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An Italian museum to the south of Rome is about to open a new exhibit.
義大利羅馬南方的一座博物館即將有一個新展覽展出。

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As Ben Wedeman shows us, its sheds some light on what life was like 600,000 years ago.
誠如班．偉德曼為我們帶來的報導，這個新展覽讓人們一窺六十萬年前生活的部份樣貌。

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Slowly, painstakingly paleontologist Anna Rosa removes the wrapping from an old tusk and brushes off the dust.
古生物學家安娜．羅沙緩慢且小心翼翼地移除一根古老長獠牙上的包材，並撣去上頭的塵土。

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"It's a fragment of elephantos antiquus," she says.
「這是古象（註：elephantos antiquus 是拉丁文，指 antique elephants）的碎片」，她說。

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And exactly how antiquus is it?
它究竟有多古老呢？

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"It's from about 600,000 years ago," she responds.
「這是大約六十萬年前的東西」，她回答道。

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Back then, Italy was a different place --
六十萬年前，義大利是個很不一樣的地方——

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hot and dry most of the year, home to not just elephants, but also rhinos, water buffalo, hippos and hyenas.
幾乎終年炎熱乾燥，這裡不止住著大象，還有犀牛、水牛、河馬和鬣狗。

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And it was also the stomping grounds for Homo erectus,
這裡同時也是猿人的活動地點，

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who came before the Neanderthals and well before us, Homo sapiens.
他們比尼安德塔人和智人還早來到這個地方。

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We were given a sneak preview of the soon-to-be-open new wing of the National Museum of Paleontology in Isernia, southeast of Rome.
我們獲准事先窺探位於羅馬東南部伊塞爾尼亞市的古生物國家博物館即將開幕的新館區。

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The workers were rushing to put the finishing touches on the displays.
工作人員趕著在展示品上進行最後的修飾。

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It's in this area that some of the earliest traces of man in Europe have been found.
歐洲人類最早的一些遺跡就是在這個區域內被人發現。 

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Professor Antonella Minelli let me stick my grubby hands inside the display cases
安東妮拉．米奈利教授容許我把我骯髒的手伸進展示櫃，

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to get a feel for what 700,000 years ago were the height of high tech --
去感受一下七十萬年前高科技的極致——

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purpose-designed rocks for killing prey, smashing their bones and stripping their skin.
針對殺死獵物、擊碎骨頭、並剝除毛皮等目的而設計的石塊。

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Where I see a sharp rock, professor Minelli sees the brilliance of early man.
在我眼中看來是顆尖銳的石頭，米奈利教授卻在其中看到早期人類的智慧。

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"It is par excellence the tool that man was able to produce," she tells me.
「這幾乎是人類所能製造出的最了不起的工具了。」她這麼跟我說：

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"It shows their great cognitive, mental and technical abilities."
「它展現了極佳的認知、心智及技術能力。」

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What attracted man and the other animals here was an ancient river bank discovered in 1978, when a road was being built.
吸引人類及其他動物的是一九七八年造路時發現的一處古老河岸，

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It's littered with prehistoric bones.
到處散佈著史前的骸骨。

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"And on the banks of this river," says the professor, "man preyed on the animals, perhaps dragging the biggest pieces over here and eating them on the spot."
教授說：「人類在河的兩岸捕獵動物，或許把大的屍塊拖到這邊來當場吃掉。」

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It was no doubt very messy, the stench of rotting flesh overwhelming,
場面肯定一片狼籍，腐肉的臭味瀰漫令人難以忍受，

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but it allowed our great-great-great-great and so on grandparents to survive.
但卻讓我們的好幾代前的祖先能夠活下來。

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This is the prehistoric equivalent of our supermarkets. There was lots of food to be had,
這裡相當於史前時代的超市。這兒以前有很多食物讓人吃，

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but our ancient ancestors, known in this case as Homo erectus, had to be very quick about it,
但我們的祖先，以這個例子來說就是直立猿人，必須動作迅速，

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because the problem was there were other animals looking for food.
因為有其他動物也在覓食，

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And there was always the chance that Homo erectus could be the main course.
而直立猿人永遠都有可能變成盤中飧。

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Life was short and brutal, ruled, as paleontologists put it, by hunger and who could strike the hardest blow.
誠如古生物學家所言，生命短暫而且殘酷，全由飢餓擺佈，強者稱王。

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Maybe we have come a long way after all.
也許一路走來我們真的進化很多了。