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Archaeology
Archaeology is a source of history, not just a humble auxiliarydiscipline. Archaeological data are historical documents in their ownright, not mere illustrations to written texts. Just as much as any other historian, an archaeologist studies and tries to reconstitute theprocess that has created the human world in which we live -- and usourselves in so far as we are each creatures of our age and socialenvironment. Archaeological data are all changes in the material world resulting from human action or, more succinctly, the fossilizedresults of human behavior. The sum total of these constitutes what may becalled the archaeological record. This record exhibits certain peculiarities and deficiencies the consequences of which produce a rather superficial contrastbetween archaeological history and the more familiar kind based uponwritten records.
Not all humanbehavior fossilizes. The words I utter and you hear as vibrations in the airare certainly human changes in the material world and may be ofgreat historical significance. Yet they leave no sort of trace inthe archaeological records unless they are captured by a dictaphone orwritten down by a clerk. The movement of troops on the battlefield may"change the course of history," but this is equally ephemeral fromthe archaeologist's standpoint. What is perhaps worse, most organicmaterials are perishable. Everything made of wood, hide, wool, linen, grass,hair, and similar materials will decay and vanish in dust in a few years orcenturies, save under very exceptional conditions. In a relatively briefperiod the archaeological record is reduced to mere scraps of stone, bone,glass, metal, and earthenware. Still modern archaeology, by applyingappropriate techniques and comparative methods, aided bya few lucky finds from peat-bogs, deserts, and frozen soils, is able to fill upa good deal of the gap.
全文翻譯：
考古學(xué)是歷史學(xué)的一個(gè)來(lái)源，而不是地位卑微的輔助學(xué)科。 考古學(xué)資料本身也是一種 歷史文獻(xiàn)，而不僅僅是文字資料的例證。 正象任何一位歷史學(xué)家那樣，考古學(xué)家研究調(diào)查 并盡力去重構(gòu)一個(gè)過(guò)程。 這個(gè)過(guò)程創(chuàng)造了我們生活的人類(lèi)世界，也創(chuàng)造了我們自身，因?yàn)?我們都是我們所處的時(shí)代和社會(huì)環(huán)境的產(chǎn)物。 考古學(xué)的資料就是人類(lèi)行為所造成的物質(zhì)變 化。 更簡(jiǎn)潔地說(shuō)，是石化了的人類(lèi)行為。 這些變化的總和構(gòu)成了我們所說(shuō)的考古學(xué)記錄。 這些記錄自有其獨(dú)特和不足之處，因而導(dǎo)致人們對(duì)考古歷史和更熟悉的文字記載歷史進(jìn)行相 當(dāng)膚淺的對(duì)比。
并不是所有的人類(lèi)行為都留下化石。 我說(shuō)的話，你通過(guò)空氣振動(dòng)聽(tīng)見(jiàn)，這 當(dāng)然是人類(lèi)造成的物質(zhì)變化，也可能有重大的歷史意義，但這些話在考古學(xué)中未留下絲毫痕 跡，除非有人用錄音機(jī)錄下來(lái)或文書(shū)把這些話寫(xiě)了下來(lái)。
戰(zhàn)場(chǎng)上軍隊(duì)的行動(dòng)可能"改變歷史 的進(jìn)程"，但從考古學(xué)的觀點(diǎn)來(lái)看，這同樣是難以捕捉的;可能更糟的是，多數(shù)有機(jī)物質(zhì)會(huì) 腐爛。 任何由木頭、生皮、絨線、亞麻、草、毛發(fā)以及相似物質(zhì)做成的東西除非在一些非 常特殊的條件下，幾年或幾個(gè)世紀(jì)以后，會(huì)在塵土中腐爛并消失。 在短時(shí)期內(nèi)，能留下考 古記錄的東西也都會(huì)退化為石頭、骨頭、玻璃、金屬和陶器的碎片。 然而，現(xiàn)代考古學(xué)通 過(guò)運(yùn)用適當(dāng)?shù)募夹g(shù)和比較的方法，在從泥炭、沙漠和凍土中所獲得的一些幸運(yùn)發(fā)現(xiàn)的輔助下， 能夠填充這個(gè)空缺的很大部分。
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