In today’s class I’m going to talk about marine archaeology, the branch of archaeology focusing on human interaction with the sea, lakes and rivers. It’s the study of ships, cargoes, shipping facilities, and other physical remains. I’ll give you an example, then go on to show how this type of research is being transformed by the use of the latest technology.
Atlit-Yam was a village on the coast of the eastern Mediterranean, which seems to have been thriving until around 7,000 BC. The residents kept cattle, caught fish and stored grain. They had wells for fresh water, many of their houses were built around a courtyard and were constructed of stone. The village contained an impressive monument: seven half-tonne stones standing in a semicircle around a 【Q31】 spring, that might have been used for ceremonial purposes.
Atlit-Yam may have been destroyed swiftly by a tsunami, or climate change may have caused glaciers to melt and sea levels to rise, flooding the village gradually. Whatever the cause, it now lies ten metres below the surface of the Mediterranean, buried under sand at the bottom of the sea. It’s been described as the largest and best preserved prehistoric settlement ever found on the seabed.
For marine archaeologists, Atlit-Yam is a treasure trove. Research on the buildings, 【Q32】 tools and the human remains has revealed how the bustling village once functioned, and even what diseases some of its residents suffered from. But of course this is only one small village, one window into a lost world. For a fuller picture, researchers need more sunken settlements, but the hard part is finding them.
Underwater research used to require pers to find shipwrecks or artefacts, but in the second half of the twentieth century, various types of underwater vehicles were developed, some controlled from a ship on the surface, and some of them autonomous, which means they don’t need to be operated by a person.
Autonomous underwater vehicles, or AUVs, are used in the oil industry, for instance, to create 【Q33】 maps of the seabed before rigs and pipelines are installed. To navigate they use sensors, such as compasses and sonar. Until relatively recently they were very expensive, and so 【Q34】 heavy that they had to be launched from a large vessel with a winch.
But the latest AUVs are much easier to manoeuvre – they can be launched from the shore or a small ship. And they’re much cheaper, which makes them more accessible to research teams. They’re also very sophisticated. They can communicate with each other and, for example, work out the most efficient way to survey a site, or to find particular objects on the seabed.
Field tests show the approach can work. For example, in a trial in 2015, three AUVs searched for wrecks at Marzamemi, off the coast of Sicily. The site is the final resting place of an ancient Roman ship, which sank in the sixth century AD while ferrying prefabricated 【Q35】 marble elements for the construction of an early church. The AUVs mapped the area in detail, finding other ships carrying columns of the same material.
Creating an internet in the sea for AUVs to communicate is no easy matter. Wifi networks on land use electromagnetic waves, but in water these will only travel a few centimetres. Instead, a more complex mix of technologies is required. For short distances, AUVs can share date using 【Q36】 light, while acoustic waves are used to communicate over long distances. But more creative solutions are also being developed, where an AUV working on the seabed offloads data to a second AUV, which then surfaces and beams the data home to the research team using a satellite.
There’s also a system that enables AUVs to share information from seabed scans, and other data. So if an AUV surveying the seabed finds an intriguing object, it can share the coordinates of the object – that is, its position – with a nearby AUV that carries superior 【Q37】 cameras, and arrange for that AUV to make a closer inspection of the object.
Marine archaeologists are excited about the huge potential of these AUVs for their discipline. One site where they’re going to be deployed is the Gulf of Baratti, off the Italian coast. In 1974, a 2,000-year-old Roman vessel was discovered here, in 18 metres of water. When it sank, it was carrying 【Q38】 medical goods, in wooden or tin receptacles. Its cargo gives us insight into the treatments available all those years ago, including tablets that are thought to have been dissolved to form a cleansing liquid for the 【Q39】 eyes.
Other Roman ships went down nearby, taking their cargoes with them. Some held huge pots made of terracotta. Some were used for transporting cargoes of olive oil, and others held 【Q40】 wine. In many cases it’s only these containers that remain, while the wooden ships have been buried under silt on the seabed.
Another project that’s about to …
Complete the notes below.
Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.
听前预测：定位词 semicircle；提示词 a；词性：名词。
题目解析：此题较为简单，题干基本上是对答案句的复述。定位词、提示词和答案同时出现，具体对应信息为“seven half-tonne stones standing in a semicircle around a spring”，因此答案为 spring（spring 在此意为“泉”）。
听前预测：定位词 research；提示词 structures、human remains；词性：名词。
题目解析：此题的定位词在文中原词重现，但是答案之前的提示词 structures 在文中未以原词形式出现，因此需要通过后面的提示词 human remains 进行确定。文中提到“Research on the buildings, tools and the human remains has revealed how the bustling village once functioned…”，听到定位词 research 时就应该集中注意力，其后出现的 buildings 和题干中的 structures 为同义替换，因此 tools 可能是答 案，若此时还不确定答案，可以先进行记录，在听到后文的 human remains 时即可确定答案为 tools。
听前预测：定位词 oil industry；提示词 e.g.、make；词性：名词。
题目解析：定位词在文中原词重现，但提示词出现了同义替换的现象。文中提到“…or AUVs, are used in the oil industry, for instance, to create maps of the seabed before rigs and pipelines are installed.”，其中 for instance 对应题干提示词 e.g.，所以可确定答案会出现在该词组之后；另外，该句中的 create 对应题干中的 make，因此答案为 maps。
听前预测：定位词 expensive；提示词 and；词性：形容词。
题目解析：此题较为简单，通过题干可知要填的是 AUV 存在的问题，且通过表并列结构的 and 可知此处应填一个与 expensive 并列的形容词。首先听到含有定位词的信息 “they were very expensive”，接着听到“and so heavy that they had to be launched from a large vessel with a winch”，因此答案为 heavy。
听前预测：定位词 ancient Roman；提示词 elements；词性：名词。
题目解析：通过题干可知此处要填的应是某种建筑材料。需要注意的是提示词在文中位于答案之后。答案句为“The site is the final resting place of an ancient Roman ship, which sank in the sixth century AD while ferrying prefabricated marble elements for the construction of an early church.”，其中 ferrying 对应题干中的 carrying，因此答案为 marble。
听前预测：定位词 short distance communication；提示词 is used for；词性：名词。
题目解析：此题较为简单。文中提到“For short distances, AUVs can share data using light…”， 因此答案为 light。
听前预测：定位词 another AUV；提示词 better；词性：名词。
题目解析：此题较难，不能仅通过定位词和提示词来确定答案，需要充分理解相关的内容。 文中首先提到“There’s also a system that enables AUVs to share information from seabed scans, and other data.”（还有一个系统可以让 AUV 共享海底扫描所获得的信息和其他数据。），该句话中含有题干的部分信息。接着提到“if an AUV surveying the seabed finds an intriguing object”，可以看出此处实际上是在举例， 对应题干中的 for example。随后提到“it can share the coordinates of the object… with a nearby AUV that carries superior cameras”，其中 a nearby AUV 即定位词 another AUV，superior 与 better 同义，因此答案为 cameras。
听前预测：定位词 carrying；提示词 supplies；词性：形容词。
题目解析：此题较容易定位，通过题干可知此处要填的信息与 Gulf of Baratti 的沉船有关，因此听到该地点时就应该集中注意力。定位词和答案同时出现，具体对应信息 为“it was carrying medical goods”，其中 goods 为提示词 supplies 的同义替换， 因此答案为 medical。
听前预测：定位词 tablets；提示词 cleaning；词性：名词。
题目解析：答案句为“including tablets that are thought to have been dissolved to form a cleansing liquid for the eyes”（包括被认为已经溶解为洗眼液的药片），根据题干意思，很容易确定答案为 eyes。
听前预测：定位词 containers；提示词 or；词性：名词。
题目解析：该题较为简单，根据题干可知答案与 olive oil 并列，所以当听到“Some were used for transporting cargoes of olive oil, and others held wine.”时，即可确定答案为 wine，后文中的 these containers 也可进一步确认答案。
