十個比你想象中還要歷史悠久的發明(上)

We associate items with cultures or eras because it helps our brains categorize information. We hear the word "pyramid," and we instantly associate it with ancient Egypt, despite the numerous non-Egyptian pyramids in the world. Many of these associations are incorrect. Some things we strongly associate with the modern world are actually quite older.

我們常常將身邊的事物與本族的文化或者我們現在所處的年代聯繫到一起，因爲這樣的聯繫可以幫助我們的大腦將接收到的信息分門別類。比如，當我們聽到"金字塔"這個詞時，儘管世界上大多數金字塔並不屬於埃及，我們的大腦也會下意識地將金字塔與古埃及聯繫起來。由此可見，很多類似於這樣的聯繫是不準確的。像是那些我們認爲和現代生活密不可分的事物，其實在很早以前就存在了。

Battles

10.說唱對決

Rappers in early 1980s New York might get most of the credit for this type of lyrical performance, but the practice is actually much older and comes from Scotland. It is called flyting and it was practiced by makaris (Scottish poets) during the 15th and 16th centuries. In this contest, two poets would engage in an exchange of verbal abuse, oftentimes in verse, and the winner was usually decided by the audience. The winner would then enjoy a large cup of mead or beer and more often than not would invite the loser to drink as well.

大部分人認爲說唱這種特殊的詞彙表演技巧起源於那些在19世紀80年代早期出現的紐約說唱家（Rappers）。但事實上，早在這段時間以前，蘇格蘭就已經有了這樣的詞彙表演技巧。他們將這個詞彙比賽似的表演叫做flyting。Flyting最早出現在15世紀和16世紀，是由一個叫做馬卡瑞斯的蘇格蘭詩人發明的。比賽規則爲：兩名參賽的詩人在比賽過程中對罵，然後由觀衆們來決定最終的獲勝者。獲勝者在比賽結束後會豪飲一杯蜂蜜酒或者啤酒以示慶祝，但是他們不會邀請戰敗者來共同慶祝。

At one point, flyting was so popular in Scotland that the obscenities and vulgarities were overlooked, though they were otherwise not permitted in public. Flytes would usually take place in large rooms like feasting halls, but the most skilled poets would engage in flyting at the royal courts. King James IV was known to be a big fan of flyting, as well as James rtunately, not many flytes from those times have survived. The most memorable one took place at the aforementioned court of James IV. It is known as "The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy" and took place between Walter Kennedy and William Dunbar.

那個時期的Flyting在蘇格蘭十分受歡迎，因爲在比賽時可以盡情使用那些在公共場合不允許使用的粗俗和下流的詞語。比賽通常會在宴會大廳裏舉行，不過那些知識最淵博的詩人的比賽通常會在宮廷內舉行。詹姆斯四世與詹姆斯五世都十分熱衷於這項比賽。遺憾的是，這項比賽並沒有流傳到現在。最盛大的一場比賽是在詹姆四世的宮廷裏舉行的。這場比賽被稱爲"肯尼迪與鄧巴的爭論"，參賽者就是著名詩人沃特肯尼迪和威廉·鄧巴。

ures

9.假牙

Dentures' long history is not particularly surprising. George Washington, for example, was a famous wearer of dentures (although none of his were made of wood, despite the myth). However, dentures go back much further than that. To the time of the Etruscan civilization, in fact, located in modern Italy between the eighth and fourth centuries B.C.

假牙擁有悠久的歷史這件事應該在人們意料之中。喬治·華盛頓就是一個著名的假牙佩戴者（大家都說他的假牙是木頭做的，儘管事實並不是這樣）。但事實上假牙的出現要追溯到公元前8世紀到公元前4世紀的伊特魯里亞（現爲意大利）文明時期。

A lot of evidence suggests that the Etruscans were the first to create false teeth as early as 700 B.C. Ancient skulls have been discovered with gold bands inside them, and in Marzabotto, a skull was found with an artificial tooth still attached using gold wire. Apart from dentures, individual crowns have also been discovered, made for molars and r dentistry skills were surprisingly advanced, and the dentures they made were quite similar to those still in use centuries later, even in the time of the aforementioned Washington. They were made using either animal or human teeth, which were fixed onto a gold band with metal pins and then secured in place inside the mouth.

許多證據表明伊特魯里亞人早在公元前700年就發明了假牙。遠古時期的人類頭骨化石裏就有金子做的類似於綁帶一樣的用來固定假牙的東西，並且在瑪扎博多發現的人類頭骨裏也有用金線固定的人造牙齒。除了假牙以外，人們還發現了一頂用臼齒和犬齒製作的王冠。他們的牙科學的先進程度令人咋舌，並且他們製造的假牙與幾個世紀之後所使用的假牙別無二致，包括前面提到的華盛頓的假牙也是一樣。這些假牙的製作材料不是人牙就是獸牙，然後這些假牙再被用金子做的綁帶和金屬的小釘子固定在人們的口腔內。

papers

8.報紙

For a publication to classify as a newspaper, it must publish up-to-date information covering a range of topics at regular intervals and be reasonably accessible to the public. Some would say that a newspaper also has to be printed, which means that they couldn't have existed prior to the printing press. However, if we overlook that small detail, then newspapers go back a lot farther. Ancient Rome and China both had handwritten news sheets presented to the public on a regular basis detailing current events and other important happenings.

如果有一種出版物被稱作報紙，那麼它在出版時不僅要刊登那些最新的並且涵蓋了日常生活各個方面的消息，還要與公衆有某種程度的聯繫。談到報紙出現的時間，有人會說報紙畢竟也是被印刷出來的，意思就是說報紙的出現必然要晚於印刷術的出現。然而，如果我們忽略掉這個小細節，那麼我們就會知道報紙出現的時間實際上比印刷術出現的時間更早一些。古時候的羅馬和中國都有每天在特定的時間發表的手寫的報紙，並且報道的內容通常都是一些瑣事或者其他一些重要的大事。

In Rome, it was known as Acta Diurna and is considered to be the first daily gazette, even if it wasn't even written on paper (it was carved in stone or metal). At first, it only covered legal proceedings and the results of trials. As its popularity grew, it expanded to also include politics, military campaigns, births, deaths, and China, the earliest forms of newspapers were known as tipao (also Di Bao). They were imperial bulletins published during the Tang Dynasty. During the Kaiyuan era, they were replaced with Kaiyuan Za Bao, an official publication handwritten on silk and distributed mostly to imperial officials.

在羅馬，一個名叫"羅馬公報"的報紙被看作當時的第一份日報，儘管報紙的內容並不是書寫在紙上的（是被鐫刻在石頭或金屬上的）。一開始，羅馬公報的內容僅僅包括法律審判的過程和案件審判的結果。但當它漸漸開始變得受歡迎後，內容便逐漸擴充到了時政、軍事、人們的出生與死亡以及官方執行的日常任務。在中國，我們知道的最早的報紙是邸報。唐朝時期，邸報相當於是皇家公告。然後在開元年間，邸報被開元早報所取代。開元早報是手寫在絲綢上的官方出版物，大部分被分發給臣子。

hbrushes

7.牙刷

Early dental techniques were of course a lot more primitive. In fact, the first "toothbrushes" were nothing but sticks with frayed ends that were rubbed against the teeth. While these weren't particularly efficient, they at least gave the user refreshing breath. Such "chew sticks" were found in ancient China, Egypt, and even Babylonia, dating back to 3,000 B.C.

古代的牙科在技術上比起現在自然是粗糙了不少。事實上，世界上第一把牙刷僅僅就是一根木棍，並且這根木棍的某一端可以用來摩擦牙齒。儘管這樣的牙刷並不是特別有效，但至少也給予了刷牙者一個清新的口腔。這種像"磨牙棒"一樣的東西在公元前3000年的中國、埃及以及巴比倫就出現了。

Something similar to a modern toothbrush didn't appear until the 15th century in China. It was made out of bone or bamboo and had natural bristles made out of the hairs of a hog's neck. Also around that time, China started trading with Europe, so the design was brought there before long. However, Europeans found the hog hairs too rigid and preferred to replace them with softer horse hairs. While the design of the toothbrush would be updated from time to time, it really didn't turn into the modern brush we know today until the beginning of the 20th century, when Wallace Carothers invented nylon for DuPont. Up until that point animal hairs kept being used for the bristles.

一直到了15世紀，中國人才發明出了與現代的牙刷相似的牙刷。這樣的牙刷是由骨或者竹子以及豬脖子上的鬃毛做成的。同樣是在這個時期，中國與歐洲開始進行貿易活動，因此在這樣的牙刷在被髮明後不久就流傳到了歐洲。但是歐洲人認爲豬的鬃毛太硬了，所以他們用較柔軟的馬毛代替了豬的鬃毛。儘管牙刷的設計在這之後也不斷地更新，我們今天使用的牙刷也是到了20世紀初期才逐漸成形的。當時華萊士-卡羅瑟斯爲杜邦公司發明了尼龍材料，而在這之前牙刷的刷毛都是由動物的毛做成的。

are

6.社會福利

Ancient Rome had quite a few programs in place to provide its citizens with subsidized food. At first, this was not an obligation yet was still quite common when either the government or wealthy individuals wanted to gain favor with the public. They would make donations of corn to the people, known as frumentatio. In 123 B.C., however, a tribune by the name of Gaius Gracchus introduced Lex Frumentaria. Through this law, each citizen of Rome was entitled to an amount of wheat each month available at a reasonable price (somewhere around half the market price). This was only available to fathers of families but was not restricted only to poor Romans.

古羅馬在很早以前就有許多爲市民提供補貼食物的活動。最開始，這並不是一項政府或者某一個有錢人想要從公衆身上得到好處的普遍的義務。他們直接將糧食送給公衆，這樣的行爲被稱作frumentatio。在公元前123年，一個叫做蓋約·格拉古的民權保護者出臺了新糧食分配政策。通過這項條例，羅馬的每個公民每個月都可以得到以公道的價錢（一般都是市場價的一半）售賣的定量小麥。但是對於半價售賣的小麥，有勞動力的家庭，其購買的數量會受到限制，而貧窮的羅馬人購買半價小麥的數量是不受限的。

Roman emperors also had various approaches when it came to dealing with the poor. It was not uncommon for emperors back then to give money to each Roman to celebrate a certain event (usually a military victory). One emperor who instituted new welfare programs was Trajan. While he increased the number of citizens who could receive free grain from the state, he also introduced alimenta, a publicly funded institution that benefited poor children.

羅馬帝王也有很多補助貧困公民的政策。但是讓羅馬帝王回到那種一到慶祝某個重大事件（比如戰爭的凱旋）就隨意分發錢財的時代自然也是不太現實的。因而羅馬帝王圖拉真出臺了一個新的福利政策：他增加了可以免費得到糧食的公民的數量，並且他還創立了一個名叫alimenta的公衆基金機構來資助貧窮的兒童。

翻譯：趙雨晴 來源：前十網