【BBC英国史】Beginnings英国起源(8)

英语自学网

Beginnings 起源（3100 B.C.——1000 A.D.）
Many of those towers still survive, though none are as daunting as the great stone stockade on Arran, off Ireland's west coast. And they didn't just spring up around the edges of the British islands. All over the mainland, too. The great hill forts of the Iron Age remain visible in terraced contours at places like Danebury and Maiden Castle. Lofty seats of power for the tribal chiefs, they were defended by rings of earthworks, timber palisades and ramparts. Behind those daunting walls, this was not a world in panicky retreat. The Iron Age Britain into which the Romans eventually crashed with such alarming force was a dynamic, expanding society. From their workshops came the spectacular metalwork with which the elite decorated their bodies. Armlets, pins and brooches and ornamental shields like this, the so-called Battersea Shield. Or the astonishing stylised bronze horses, endearingly melancholy in expression, like so many Eeyores resigned to a bad day in battle.很多石塔虽得以幸存，却无一能如坐落在爱尔兰西海岸阿蓝岛上的大围栏般巍然屹立，石塔不仅在不列颠诸岛的边缘涌现，同样分布在本土。铁器时代的山地堡垒至今仍有部分，幸存于高地间，诸如Danebury与处女堡。部落首领至高无上的宝座，由环状的土方工程与木质的栅栏壁垒层层守卫着，固若金汤的城池，让城内的人得以安居乐业。铁器时代不列颠在遭受罗马帝国铁蹄荼毒之前，曾经活力迸发扩张迅速。工场生产的精美金属制品,成了精英们最好的装饰。无论护臂、插脚、护胸，还是这装饰精美的巴特西盾牌。还有这精美绝伦的青铜马，表达着令人爱怜的愁思，就像一群战场受挫的小驴屹耳。