Improbable and grotesque8 as this affiliation9 sounds at first hearing, it is, nevertheless, about as certain as any other fact in anthropological10 science—which isn't, perhaps, saying a great deal. The familiar little brass11 cash, with the square hole for stringing them together on a thread in the centre, well known to the frequenter of minor12 provincial13 museums, are, strange to say, the lineal descendants, in unbroken order, of the bronze axe14 of remote Celestial15 ancestors. From the regular hatchet to the modern coin one can trace a distinct, if somewhat broken, succession, so that it is impossible to say where the one leaves off and the other begins—where the implement merges16 into the medium of exchange, and settles down finally into the root of all evil.
Here is how this curious pedigree first worked itself out. In early times, before coin was invented, barter17 was usually conducted between producer and consumer with metal implements18, as it still is in Central Africa at the present day with Venetian glass beads19 and rolls of red calico. Payments were all made in kind, and bronze was the commonest form of specie. A gentleman desirous of effecting purchases in foreign parts went about the world with a number of bronze axes in his pocket (or its substitute), which he exchanged for other goods with the native traffickers in the country where he did his primitive20 business. At first, the early Chinese in that unsophisticated age were content to use real hatchets22 for this commercial purpose; but, after a time, with the profound mercantile instinct of their race, it occurred to some of them that when a man wanted half a hatchet's worth of goods he might as well pay for them with half a hatchet. Still, as it would be a pity to spoil a good working implement by cutting it in two, the worthy23 Ah Sin ingeniously compromised the matter by making thin hatchets, of the usual size and shape, but far too slender for practical usage. By so doing he invented coin: and, what is more, he invented it far earlier than the rival claimants to that proud distinction, the Lydians, whose electrum staters were first struck in the seventh century, B.C. But, according to Professor Terrien de la Couperie, some of the fancy Chinese hatchets which we still retain date back as far as the year 1000 (a good round number), and are so thin that they could only have been intended to possess exchange value. And when a distinguished24 Sinologist gives us a date for anything Chinese, it behoves the rest of the unlearned world to open its mouth and shut its eyes, and thankfully receive whatever the distinguished Sinologist may send it.
In the seventh century, then, these mercantile axes, made in the strictest sense to sell and not to use, were stamped with an official stamp to mark their amount, and became thereby25 converted into true coins—that was the root of the 'root of all evil.' Thence the declension to the 'cash' is easy; the form grew gradually more and more regular, while the square hole in the centre, once used for the handle, was retained by conservatism and practical sense as a convenient means of stringing them together.
So this was the end of the old bronze hatchet, perhaps the most wonderful civilizing26 agent ever invented by human ingenuity27. Let us hark back now, and from the opposite side see what was its first beginning.
'But why,' you ask, 'the most wonderful civilizing agency? What did the bronze axe ever do for humanity?' Well, nearly everything. I believe I have really not said too much. We are apt to talk big nowadays about the steam-engine, and that marvellous electricity which is always going to do wonders for us all—to-morrow; but I don't know whether either ever produced so great a revolution in human life, or so completely metamorphosed human existence, as that simple and commonplace bronze hatchet.
For, consider that before the days of bronze man knew no weapon or implement of any sort save the stone axe, or tomahawk, and the flint-tipped arrow. Consider, that the highest stage of human culture he had then reached was hardly higher than that of the scalp-hunting Red Indian or the seal-spearing Esquimaux. Consider, that in his Stone Age agriculture and grains were almost unknown—the forest uncleared, the soil untilled, and hunting and fishing the sole or principal human activities. It was the bronze axe that first enabled man to make clearings in the woodland on the large scale, and to sow on those clearings in good big fields the wheat and barley29 which determined30 the first great upward step in the drama of civilization. All these things depend in ultimate analysis upon that pioneer of culture, the bronze hatchet.
And how did the first Watt31 or Edison of metallurgy come to make that earliest bronze implement? Well, it seems probable that between the Stone Age and the Bronze Age there intervened everywhere, or nearly everywhere, a very short and transient age of copper32. And the reason for thus thinking is threefold. In the first place, bronze is an alloy33 of tin and copper: and it seems natural to suppose that men would use the simple metals in isolation34 to begin with, before they discovered that they could harden and temper them by mixing the two together. In the second place, copper occurs in the pure or native state (without the trouble of smelting35) in several countries, and was therefore a very natural metal for early man to cast his inquiring glance upon. And in the third place, weapons of unmixed copper, apparently36 of very antique types, have been found in various parts of the world, both in Asia and America. According to Mr. John Evans, the most learned historian of the Bronze Age, the greatest copper 'find' of the eastern hemisphere was that at Gungeria, in Central India; and the copper implements there found consisted entirely37 of flat celts of a very early and almost primitive pattern.
The copper weapons of America, however, have greater illustrative and ethnological interest, because the noble red man, at the period when Columbus first discovered him, and when he first discovered Columbus, was still in the Stone Age of his very imperfect culture, or, to speak more correctly, of extreme barbarism. The fact is, the Indians of Lake Superior were only just beginning to employ copper, and were on the eve of independently inaugurating a Bronze Age of their own, when the intrusive38 white man came and spoiled the fun by the incontinent introduction of iron, firearms, missionaries39, whisky, and all the other resources of civilization. On the shores of Lake Superior native copper exists in abundance; and the intelligent Red Indian, finding this handsome red stone in the cliffs by his side, was pretty sure to try his hand at chipping a tomahawk out of the rare material. But, as soon as he did so, Mr. Evans suggests, he would find to his surprise that it yielded to his blows; in short, that he had got that singular phenomenon, a malleable40 stone, to deal with. Hammering away at his new invention, he must shortly have hammered it into a shapely axe. The new process took his practical fancy at once: vistas42 of an untold43 wealth of scalps floated gaily44 before his fevered brain; and he proceeded to hammer himself various weapons and implements without delay. Amongst others, he produced for himself very neat spear-heads, with sockets46 adapted for the reception of a shaft47, made by hammering out the base flat, and then turning over the edges so as to enclose the wood between them, like a modern hoe-handle. In Wisconsin alone more than a hundred of such copper axes, spear-heads, and knives have been unearthed48 by antiquaries and duly recorded.
All these weapons, however, are simply hammered, not cast or melted. The Red Indian hadn't yet reached the stage of making a mould when De Champlain and his voyageurs came down upon Canada and interrupted this interesting experiment in industrial development by springing the seventeenth century upon the unsophisticated red man at one fell blow, with all its inherited wealth of European science. Nevertheless, the Indians must have known that fire melted copper; for the heat of the altars was great enough, say Squier and Davis, to fuse the implements and ornaments49 laid upon them in sacrificial rites50; and so the fact of its fusibility could hardly have escaped them. A people who had advanced so far on the road towards the invention of casting could hardly have been prevented from taking the final step, save by the sudden intervention51 of some social cataclysm52 like the European invasion of Eastern America. And how awful a calamity53 that was for the Indians themselves we at this day can hardly even realize.
In some similar way, no doubt, the Asiatic people who first invented bronze must have learned the fact of the fusibility of metals, and have applied54 it in time, at first, perhaps, by accident, to the manufacture of that hard alloy. I say Asiatic, because there seems good reason to believe that Asia was the original home of the nascent55 bronze industry. For a Bronze Age almost necessarily implies a brief preceding age of copper; and there is no proof of pure copper implements ever having been largely used in Europe, while there is ample proof of their having been used to a very considerable extent in Asia. Hence we may reasonably infer that the art of bronze-making was developed in Asia by a copper-using people, and that when metallurgy was first introduced into Europe the method of mixing the copper with tin had already been perfected. The abundance of tin in the south-eastern islands of Asia renders this view probable; while in Europe there are no tin mines worth mentioning, except in the remotest part of a remote outlying island—to wit, in Cornwall.
Be this as it may, the earliest and simplest forms of bronze axe with which we are acquainted are profoundly interesting, as casting a flood of light upon the general process of human evolution all the world over. Every new human invention is always at first directly modelled upon the other similar products which have preceded it. There is no really new thing under the sun. For example, the earliest English railway carriages were built on the model of the old stage-coach, only that three stage-coaches, as it were, were telescoped together, side by side—the very first bore the significant motto, Tria juncta in uno—and it was this preconception of the English coachbuilder that has hampered56 us ever since with our hateful 'compartments,' instead of the commodious57 and comfortable open American saloon carriages. So, too, the earliest firearms were modelled on the stock of the old cross-bow, and the earliest earthenware58 pots and pans were shaped like the still more primitive gourds59 and calabashes. It need not surprise us, therefore, to find that the earliest metal axes of which we have any knowledge were directly moulded on the original shape of the stone tomahawk.
Such a copper hatchet, cast in a mould formed by a polished neolithic60 stone celt, was found in an early Etruscan tomb, and is still preserved in the Museum at Berlin. See how natural this process would be. For, in the first place, the primitive workman, knowing already only one form of axe, the stone tomahawk, would naturally reproduce it in the new material, without thinking what improvements in shape and design the malleability61 and fusibility of the metal would render possible or easy. But, more than that, the idea of coating the polished stone axe with plastic clay, and thereby making a mould for the molten metal, would be so very simple that even the neolithic savage62, already accustomed to the manufacture of coarse pottery63 upon natural shapes, could hardly fail to think of it. As a matter of fact, he did think of it: for celts of bronze or copper, cast in moulds made from stone hatchets, have been found in Cyprus by General di Cesnola, on the site of Troy by Dr. Schliemann, and in many other assorted64 localities by less distinguished but equally trustworthy arch?ologists.
To the neolithic hunter, herdsman, and villager this progress from the stone to the metal axe probably seemed at first a mere41 substitution of an easier for a more difficult material. He little knew whither his discovery tended. It was pure human laziness that urged the change. How nice to save yourself all that long trouble of chipping and polishing, with ceaseless toil65, in favour of a stone which you could melt at one go and pour while hot into a ready-made mould! It must have looked, by comparison, like weapon-making by magic; for properly to cut and polish a stone axe is the work of weeks and weeks of elbow-grease. Yet here, in a moment, a better hatchet could be turned out all finished! But the implied effects lay deeper far than the neolithic hunter could ever have imagined. The bronze axe was the beginning of civilization; it brought the steam-engine, the telephone, woman's rights, and the county councillor directly in its train. With the eye of faith, had he only possessed66 that useful optical organ, the Stone Age artizan might doubtless have beheld67 Pears' soap and the deceased wife's sister looming68 dimly in the remote future. Till that moment human life had been almost stationary69: thenceforth, it proceeded by leaps and bounds, like a kangaroo society, on its upward path towards triumphant70 democracy and the penny post. The nineteenth century and all its wiles71 hung by a thread upon the success of his melting pot.
Indeed, the whole history of human civilization has been one of a constantly accelerated progress. The Older Stone Age, when men knew only how to chip flint implements, but hadn't yet invented the art of grinding and polishing them, was one of immense and incalculable duration, to be reckoned perhaps by tens of thousands of years—some bold chronologists would even suggest by hundreds of thousands. Improvement there was, to be sure, during all that long epoch72 of slow development; but it was improvement at a snail's pace. The very rude chipped axes of the naked drift age give way after thousands and thousands of years to the shapelier chipped lances, javelins73, and arrowheads of the skin-clad cavemen. M. Gabriel de Mortillet, indeed, most indefatigable74 of theorists, has even pointed75 out four stages of culture, marked by four different types of weapons, into which he subdivides76 the Older Stone Age. Yet vast epochs elapsed before some prehistoric Stephenson or dusky Morse first, half by accident, smote77 out the idea of grinding his tomahawk smooth to a sharp cutting edge, instead of merely chipping it sharp, and so initiated78 the Neolithic Period. This Neolithic Period itself, again, was immensely long as compared with the Bronze Age which followed, though short by comparison with the Pal28?olithic epoch which preceded it. Then the Bronze Age saw enormous changes come faster and faster, till the use of iron still further accelerated the rate of progress. For each new improvement becomes, in turn, the parent of yet newer triumphs, so that at last, as in the present day, a single century sees vaster changes in the world of man than whole ages before it have done in far longer intervals79.
But the invention of bronze, or, in other words, the introduction of hard metal, was really perhaps the very greatest epoch of all, the most distinct turning-point in the whole history of humanity. True, some beginnings of civilisation80 were already found in the Newer Stone Age. Man did not then live by slaughter81 alone. Hand-made pottery and rude tissues of flax are found in neolithic lake dwellings82 in Switzerland. Agriculture was already practised in a feeble way on small open clearings, cautiously cleaved83 with fire or hewn with the tomahawk in the native forests. The cow, the sheep, and the goat were more or less domesticated85, though the horse was yet riderless; and the pastoral had therefore, to some extent, superseded86 the pure hunting stage. But what inroad could the stone hatchet make unaided upon the virgin87 forests of those remote days? The neolithic clearing must have been a mere stray oasis88 in a desert of woodland, like the villages of the New Guinea savages89 at the present day, lying few and far between among vast stretches of prim21?val forest.
With the advent90 of bronze, everything was different; and the difference showed itself with extraordinary rapidity. One may compare the revolution effected by bronze in the early world, indeed, with the revolution effected by railways in our own time; only the neolithic world had been so very simple a one that the change was perhaps even more marvellous in its suddenness and its comprehensiveness. Metal itself implied metal-working; and metal-working brought about, not only the arts of smelting and casting, but also endless incidental arts of design and decoration. The bronze hatchets, for example, to take our typical implement, begin by being mere copies of the stone originals; but, as time goes on, they acquire rapidly innumerable improvements. First, metal is economized91 in the upper part which fits into the handle, while the lower or cutting edge is widened out sideways, so as to form an elegant and gracefully92 curved outline for the whole implement. Next come the flanged93 axes, with projecting ledges94 on either side; and then the palstaves with loops and ribs95, each marking some new improvement in the character of the weapon, which the inventor would no doubt have patented but for the unfortunate fact that patents were as yet wholly unknown to Bronze Age humanity. Later still come the socketed96 hatchets of many patterns, with endless ingenious little devices for securing some small advantage to the special manufacturer. I can fancy the Bronze Age smith showing them off with pride to his interested customers: 'These are our own patterns—the newest thing out in bronze axes; observe the advantage you gain from the ribs and pellets, and the peculiar97 character which the octagonal socket45 gives to the hafting!' Indeed, in this single department of bronze celts alone, Mr. Evans in his great monumental work figures over a hundred and eighty distinct specimens98 (out of thousands known), each one presenting some well-marked advance in type upon its predecessor99. There is almost a Yankee ingenuity of design in many of the dodges100 thus registered for our inspection101.
Many of the celts, I may add, are most beautifully decorated with geometrical patterns, some of which belong to a very high order of ornamental102 art. This is still more the case with the daggers103, swords, and defensive104 armour105, often intended for the use of great chieftains, and executed with an amount of taste and feeling long since dead among the degenerate106 workmen of our iron age.
But the indirect effects of the introduction of metal working were far more interesting and important in their way than the direct effects. With bronze began the great age of agriculture, of commerce, and of navigation.
Of agriculture first, because the bronze hatchet enabled men to make such openings in the forest as neolithic man had never ever dreamed of. For the first time in the history of our race, whole tracts107 of country at once began to be cleared and cultivated. Stone Age tillage was the tillage of tiny plots in the forest's depths; Bronze Age tillage was the tillage of fields and wide open spaces in the champaign country. The Stone Age knew no specials implements of agriculture as such; its tomahawk was indiscriminately applied to all purposes alike of war or gardening. You scalped your enemy with it, or you cut up your dinner, or you dug your field, or you planted your seed-corn, according as taste or circumstances directed. But while the Bronze Age men had axes to hew84 down the wood, they had also sickles108 and reaping-hooks to cut their crops, and a sort of hoe or scraper to till the soil with. Specialisation reached a very high pitch. All the remains109 of the Bronze Age show us an agricultural people by no means idyllic110 in their habits to be sure, and not all disposed to join the Peace Preservation111 Society, but cultivating large stretches of wheat or barley, grinding their meal in regular mills, and possessed of implements of considerable diversity, some of which I shall proceed to notice later.
The evidences of commerce and of navigation are equally obvious. Bronze itself consists of tin and copper: and there are only two parts of the world from which tin in any large quantities can be procured—namely, Cornwall and the Malay Archipelago. The very existence of bronze, therefore, necessarily implies the existence of a sea-going trade in tin, for which some corresponding benefits must of course have been offered by the early purchaser. As a matter of fact, we know with some probability that it was Cornish tin which first tempted112 the Phoenicians out of the inland sea, past the Pillars of Hercules, to brave the terrors of the open Atlantic. Long before the days of such advanced navigation, however, the Cornish tin was transported by land across the whole breadth of Southern Britain and shipped for the Continent from the Isle113 of Thanet. A very old trackway runs along the crest114 of the Downs from the West Country to Kent, known now as the Pilgrim's Way, because it was followed in far later times by medi?val wayfarers115 from Somerset and Dorset to the shrine116 of St. Thomas à Becket at Canterbury. But Mr. Charles Elton has shown conclusively117 that the Pilgrim's Way is many centuries more ancient than the martyr118 of King Henry's epoch, and that it was used in the Bronze Age for the transport of tin from the mines in Cornwall to the port of Sandwich. To this day antique ingots of the valuable metal are often dug up in hoards119 or finds along the line of the ancient track. They were evidently buried there in fear and trembling, long ages since, in what Indian voyageurs still call a cache, by caravans120 hurriedly surprised by the enemy; and owing to the unfortunate accident of the possessors all getting killed off in the ensuing fray121, the ingots have been left undisturbed for centuries for the benefit of antiquaries at the present time. 'It's an ill wind that blows nobody good.' Probably the inhabitants of Herculaneum and Pompeii had very little notion what valuable relics122 their bodies and houses would prove in the end for curious posterity123.
The converse124 evidence of a return trade in other goods is no less striking. Not only are articles in amber125 found in Bronze Age tombs all over Europe (though the gum itself belongs to the Baltic and the North Sea alone), but also gold objects of southern workmanship occur in British barrows; while sometimes even ivory from Africa is noticed in the inlaid handles of some Welsh or Brigantian chieftain's sword. Glass beads were likewise imported into Britain, as were also ornaments of Egyptian porcelain126. In fact, the Bronze Age clearly marks for us the period when trade routes extended in every direction from the Mediterranean127, north and south, and when the world began to be commercially solidified128 by a primitive theory of foreign exchange. It is a little odd that the basis of all this traffic was tin, and that we still use the name of that same metal as a brief equivalent for coin in general: but persons of serious economical or philological129 intelligence are particularly requested not to enter into grave correspondence with the author of this paper on any possible levity130 which they may detect lurking131 in this innocent remark.
Some small idea of the rapid advance in civilization which marked the Bronze Age may perhaps be formed from a brief enumeration132 of the principal classes of remains which have come down to us intact from that first epoch of metal. Besides all the various celts, hatchets, and adzes, whose name is legion, and whose patterns are manifold, many other tools or implements occur abundantly in the barrows or caches. Chisels133, either plain, tanged, with lugs134, or socketed; gouges135, hammers, anvils136, and tongs137; punches, awls, drills, and prickers; tweezers138, needles, fish-hooks, and weights; all these are found by dozens in endless variety of design. Knives are common, and the vanity of Bronze Age man made him even put up without a murmur139 with the pangs140 of shaving with a bronze razor. Daggers and rapiers naturally abound141, many of them of rare and beautiful workmanship. Halberds turn up less frequently, but swords are abundant, and are sometimes tastefully decorated with gold or ivory. Even the scabbards sometimes survive, while the shields, adorned142 with concentric rings or with knobs and bosses, would put to shame the rank and file of cheap modern metal work. Nay143, the very trumpets144 which sounded the onset145 often lie buried by the warrior's side, and the bells which adorned his horse's neck bring back to us vividly146 the Homeric pictures of Bronze Age warfare147.
The private life of Bronze Age man and his correlative wife is illustrated148 for us by another great group of more strictly149 personal relics. There are pins simple and pins of the infantile safety-pin order: there are brooches which might be worn by modern ladies, and ear-rings so huge that even modern ladies would in all probability object to wearing them, unless, indeed, a princess or an actress made them the fashion. The torques, or necklets, are among the best known male decorations, and are still famous in Ireland, where Malachi (whoever he may have been) wore the collar of gold which he tore from the proud invader150. Many of the bracelets151 are extremely beautiful; but, strange to say, as if on purpose to spite the common prejudice about the degeneracy of modern man, they are all so small in girth as to betoken152 a race with arms and legs hardly any bigger than the Finns or Laplanders. Of the clasps, buttons, and buckles153 I will say nothing here. I have enumerated154 enough to suggest to even the most casual observer the vastness of the revolution which the Bronze Age wrought155 in the mode of life and the civilisation of ancient man.
Bronze found our early ancestor, in fact, a half-developed savage: it left him a semi-civilized Homeric Greek. It came in upon a world of skin-clad hunters and fishers: it went out upon a world of Phoenician navigators, Egyptian architects, Ach?an poets, and Roman soldiers. And all this wide difference was wrought in a period of some eight or ten centuries at the outside, almost entirely by the advent of the simple bronze axe.
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fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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proprieties
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| n.礼仪，礼节；礼貌( propriety的名词复数 )；规矩；正当；合适 | |
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prehistoric
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| adj.（有记载的）历史以前的，史前的，古老的 | |
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implement
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| n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行 | |
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hatchet
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| n.短柄小斧；v.扼杀 | |
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grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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affiliation
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| n.联系，联合 | |
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anthropological
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| adj.人类学的 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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merges
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| （使）混合( merge的第三人称单数 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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barter
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| n.物物交换，以货易货，实物交易 | |
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implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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prim
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| adj.拘泥形式的，一本正经的；n.循规蹈矩，整洁；adv.循规蹈矩地，整洁地 | |
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hatchets
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| n.短柄小斧( hatchet的名词复数 )；恶毒攻击；诽谤；休战 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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distinguished
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thereby
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civilizing
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| v.使文明，使开化( civilize的现在分词 ) | |
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ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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pal
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| n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友 | |
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barley
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| n.大麦，大麦粒 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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watt
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| n.瓦，瓦特 | |
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copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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alloy
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| n.合金，(金属的)成色 | |
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isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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smelting
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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38
intrusive
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| adj.打搅的；侵扰的 | |
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39
missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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40
malleable
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| adj.(金属)可锻的;有延展性的；(性格)可训练的 | |
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41
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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42
vistas
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| 长条形景色( vista的名词复数 )； 回顾； 展望； （未来可能发生的）一系列情景 | |
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43
untold
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| adj.数不清的，无数的 | |
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44
gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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45
socket
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| n.窝，穴，孔，插座，插口 | |
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46
sockets
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| n.套接字，使应用程序能够读写与收发通讯协定(protocol)与资料的程序( Socket的名词复数 )；孔( socket的名词复数 )；（电器上的）插口；托座；凹穴 | |
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47
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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48
unearthed
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| 出土的（考古） | |
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49
ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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50
rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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51
intervention
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| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
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52
cataclysm
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| n.洪水，剧变，大灾难 | |
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53
calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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54
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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55
nascent
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| adj.初生的，发生中的 | |
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56
hampered
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| 妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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57
commodious
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| adj.宽敞的；使用方便的 | |
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58
earthenware
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| n.土器，陶器 | |
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59
gourds
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| n.葫芦( gourd的名词复数 ) | |
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60
neolithic
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| adj.新石器时代的 | |
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61
malleability
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| n.可锻性，可塑性，延展性 | |
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62
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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63
pottery
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| n.陶器，陶器场 | |
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64
assorted
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| adj.各种各样的，各色俱备的 | |
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65
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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66
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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67
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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68
looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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69
stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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70
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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71
wiles
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| n.（旨在欺骗或吸引人的）诡计，花招；欺骗，欺诈( wile的名词复数 ) | |
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72
epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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73
javelins
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| n.标枪( javelin的名词复数 ) | |
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74
indefatigable
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| adj.不知疲倦的，不屈不挠的 | |
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75
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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76
subdivides
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| 再分，细分( subdivide的第三人称单数 ) | |
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77
smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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78
initiated
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| n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入 | |
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79
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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80
civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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81
slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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82
dwellings
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| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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83
cleaved
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| v.劈开，剁开，割开( cleave的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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84
hew
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| v.砍；伐；削 | |
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85
domesticated
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| adj.喜欢家庭生活的；（指动物）被驯养了的v.驯化( domesticate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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86
superseded
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| [医]被代替的，废弃的 | |
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87
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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88
oasis
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| n.（沙漠中的）绿洲，宜人的地方 | |
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89
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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90
advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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91
economized
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| v.节省，减少开支( economize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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92
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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93
flanged
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| 带凸缘的，用法兰连接的，折边的 | |
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94
ledges
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| n.（墙壁，悬崖等）突出的狭长部分( ledge的名词复数 )；（平窄的）壁架；横档；（尤指）窗台 | |
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95
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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96
socketed
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| v.把…装入托座（或插座），给…装上托座（或插座）( socket的过去分词 )；[高尔夫球]用棒头承口部位击（球） | |
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97
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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98
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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99
predecessor
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| n.前辈，前任 | |
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100
dodges
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| n.闪躲( dodge的名词复数 )；躲避；伎俩；妙计v.闪躲( dodge的第三人称单数 )；回避 | |
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101
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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102
ornamental
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| adj.装饰的；作装饰用的；n.装饰品；观赏植物 | |
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103
daggers
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| 匕首，短剑( dagger的名词复数 ) | |
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104
defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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105
armour
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| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
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106
degenerate
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| v.退步，堕落；adj.退步的，堕落的；n.堕落者 | |
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107
tracts
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| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
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108
sickles
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| n.镰刀( sickle的名词复数 ) | |
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109
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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110
idyllic
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| adj.质朴宜人的，田园风光的 | |
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111
preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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112
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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113
isle
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| n.小岛，岛 | |
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114
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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115
wayfarers
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| n.旅人，（尤指）徒步旅行者( wayfarer的名词复数 ) | |
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116
shrine
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| n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣 | |
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117
conclusively
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| adv.令人信服地，确凿地 | |
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118
martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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119
hoards
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| n.（钱财、食物或其他珍贵物品的）储藏，积存( hoard的名词复数 )v.积蓄并储藏（某物）( hoard的第三人称单数 ) | |
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120
caravans
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| （可供居住的）拖车（通常由机动车拖行）( caravan的名词复数 )； 篷车； （穿过沙漠地带的）旅行队（如商队） | |
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121
fray
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| v.争吵；打斗；磨损，磨破；n.吵架；打斗 | |
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122
relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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123
posterity
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| n.后裔，子孙，后代 | |
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124
converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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125
amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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126
porcelain
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| n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的 | |
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127
Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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128
solidified
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| （使）成为固体，（使）变硬，（使）变得坚固( solidify的过去式和过去分词 )； 使团结一致； 充实，巩固； 具体化 | |
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129
philological
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| adj.语言学的，文献学的 | |
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130
levity
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| n.轻率，轻浮，不稳定，多变 | |
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131
lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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132
enumeration
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| n.计数，列举；细目；详表；点查 | |
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133
chisels
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| n.凿子，錾子( chisel的名词复数 )；口凿 | |
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134
lugs
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| 钎柄 | |
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135
gouges
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| n.凿( gouge的名词复数 )；乱要价；（在…中）抠出…；挖出…v.凿( gouge的第三人称单数 )；乱要价；（在…中）抠出…；挖出… | |
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136
anvils
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| n.（铁）砧( anvil的名词复数 )；砧骨 | |
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137
tongs
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| n.钳；夹子 | |
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138
tweezers
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| n.镊子 | |
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139
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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140
pangs
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| 突然的剧痛( pang的名词复数 )； 悲痛 | |
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141
abound
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| vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于 | |
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142
adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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143
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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144
trumpets
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| 喇叭( trumpet的名词复数 )； 小号； 喇叭形物； （尤指）绽开的水仙花 | |
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145
onset
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| n.进攻，袭击，开始，突然开始 | |
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146
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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147
warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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148
illustrated
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| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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149
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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150
invader
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| n.侵略者，侵犯者，入侵者 | |
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151
bracelets
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| n.手镯，臂镯( bracelet的名词复数 ) | |
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152
betoken
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| v.预示 | |
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153
buckles
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| 搭扣，扣环( buckle的名词复数 ) | |
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154
enumerated
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| v.列举，枚举，数( enumerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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155
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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