原文:http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzU1MDQwNTgzMg==&mid=2247491062&idx=1&sn=8ddc8c90fc0c0a598aa3f66cc58d1750&chksm=fba04e51ccd7c74704d02c949d429942b649b9b4e37f582758363677ce7359ce1eda40a971ed#rd
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感谢思维导图作者
Step by step, 爱翻译爱研究的理工男,经济学人铁粉,二笔二口冲刺者
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How illuminating
发人深省
英文部分选自经济学人20200711期科技版块
Archaeology
考古学
How illuminating
发人深省
Measuring luminescence helps to date a remarkable new discovery at Stonehenge
测光技术帮助确认巨石阵全新发现的年代
注:在巨石阵附近发现的环形坑群,可能使它成为欧洲最大的史前遗址
https://m.sohu.com/a/404117810_120368922/?_trans_=000014_bdss_dkgyxqsP3p:CP=&pvid=000115_3w_a&from=singlemessage&isappinstalled=0
High-tech archaeology
高科技考古
For more than 4,000 years Stonehenge has stood on Salisbury Plain in southern Britain. The landscape surrounding the Neolithic monument contains many secrets, with features dating back to much earlier times. Having surveyed more than 18 square kilometres in the vicinity, archaeologists continue to make surprising discoveries. The latest, a series of deep pits forming a vast circle more than two kilometres in diameter, shows how technology makes it possible to peer even further back into time.
英国南部索尔兹伯里平原上的巨石阵已经岿然屹立了四千多年。新石器时代纪念碑附近的地域也隐藏着众多奥秘,它们某些特征指向更早的时代。对巨石阵附近18平方公里区域进行研究后,考古学家们不断有惊人发现。考古学家发现,一组深坑形成环形坑群,这些深坑直径超过两公里。这表明,利用科技,可以揭示远古奥秘。
Along with their shovels, trowels and brushes, archaeologists have put together a toolbox of new technologies. Using magnetometers, which can detect how different materials in the ground cause slight changes in Earth’s magnetic field, they found a series of anomalies forming circular disturbances in the ground on a broad arch around Durrington Walls, the remains of another large henge three kilometres north-east of Stonehenge. These were thought to be old filled-in ponds.
除了铁铲、泥刀和刷子,考古学家们还会使用一系列新技术。如磁力计,可以探测不同地下物质对地磁场的轻微影响。在巨石阵东北方向三公里处,有另一处名为杜灵顿垣墙的巨石遗迹,在环绕杜灵顿墙的拱形地面上,考古学家发现了一系列造成了圆形扰动的异常现象。这些圆形区域被认为是已经填平的旧水池。
But ground-penetrating radar, another archaeological tool, raised questions about that notion. This technique, which reflects radio waves off underground structures, showed that far from being shallow, as ponds would have been, the anomalous features had deep vertical sides. They were some ten metres across and five metres or more deep. Up to 20 shafts were identified, but there may have been 30 or more as some of the land is now covered by buildings and roads. The archaeologists thought it was time to take a closer look with more high-tech tools.
但是,另一考古工具探地雷达的使用让人们对上述提法产生了质疑。探地雷达法通过无线电波反射来确定地下构造,探测结果表明,这些原以为是旧水池的坑比普通水池深,不规则的坑壁垂直深度很深。它们的直径约10米,深度5米以上。目前已经探测到20个,但实际可能有多达30多个,因为一些土地现在已经是高楼林立、道路纵横了。考古学家认为,是时候用更先进的高科技工具来一探究竟了。
Vince Gaffney of the University of Bradford and a team of researchers from Britain, Austria, Sweden and Norway, drilled into three of the sites to extract core samples. Fragments of shell and bone were found. As these fragments are organic materials containing carbon, they could be subjected to radiocarbon dating. This measures the presence of carbon-14, a mildly radioactive isotope created naturally in the atmosphere by cosmic rays. As this element decays, older samples have less carbon-14 in them than modern ones, and because the rate of radioactive decay is predictable, a date for the sample can be calculated.
布拉德福德大学的文斯·加夫尼(Vince Gaffney)和来自英国、奥地利、瑞典和挪威的研究人员小组一起,在三个深坑处打孔获取核心样本,在样本中他们发现了贝壳和残骨。这些残片是含有碳元素的有机物,所以研究人员可以采用放射性碳年代测定法。该方法可以检测碳14,碳14是一种由宇宙射线在大气中自然产生的轻度放射性同位素。它会随时间衰减,年代越久远的样本碳14含量越低,且放射衰减率是可预测的,所以研究人员可以据此推算出样本的产生时间。
The dates, though, varied widely; up to 6000bc for some of the shells and around 1300bc for some bones. Moreover, if a pit had been gradually filled in over the years, older material would have appeared at the bottom and younger material near the top. But some of the dates were inverted, showing older material near the top.
然而检测显示,样本产生年代时间跨度很大:有些贝壳产生于公元前6000年,另一些骨头则产生于公元前1300年。另外,如果是随着时间推移,这些深坑逐渐被填满,那么越久远的物质应该在底部,而时期较短的物质则在上面。。但是一些样本探测结果却相反,年代久远的物质反而出现在靠近坑顶的位置。
To work out what might have gone on, the archaeologists reached for one of their newest tools: optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). This measures when fragments of rocks made of quartz or feldspar, two of the world’s most common groups of minerals, were last exposed to sunlight.
为了探明原因,考古学家们采取另一种新技术:即“光释光法”(OSL)。该技术可以测量岩石碎片中石英或长石(世界上最常见的两种矿物)最后暴露在太阳下的时间。
The OSL process can be likened to measuring the power in a rechargeable battery, explains Tim Kinnaird, who tested the samples from the shafts at his lab at the University of St Andrews. When quartz and feldspar are removed from sunlight and buried, electrons start to accumulate in defects in their crystal structures from exposure, in the ground, to low levels of environmental radiation. When the minerals are re-exposed to the outside world, the electrons are stimulated with enough energy to escape their traps and they go on to release photons of light. As the intensity of this luminescence is directly proportional to the amount of environmental radiation absorbed by the minerals, this can be used to work out when they were last exposed to sunlight.
圣安德鲁斯大学的提姆·金纳德(Tim Kinnaird)在他实验室中测试了深坑样品,他解释说,光释光法的测量过程类似于测量可充电电池的电量。当石英和长石被避光掩埋后,电子会在其晶体结构的缺陷(缺陷是因为先前暴露在阳光中而形成的)中积聚,从而对周围环境形成低能级的辐射。当矿物重见天日时,电子被激活并积聚足够能量挣脱束缚,持续释放光子。由于矿物的发光强度与吸收的环境辐射量成正比,据此可以计算出矿物样品最后一次暴露在阳光下的时间。
As they report in Internet Archaeology, the OSL analysis allowed the researchers to put the various radiocarbon dates and the different layers in their core samples into some context. The shells were considered outliers, as they probably contained material from earlier times. The inverted dates seemed to be caused by later earthworks, which might have exposed minerals to light and reset their timeclocks. One pit appears to have been recut in the Bronze Age. But there was enough of a reliable sample to date the pits to around 2500bc, which means they would have been dug by the same people who built Stonehenge.
他们发布在《互联网考古》上的报告显示,光释光法让研究人员将岩心样本中不同测年数据和不同岩层联系起来。贝壳类可能含有早期物质,因此属于外露层。形成时间与深浅位置不相符则是因为后期的土木工程,让矿物质重新暴露在光线下,从而重置了它们的末次曝光的时间。其中一个深坑似乎在青铜器时代被再次挖掘。但大量可靠样本显示,这些深坑可以追溯至公元前2500年,也就是说,它们很有可能都是由巨石阵建造者挖掘的。
What purpose the pits served remains speculation. They would have required a massive effort to build, with tools made from stone, wood and bone. They may have been boundary markers, possibly containing large totem-like poles. Henges have cosmological significance and some think Stonehenge was a site for the dead while Durrington Walls, which had wooden structures, was a site for the living. The archaeologists hope to open up trenches throughout the pits to discover more.
但这些深坑的用途依然是个谜。制造深坑是一项十分巨大的工程,需要借助由石头、木头以及骨头制作的工具来完成。它们也许是边界线标记,可能还包含图腾般的大型柱体。圆形石结构具有宇宙学意义,有人认为巨石阵是逝者的安息之地,而含木质结构的杜灵顿墙则是为生者而建。考古学家希望通过挖掘深坑四周的壕沟,来寻求更多的发现。
远古的橄榄树
Elsewhere, OSL is proving successful in some surprising areas. Eren Sahiner of Ankara University in Turkey used the technique to date Ata Agac (Grand Tree), an ancient olive tree in western Turkey. The age of a tree can normally be determined by counting its growth rings, but the centres of ancient trees have often rotted away, making estimates difficult. Dr Sahiner carefully dug six holes to collect mineral samples from around the tree’s roots. His analysis, published in Journal of Quaternary Science, showed that quartz and feldspar in the soil were last exposed to sunlight up to around 3,000 years ago. That, reckons Dr Sahiner, means Ata Agac was probably planted during the Iron Age by early Greeks who valued olive oil imported from other regions and were keen to plant trees to produce their own. Which just goes to show how illuminating a photon can be.
此外,光释光法在一些意想不到的领域获得了成功。土耳其安卡拉大学的艾伦·沙希内尔(Eren Sahiner)博士用这项技术来测定土耳其西部一棵名为Ata Agac(宏伟的树木)的古代橄榄树的年代。一般通过年轮就能计算一棵树的年龄,但古树的中央通常都会腐烂,所以很难测定。沙希内尔博士小心地在树根上挖了六个洞来收集矿物样本。他发表在《第四季科学杂志》上的分析结果显示,土壤中石英和长石最后一次暴露在阳光中的时间在3000年前。这也就意味着,这颗橄榄树很有可能是在铁器时代由希腊人种下的,因为当时希腊人十分珍视从其他地区进口的橄榄油,所以期望能种植橄榄树自己生产。这正好表明了光释光法的启发性。
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Lee ,爱骑行的妇女之友,Timberland粉
Echo,北漂北外的江南人,央视boys and girls 的粉丝儿
Iris, 少女心爆棚的前职场老阿姨,现国际女子修道院MTIer,外刊爱好者
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Rachel,学理工科,爱跳芭蕾,热爱文艺的非典型翻译
Anne,女,爱读书爱Borges的小翻译,热爱文艺,经济学人爱好者
Helen,女,坐标武汉,职业翻译,翻硕已毕业英语二笔二口,爱好陶笛洞箫古诗词
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本周感想
无忌,心怀梦想不断努力的理想主义男孩
本文其实比较枯燥,讲的就是用一种新技术来帮助人们更好地研究英国巨石阵。概括起来,也就是现代科技如何助力考古研究。那么我们延伸开来,就来谈一谈科技对人文社科发展起到的作用。其实除了本文提到的C-14测算时间和OSL帮助考古,在其他人文社科领域,现代科技一样发挥着非常重要的作用。
相信关注这个公众号的朋友们对于上海外国语大学一定不陌生,在大家印象中,这依旧还是语言学习的殿堂,但殊不知,上外已经开始转型了。这所与共和国同龄的语言类高校已经开始与理工科结合,推动学校的全面发展。以上外国际工商管理学院为例,在今年该学院购进磁共振设备,成为了全国第一个购买磁共振设备、硬件设施最好的管理学院之一。为什么要买磁共振设备?简单来说,是为了研究人在做出各种管理决策时大脑的活动状态,也就是将神经科学与管理科学相结合。由此,出现了很多很多的新式学科,包括消费行为与神经决策等。而且上外传统的语言研究也因为现代科技,焕发出新的生命力。当前的语言学研究已经不再局限于训诂和语音的研究,还能参与到研究人类语言发展的实际功能中去。语言研究可以与心理学交叉、与神经科学交叉,转向心理语言学、神经语言学等等。除了管理和语言研究,翻译一样可以与高科技结合。随着人工智能翻译的出现,越来越多的人唱衰人工翻译,认为机器最终会取代人类。但是作为国内第一的上外高翻却早在几年前就已经拥抱了这一大潮流,与科大讯飞签约,开始探索人工智能辅助下的翻译实践和翻译教学新模式。毫无疑问,将来人工智能不会取代人类翻译(如果真的取代了,那么意味着机器可以克服“创造力”这一难题,所有设计工作也可以被取代,人类差不多到了共产主义了),反而会辅助人类翻译,减轻译员的工作量,让译员更注重提高翻译的质量,不管是口译还是笔译,都是如此。
日常生活中大家其实也尝到过现代科技对于人文社科的推动效应带来的好处。数字敦煌和数字故宫就是两个很好的例子。虽然游客很少会对文物进行研究,但由于数字化,人们还是可以足不出户便领略到中国文化的精彩。而且,也让更多的人接触到了故宫和敦煌,其中不乏国际友人,对推广中国文化起到了非常重要的作用。
学科融合在将来必定是学术研究的常态,不仅是自然科学助力社会科学,社会科学反过来也可以指导自然科学研究。我非常期待这种融合,它让我们看到一切可能。
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