为这些人还不知道如何把事情写下来，而记忆只能把我们带到一个不那么遥远的时代。
but we are **new discoveries all the time.
但我们总是在不断有新的发现。
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.
科学家发现，某些物质，如木材、植物和火山岩，在很长一段时间内会缓慢但有规律地变化。
this means that we can work out when they grew or were formed.
这意味着我们可以计算出它们何时生长或形成。
and since the discoveries in germany, people h**e carried on searching and digging, and h**e made some startling finds.
自发现德国以来，人们不断寻找和挖掘，并取得了一些惊人的发现。
in asia and africa, in particular, more bones h**e been found, some at least as old as the heidelberg jaw.
特别是在亚洲和非洲，发现了更多的骨头，其中一些至少与海德堡颚骨一样古老。
these were our ancestors who may h**e already been using stones as tools more than a hundred and fifty thousand years ago.
这些是我们的祖先，他们可能在 150,000 多年前就开始使用石头作为工具。
they were different from the neanderthal people who appeared about seventy thousand years earlier and inhabited the earth for about two hundred thousand years.
他们与尼安德特人不同，尼安德特人出现在大约 70,000 年前，并在地球上居住了大约 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.
我欠尼安德特人一个道歉，因为他们尽管额头很低，但他们的大脑并不比今天的大多数人小。