我们能够读到5000年前发生在近东地区的事情，那里的人类最早学会了书写。
We can read of things that happened 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where people first learned to write.
但是，世界上有些地方，即使到了现在，那里的人们仍然不会书写。
But there are some parts of the world where even now people cannot write.
他们保存历史的唯一方式，是以史诗的形式将其讲述出来——那是一代又一代说故事的人相传至今的传说。
The only way that they can preserve their history is to recount it as sagas — legends handed down from one generation of storytellers to another.
这些传说是有用的，因为它们能告诉我们一些关于远古人类迁徙的信息——那些人虽生活在很久以前，却没有一个人能用文字记录下他们的所作所为。
These legends are useful because they can tell us something about migrations of people who lived long ago, but none could write down what they did.
人类学家曾对此感到困惑：如今居住在太平洋岛屿上的波利尼西亚人，其远古祖先究竟来自何方？
Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian peoples now living in the Pacific Islands came from.
这个民族的史诗传说说明，其中一部分人大约在2000年前来自印度尼西亚。
The sagas of these people explain that some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago.
但最早与我们相似的人类生活在太久远以前，以至于即便他们曾有过史诗传说，如今也已被遗忘了。
But the first people who were like ourselves lived so long ago that even their sagas, if they had any, are forgotten.
因此，考古学家既没有历史文献，也没有传说可以帮助他们弄清楚最早的"现代人"来自何处。
So archaeologists have neither history nor legends to help them to find out where the first 'modern men' came from.
然而幸运的是，古代人类用石头制作工具，尤其是燧石，因为燧石比其他种类的石头更容易塑形。
Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especially flint, because this is easier to shape than other kinds.
他们或许也曾使用过木头和兽皮，但这些东西都已经腐烂殆尽了。
They may also have used wood and skins, but these have rotted away.
石头不会腐烂，因此远古的工具得以留存下来——即便制作这些工具的人的骸骨也已消失得无影无踪。
Stone does not decay, and so the tools of long ago have remained when even the bones of the men who made them have disappeared without trace.