维京史话（2012）

A merchant could earn, in just a year or two,
一个商人在一两年里能赚到的钱
more wealth than a prosperous farmer back home in Scandinavia
甚至比斯堪的纳维亚家乡
could acquire in an entire lifetime.
一个农夫一生攒的还要多
Some Vikings made Constantinople their home.
有一些维京人在君士坦丁堡安了家
And one of them even left his mark on the city,
其中一位甚至在这座城市留下了痕迹
in one of the most historic and holy places on the planet.
…在这星球上历史最悠久和最神圣的地方
This is the Hagia Sophia.
这里是圣索菲亚教堂
Most of what you're looking at was built in the sixth century,
你所见的大部分建于公元六世纪
which means that, by the time the Vikings turned up,
就是说维京人出现在这里时
that building was already old.
教堂已经在这很久了
Hagia Sophia was built as a Christian church.
圣索菲亚教堂最初建成时是基♥督♥教的教堂
'And it later became a Muslim mosque.
而后来被改成一座清♥真♥寺
'All around me are remnants
我周围全都是…
'of over 1,000 years of Christian and Muslim worship.
有一千多年历史的基♥督♥教和穆♥斯♥林♥崇拜的遗迹
'But one tiny corner is Viking.'
而其中有一个角落是属于维京的
These dark lines etched into the marble are Vikings runes,
这些刻在大理石上的黑线是维京人的符号♥
ancient Viking writing.
…是古维京文字
They're almost indecipherable.
这些文字几乎已无法解读了
The only bit that's in any way clear is part of someone's name,
其中最清楚只有一个人名…
a man's name -
一个男人的名字
Halfdan.
哈夫丹
And the rest of it is assumed to read "was here".
剩下的部分的意思可能是"到此一游"
So you've got, "Halfdan was here" or made these runes.
所以这个涂鸦的意思应该是"哈夫丹到此一游"
We'll never know for sure who Halfdan was,
我们无从得知哈夫丹是谁
but it's possible that he was
但很有可能他是
a member of the near-legendary elite bodyguard of the Byzantine emperor,
拜占庭王国近卫军的成员
the so-called Varangian Guard,
就是所谓的瓦兰吉卫队
who escorted the Emperor on special occasions
卫队负责在特殊场合保护国王的安全
and for special ceremonies.
比如特别的庆典
So we can allow ourselves to imagine
我们来想象一下...
that, one day, Halfdan was up here on duty
有一天，哈夫丹在这里站岗
during a long, boring religious ceremony.
那是个冗长而乏味的宗教仪式
And to pass the time,
为了打发无聊的时间
he carved his name and some words into the stonework.
他在石头上刻下了这些
These few lines are such a moving, visceral reminder of
这几个字生动地道出了
just how far the Swedish Vikings had come
原籍瑞典的维京人
since they first set out across the glassy Baltic Sea.
自从离开了波光粼粼的波罗的海远行 与家乡已经有万里之遥了
'But what's left in Constantinople is only part of the story,
然而维京人留在在君士坦丁堡的印记 只是故事的一方面
'because everything the Vikings achieved on their journeys east
因为他们一路东行途中所有的收获
'also had a huge impact back home.'
反过来也对他们的故乡产生了巨大的影响
From Istanbul, I'm heading back to Sweden.
离开伊斯坦布尔，我又返回瑞典
My destination - a tiny island,
我的目的地是一个小岛
just a stone's throw from Stockholm, called Birka.
距离斯德哥尔摩仅一箭之地的比尔卡
Hello. Hello. Welcome. Thank you! Can we head off? Yes.
现在的与比尔卡是偏僻的乡村
Today, it's a remote rural place.
它的位置与世隔绝
And its isolation from the modern world has meant
使得一千多年来比尔卡
that Birka has been remarkably undisturbed for over 1,000 years.
几乎没有显著改变过
In Birka, we should glimpse traces of everyday life,
在比尔卡，我们能够一瞥(生活在这里的) 人们日常生活的痕迹
not the lives of the warrior class, but ordinary working people.
不是战士的…而是那些普通劳动人们的日常生活
Because what's preserved in Birka is more than just a town,
因为这里保存的不仅是一个城镇
it's an entire culture.
而是完整的文化
Swedish archaeologist Charlotte Hedenstierna-Johnson
瑞典考古学家夏洛特.赫登谢纳-约翰逊
has been excavating Viking Birka for a decade.
十年来从事比尔卡维京遗址的发掘
In the league of Viking towns, where does Birka rank?
在所有的维京城镇里，比尔卡处于什么地位呢？
If you ask me, very top.
如果让我说的话…它是最棒的
Number one?
第一吗？
Yeah. OK.
是的
Birka was one of the very first urban centres in Scandinavia
比尔卡曾是斯堪的纳维亚城市中心之一
and it thrived on international trade.
它因国际贸易而繁荣
So Birka is like a department store
比尔卡就象是个百货公♥司♥…
where you can get clothes,
你能买♥♥到衣服
you can get jewellery, you can get furnishings for your home...
你能买♥♥到珠宝和家具
Weaponry, food...
武器还有食物…
Imported food, I should say.
应该说是进口食物
Um... Spices, textiles.
嗯…香料和纺织品
What kind of things do you find?
你发现了些什么东西？
You know, is it rich pickings out where the people lived?
在这里挑出很多有价值的东西吗？
Yeah, it's very rich pickings.
是的，相当的多
Gold and silver?
金银的吗？
No, not today.
不，这次不是
Now, this is a very good example of what they actually did here.
这个东西完美揭示了当时这里的人究竟在干什么
Their trade is at the heart of everything.
经商是一切的中心
This is an iron weight.
这是个铁质的砝码
So this isn't for weighing the goods themselves.
这个不是用来称货物重量的对吗？
No.
不是的
This is how you make sure someone's paid the right price.
这东西是用来称金银的重量的
Exactly.
完全正确
So, by the time they got these weights,
因而他们使用这些砝码的时候
they've moved from, you know,
是否已经从…原始的以物易物阶段
simple barter to objects having an established value in silver?
过渡到…建立基于白银的价格体系吗？
Yeah, yeah, much more advanced.
是的，是的…还要更加先进
It's coming close to a monetary system.
他们已经接近于建立货币系统
But Birka was far more than just a market.
然而比尔卡远不止是个市集
This was a whole society
这是一个完整的社会
with a garrison and an industrial area
有个军营还有个工业区
as well as markets and residences.
还有市场和居民区
For Vikings, places like Birka were a new world.
对于维京人来说，比尔卡是个全新的世界
It was about urban living,
它的城市生活…
it was about life in an international trading centre
国际贸易中心的生活
and it was about having connections, contacts,
还有和远至爱尔兰和君士坦丁堡的
with people living as far afield as Ireland and Constantinople.
人们的联♥系♥和接触
And the Vikings who once lived here clearly wanted to be remembered.
住在这里的维京人显然想要后世记住自己
These humps and bumps are the unmistakable outlines
这些高高低低的土丘...
of Viking burial mounds.
显然就是这些维京人坟墓的轮廓
They're all around me here, they stretch off in every direction.
遍布在我周围向四面八方延伸…
It's reckoned that there are at least 3,000 visible graves in and around Birka.
有人算过比尔卡岛上明显可见的坟墓就至少有三千个
Within these graves, archaeologists have found the remains
考古学家们曾经在一些富商的墓葬中发现…
of wealthy merchants with Eastern goods.
来自东方的陪葬物
And even their Viking children who lived over 1,000 years ago.
甚至一千年前的儿童的墓中也有发现
It's an unusually well-preserved skeleton,
这副遗骨保存的异常完好
especially given that it's the skeleton of a child.
特别是这是一副儿童的骨骸
There's nothing on the skeleton to reveal how she died.
无从判断她的死因是什么
That will remain a mystery.
那将永远是个谜了
But we know from analysis that she was no more
而通过分♥析♥我们知道...
than maybe six years old when she died.
她死去时年龄的不大于六岁
And I can confidently say SHE
之所以肯定地说这是位女性
because of the things that went into her coffin with her.
是因为棺椁里的那些陪葬品
She was wearing a necklace of brightly coloured glass beads,
她戴着亮晶晶的玻璃珠项链
silver and gold and blue in there.
银色的金色的还有蓝色的
Also, her clothing was fastened across her chest
另外她的衣服搭在胸前 …
with a very heavily decorated gilded brooch.
用装饰精美的镀金胸针固定
And on the back of the brooch, there's the impression
胸针背面有些痕迹
of some of the fabric that it was holding in place,
是固定在背面的织物留下的
and it's a very finely made, expensive fabric.
这是做工精细的昂贵织物
We don't know quite what it was,
我不知道这究竟是什么
but it would have cost a lot of money
但这一定值很多的钱
and it may well have been an exotic import.
而且这很可能是外来进口的
Because she was expensively dressed,
她穿着十分贵重的衣服
she was obviously the daughter of a wealthy family.
所以她显然是来自富裕家庭
The wealth here tells us that she was part of Birka's trading elite.
女孩的陪葬物品告诉我们她来自比尔卡富商之家
In places like Birka, all those luxury Eastern goods could be found,
所有来自东方的奢侈品都在比尔卡都有
but they also had to be paid for.
只要你要付的起钱
Furs could be traded and trapped.
皮草可以通过打猎或者买♥♥卖♥♥得到
Amber could be found in the ground itself.
而琥珀可以在地上找到
But much of the Vikings' wealth depended on slaves.
然而维京人的财富大部分来自奴隶
And THEY had to be taken by force.
奴隶是则只有通过武力来取得
Having travelled east, I'm now heading west,
去过东方后，现在要我西行…
to the other extreme of the Vikings' trading network.
前往维京人贸易网络的另一端
Dublin, Ireland's capital,
都柏林--爱尔兰首都
was founded by Norwegian Vikings in 841AD.
由挪威维京人在公园八四一年建立