B.C

One, set forth by Aristotle in the fourth century B.C., sees humans as naturally imitative—as taking pleasure in imitating persons, things, and actions and in seeing such imitations.(亚里士多德在公元前4世纪提出的一个理论认为，人是天生的模仿者——即从模仿他人、事物和行为和观看这些模仿中获得乐趣。)

He believes that as far back as 30,000 B.C., hunters may have used a system of notation, engraved on bone and stone, to mark phases of the Moon.(他认为，远在公元前30,000年以前，猎人可能会用一套刻在骨头和石头上的符号系统来标记月相。)

The earliest ceramics were fired to earthenware temperatures, but as early as the fifteenth century B.C., high-temperature stonewares were being made with glazed surfaces.(最早的陶瓷制品是在制陶的温度下烧制的，但是早在公元前15世纪，（人们）已经用高温烧制表面上釉的炻器。)

The Sahara is a highly diverse, albeit dry, region that has undergone major climatic changes since 10,000 B.C.(撒哈拉沙漠虽然干燥，但却是一个高度多样化的地区，自公元前10000年以来经历了重大的气候变化。)

For example, Aristotle once had a research library in the third century B.C..(例如，亚里斯多德在公元前三世纪曾有一个研究型图书馆。)

My vote for the most important cities in the world in the period leading up to 2000 B.C. would be Ur, Iraq.(我认为在公元前2000年之前的世界上最重要的城市是伊拉克的乌尔。)

The device appears to have evolved no later than the fifth century B.C., perhaps independently in different regions of the Middle and the Far East.(这种设备在公元前15世纪就可能独立地出现在中东和远东的一些地区了。)

Perhaps the most striking sign of mobility is the fact that by the third millennium B.C., most pastoralists in this huge region spoke related languages ancestral to the modern Indo-European languages.(可能在人口流动性方面最具说服力的标志是，公元前3000年，在这片广袤的土地上大部分牧民讲的相关语言，现代印欧语系就从中发展而来。)

Rock paintings in the Sahara indicate that horses and chariots were used to traverse the desert and that by 300-200 B.C., there were trade routes across the Sahara.(撒哈拉地区的岩画显示，人们曾利用马匹和马车来横穿沙漠；并且，在公元前300年至公元前200年间，有一些可以穿越撒哈拉地区的贸易路线。)

By the late fourth millennium B.C., there is already evidence of large culture zones reaching from Eastern Europe to the western borders of Mongolia.(到公元前4000年末已有证据表明，存在着从东欧延伸到蒙古西边境的大文化圈。)