新石器的繁荣期.doc

6新石器时代的繁荣期Science and Technology The Neolithic Boom-time machine科技 新石器时代 时间机器解密:新石器时代的繁荣期A new technique lets archaeologists reconstruct the past in greater detail考古新技术让考古学家们能更加详尽地重构远古原貌THAT economic expansion leads to building booms seems to have been as true 6,000 years ago as it is now.When agriculture came to Britain, it led to a surge of construction as impressiveand rapidas the one thatfollowed the industrial revolution.在经济扩张时期,人们往往喜欢大兴土木，如今的这条经济定律在6000年前似乎也同样适用。 随着农业在英国生根萌芽，建筑业也随之蓬勃兴旺，其发展速度之快，令人印象之深刻毫不逊色于英国工业革命之后的那次农业变革。Which is all a bit of a surprise to archaeologists, who had previously seen the arrival of the Neolithic as a rathergentle thing. But that may be because of the tools they use.这一切让考古学家们显得有些惊讶，他们之前一直认为新石器时代是经济发展较为和缓的时期。 不过这可能是由于他们使用的考古技术方法还不够先进。Radiocarbon dating provides a range, often spanning 200 years or more, rather than an exact date for a site.采用放射性碳技术来测定一处考古遗址的年代，得到的并不是一个准确日期，而是一个时间跨度范围通常为200年或更久远的数值。Stratigraphy, which looks at the soil layers in which artefacts are found, tells you only which ones are older andwhich younger. None of these data is precise. They do, however, limit the possible range of dates. And by using astatistical technique called Bayesian analysis it is possible to combine such disparate pieces of information toproduce a consolidated estimate that is more accurate than any of its components. That results in a range thatspans decades, not centuries.而地层学采用的方法是通过对已发现古代文物的土壤层进行探测分析，从而判断土壤年代的远近。 这种方法得出的数据也都不精确。 然而它们确实缩短了可推算的时间跨度。 通过贝叶斯分析的统计方法，这些分散孤立的信息可能被整合成一个可靠详实的估计数值，这比单一研究其中的任何一条信息都更为精确。 采用地层学断代推算出的时间范围是几十年，而不是几百年。A team led by Alex Bayliss, from English Heritage, a British government agency, has just used this technique toexamine digs from hundreds of sites around Britain. The results have caused them to reinterpret the Neolithic pastquite radically.Alex Bayliss领导的研究小组来自于英国政府机构的古迹署，他们刚刚采用这项技术对英国周围几百处的人工挖凿遗址进行了研究。 这些成果可以让他们更为彻底地重新诠释新石器时代。Agriculture seems to have arrived fully formed in what is now Kent, in the south-east, around 4050BC. The new culture spread slowly at first, taking 200 years to reach modern-day Cheltenham, in the west, but over the following five decades it penetrated as far north as Aberdeen. Soon afterwards, causewayed enclosures (circular arrangements of banks and ditches hundreds of metres acrosssee picture) began springing up all over the country.大约在公元前4050年，在现今的英国东南部的肯特郡(Kent),那里的农业时代似乎已经到来并发展成熟。 起初这种新文化传播缓慢，用了200年的时间才到达今天英国西部的切尔滕纳姆(Cheltenham)，但是在后续的50年中，它迅速东扩到了北部的阿伯丁(Aberdeen)。 随后，筑有堤道的围场（其格局为几百米跨度的环形堤岸与沟渠）开始在全国遍地开花。Until now, archaeologists had assumed that these were built over the course of centuries. Dr Baylisss work suggests they were the product of two booms, each just a few decades longfor the Neolithic seems to have seen its share of busts, too.现在，考古学家断定这些建筑物是在几百年间陆续建成的。 Bayliss博士的考古研究表明它们是两个繁荣期的产物，每个繁荣期的持续时间仅为几十年，可见新时器时代似乎也存在过衰落的萧条期。The teams work offers such a sharp picture of the past that it is possible to trace the histories even of individual communities, such as one in Essex whose inhabitants built, used and then abandoned an enclosure within thespan of a single generation.考古研究小组为我们展示了清晰的远古画面，让我们可以追溯到更远的历史甚至小的个体群落， 例如在埃塞克斯（Essex)考古遗址,考古人员发现了当时原始居民修建，使用和后来废弃的围场，它伴随了一代人的成长。English Heritage now plans to apply the technique to another murky era of British history, the early Anglo-Saxon period between 400AD and 700AD. In principle, the method can be applied to any archaeological site, and several groups of researchers around the world are working on similar projects. But, fittingly for a discipline that deals in centuries and millennia, the revolution will be a slow one. Unlike traditional radiocarbon dating, which can be bought off the shelf, Dr Bayliss reckons it takes between three and four years to train a graduate researcher to use the new technique properly.现在英国古迹署计划将此技术应用于英国另一段有着模糊记载的历史年代，即介于公元400年至公元700年的早期盎格鲁-撒克逊时期。 理论上，此种方法可以应用于任何一个考古遗址，现在全世界已经有几组考古人员运用此方法进行着类似的考古项目。 但是恰当地说，对一门牵涉几百年和上千年的学科，它的发展将是一个漫长的过程。 传统的放射碳断代法是一种现学现卖的技术，但地层学与之不同，Bayliss博士认为培养一名完全掌握此项新技术且具有硕士学位的研究人员得需要三到四年的时间。Still in Books and Arts; Book Review;A memoir of Nigeria；Madmen on the ground；文艺；书评；尼日利亚回忆录；尼日利亚游记；Looking for Trans wonderland: Travels in Nigeria. By Noo Saro-Wiwa.寻找仙境：尼日利亚游记, Noo Saro-Wiwa 著。Throughout her childhood and early teens, Noo Saro-Wiwa spent every summer in Nigeria. The flight back always came as a shock, as was the arrival itself. The noise, decay and corruption of Lagos airport were unending,along with the insects, power cuts and the higgledy-piggledy way of living that was far too intimate for one brought up in Britains home counties.孩提时代和少年时光的Noo，每年都要去尼日利亚度过她的夏季。 到达尼日利亚和航班返回时的嗡嗡声一样让Noo感到厌恶。 喧哗，肮脏的拉各斯机场永不停息，再加上昆虫和供电中断，这种杂乱无章的生活方式，对于从小在英国长大的noo说是陌生的。Ms Saro-Wiwa would far rather have stayed in the family house in leafy Surrey, with its golf clubs and Ley andiitrees, or holed up with her smart boarding-school friends from Roedean. But her mother thought of their Surrey home as the “house”, whereas their Nigerian home was “home”, a character-building “tropical gulag” with kerosene lamps, rice-and-okra soup, “body-temperature Coca-Cola” and a live-in tribe of cackling uncles and aunts. Home, that is, until Noos father, Ken Saro-Wiwa, a businessman and activist from the oil-rich region of Ogoni, was arrested, imprisoned and then hanged in 1995 for his outspoken political views. The trips back to Nigeria came to an abrupt stop.Saro-Wiwa宁可呆在拥有高尔夫球具和Leylandii树的叶萨里郡家中，或者和来自罗丁寄宿制学校的淘气小伙伴们玩躲猫猫的游戏。 但Saro-Wiwa的妈妈把这个叶萨里郡的家当成一座房子，而在尼日利亚的家才是真正意义上的“家”：标志性建筑“热带拉格”中的煤油灯和大米秋葵粥，暖暖的可乐，家族中长辈的高谈阔论 -这才是真正意义上的家，直到Noo的父亲肯萨洛-威瓦，这个来自于奥格尼的商人和活动家，因为他的直言不讳的政治言论，而逮捕入狱，随后又于1995年被处于极刑。 尼日利亚的旅途才戛然而止。For a decade afterwards, Ms Saro-Wiwa traded Surrey and Roedean for new destinations which she wrote up for “Lonely Planet” and “Rough Guides”. As the rest of the world became increasingly familiar, Nigeria appeared to her to have more and more mystique. Eventually, she just had to return to the country no sane tourist would set foot in.随后的十年，Saro-Wiwa将叶萨里郡和罗丁做为新的旅行目的地，并写进“孤独的星球”和“旅游向导“中。 随着对外部世界的逐渐了解，尼日利亚在Saro-Wiwa看来逐渐变得富有神秘。 最终，她决定返回尼日利亚这个任何神志清醒的人都不愿意踏上旅途的国家。“Looking for Transwonderland” is a search for enlightenment. Why are Nigerians such “a nation of ruffians”?Why is Lagos, their largest city, such a “disaster of urban non-planning” characterised by “impatience, armed robberies and overflowing sewage”? How do Nigerians survive in their own country, let alone thrive? It would be easy to focus on the colourful insanity that is Africas most populous nation. But Ms Saro-Wiwa is careful to avoid caricature. Curious, she travels out of Lagos to corners of the country many Nigerians never see: to the Trans wonderland Amusement Park, to the beauty of the eastern mountains and to the northern city of Kano with its modestly covered women and its forest of ancient minarets. Along the way, she allows herself to be surprised by kindness and humour, making new friends who open her eyes to the passion, wit and ingenuity of her homeland.“寻找仙境“是探寻文明之旅。 为什么尼日利亚是“绑匪之国”? 为什么以骚动，持枪抢劫和污水泛滥为特征的最大城市拉各斯被称作“无规划城市灾难”？ 尼日利亚人如何生存下去？更别说繁荣昌盛？ 这个非洲人口最多国家，不难得到世人的关注。 Saro-Wiwa却小心翼翼的避免碰触任何夸张描述。 让人称奇的是，她游历了连诸多尼日利亚人都不曾到过的拉各斯的各个角落： 充满奇幻色彩的主题娱乐公园，美丽的东部山脉，北部城市卡诺戴着头巾的优雅妇女，稠密热带雨林中的远古宫殿。 Saro-Wiwa惊叹于尼日利亚人民的善良幽默，并结交新朋友他们展开双臂拥抱这个充满激情，智慧，富有创造力的国家。Business Smart phones in Nigeria BlackBerry babes商业 智能手机在尼日利亚 黑莓女孩Its devices are still popular there, but Africa wont save RIM黑莓手机在这里依然畅销，但非洲不会拯救RIMDO YOU know how many times you have embarrassed me because you have refused to buy me a blackberry? Keisha screams in a dusty car park, jabbing her boyfriends chest. Daniel says he cant afford it until next month. It is the final straw for Keisha.在一个脏兮兮的停车场，凯莎猛的捶打着男友的胸膛，大声尖叫，你知道么？ 就因为你不愿给我买黑莓手机,我老是被人看不起。 丹尼尔说下个月他就能把钱凑够。 这也是凯莎最后一根救命稻草了。This is a scene from Black Berry Babes, a Nigerian film about women wooing men into buying them such a smart phone. The plot may be absurd, but its sense of fashion is spot on. RIM, the maker of the device, may get clobbered elsewhere in the world (its market share in America has dropped to 1.6%), but in Nigeria BlackBerrys arestill hot.这是尼日利亚电影黑莓女孩中的一个场景，内容讲的是女人让男人给她们买一个类似的智能手机。 情节看上去很荒唐，却真实反映了当地流行的风尚。 手机厂商RIM在世界其他地方（其美国市场份额跌至1.6%）的市场可能日渐衰落，但在尼日利亚，黑莓手机依然很畅销。The countrys obsession with BlackBerrys is part of a wider trend: although the market share of smartphones isstill small, they are becoming more popular all over Africa. They allow those unable to afford computers to browsethe internet for a few dollars a month. Thumb-tapping phone users generate 67% of online searches in Nigeria.More than 4m of its citizens own a smartphone, about 4% of mobile subscribers.尼日利亚的黑莓手机热反映出更广范围内的一大趋势：尽管智能手机在非洲的市场份额依旧很小，但它们在变得越来越炙手可热。 对于那些没能力购买计算机上网的人来说，使用智能手机就能解决这一问题，而每月所需花费不过几美元而已。 在尼日利亚触屏手机用户产生67%的在线搜索流量。 有400多万市民拥有智能手机，占全部移动用户的4%。If half of these use a BlackBerry, it is because RIM has managed to attract the younger set, says NicholasJotischky, an analyst at Informa, a market researcher. Users particularly fancy the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM)service, which allows them to send texts for nothing. I have a BlackBerry to talk to friendsand boys. If youhave a BlackBerry people see you in a certain light, says Diana Ogwuegbu, a student in Lagos, who has hundredsof BBM friends. Savvy businesses use BBM to market their products.一个市场研究员，Informa的分析师Nicholas Jotischky说，由于RIM将客户群定位于年轻群体，所以有半数的用户使用黑莓手机。 用户特别喜欢黑莓手机的短信（BBM）功能，这可以让他们免费发送消息 (通过数据方式-如GPRS发送，不是SMS) “我用黑莓手机跟朋友聊天包括男友， 拥有黑莓手机会让朋友对我刮目相看，”DianaOgwuegbu是一名来自拉各斯的学生，她拥有众多BBM朋友。 一些精明的企业用BBM推广产品。Black