首页
登录
职称英语
Reconstructing Ancient EnvironmentsP1: Archaeology is particularly important fo
Reconstructing Ancient EnvironmentsP1: Archaeology is particularly important fo
游客
2024-01-03
25
管理
问题
Reconstructing Ancient Environments
P1: Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for whom there may be no written records to study. Besides, global climates, topographical features and constituents of the Earth’s crust have considerably changed with the passing of time. The first effort archaeologists should make is to use evidence preserved in historical sites to reconstruct the ancient physical environment of a region.
P2: One of the most important sources of information for reconstructing human’s adaptive response to prehistoric environments is the faunal remains found in archaeological sites. Faunal remains are considered to include fish, birds, and mammals. These remains are used to reconstruct past environments and human diet. The prehistoric record of the meat-eating habits of early humans is far from clear about the prevalence of scavenging. One faction of prehistorians argues there is evidence that early humans were primarily scavengers who found the remains of animals killed by lions and other carnivores, and then butchered them. Another faction disagrees, proposing that early humans hunted for their own meat. Marks left by humans cutting up animals with stone tools are now being analyzed to help distinguish between cases in which people butchered animals they had killed themselves and those in which they butchered animals they scavenged from the kills of other animals.
P3: Another source to reconstruct ancient environments comes from the study of the remains of plants cultivated or used by man in ancient times, which have survived in archaeological contexts. Carbon is chemically quite stable, so charred plants (plants converted to charcoal or carbon) and seeds preserve well. Charred plant remains are usually retrieved by flotation: excavated sediments are mixed with water or some other fluid. Heavy fractions will sink to the bottom and less dense organic material such as charred seeds, grains, and charcoal will tend to float to the surface. The importance of such analyses lies in the fact that these plants indicate much about the climates and vegetation of the periods in which the animals lived. For example, there are ongoing debates about when and where various animals were domesticated. If phytoliths (tiny mineral particles formed inside plants) of domesticated grains are found on the teeth of these animals, the probability is high that they were part of an agricultural economy.
P4: Apart from faunal and floral remains, human bodies, especially well-preserved ones, can also be of extraordinary significance to archaeological discoveries. For example, eleven naturally mummified bodies were found in beach sand in northern Chile and date to about 1000 B.C. Chemical reconstruction of their diet demonstrates that one of them was a coca leaf chewer, and they had the kinds of dental problems and missing teeth associated with the sticky starches of an agricultural diet, although their principal food was derived from marine resources with only minor supplementation from terrestrial hunting and food-gathering. Then, during bones analysis, the bodies showed the changes of the bones of the inner ear that are characteristic of people who frequently dive in freezing water.
P5: To better interpret these prehistorical mysteries, a technical specialty is combined with archaeology, which is know as geoarchaeology. ■ Geoarchaeologists’ work frequently involves studying soil and sediments, as well as other geographical alterations, to contribute to an archaeological study. ■ Geoarchaeological analyses also involve many different kinds of questions and techniques. ■ In the Egyptian Delta region, for example, many of the earliest communities were built on large sand-and-gravel mounds created by the Nile River as it deposited the sediments it carried. ■ But many of these communities have been buried under meters of sediment from numerous ancient floods, and by other factors as well. On top of this, the streams feeding into the Nile River in the delta have changed course many times, leaving a maze of crisscrossed, buried river channels. Finding these buried sand-and-gravel mounds and the archaeological sites on them often requires complex geological analyses involving special digging, satellite image analysis, and many other techniques. [br] The word "excavated" in the passage is closest in meaning to
选项
A、dug from the ground
B、concentrated in solid form
C、deposited
D、dried
答案
A
解析
【词汇题】excavated意为“挖掘的”。ex-向外,cav-洞穴,ate动词尾缀,合成意义为“从洞中挖出”。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3328821.html
相关试题推荐
______importantdevelopmentoftheNeolithicagewasnotinthemanufactureof
[originaltext]Oneimportantthingaboutartmovementsisthattheirpopularity
[originaltext]Oneimportantthingaboutartmovementsisthattheirpopularity
[originaltext]Oneimportantthingaboutartmovementsisthattheirpopularity
ByfarthemostimportantUnitedStatesexportproductintheeighteenth
Inthenineteenthcentury,Montrealgrew(into)animportant(transportation)an
______,particularlytheoxidesofsulfur,greatlyincreasestherateatwhichr
DRAMAINANCIENTGREECE1LongbeforetheancientGreekscou
DRAMAINANCIENTGREECE1LongbeforetheancientGreekscou
DRAMAINANCIENTGREECE1LongbeforetheancientGreekscou
随机试题
TheWorldTradeOrganizationTheWorldTradeOrganizationw
Questions17-20CompletethefollowingstatementsusingNOMORETHANTHREEWORDS
Whatisthemainpurposeofthelecture?[br]Accordingtotheprofessor,howdo
机关制发公文,应遵守事无巨细都要发文的原则。()
材料供应计划完成率用于考核材料在某一时期供应计划的完成情况,跟材料供应计划完成率
A.自由联想疗法 B.森田疗法 C.支持疗法 D.系统脱敏疗法 E.询者
按( )分类,债券可分为政府债券、金融债券、公司债券等。A.发行主体 B.偿
B
银行承兑汇票的承兑银行,应当按照票面金额向出票人收取()的手续费。A:千分之一
建筑工程一切险中,安装工程项目的保险金额是该项目的()。A.概算造价 B
最新回复
(
0
)