NARRATOR:Listen to part of a lecture in an archaeology class.

旁白：听一段考古课上的讲座。

FEMALE PROFESSOR:We’ve been talking about techniques for locating and dating archaeological artifacts.

女教授：我们一直在讨论考古文物的定位和年代测定技术。

Now, in some places, archaeological investigations are difficult, and we have to use some special techniques. In the country of Iceland, for example.

现在，有些地方考古调查很困难，我们不得不使用一些特殊的技术。比如冰岛这个国家。

Now... um... Iceland is a volcanic island located in the North Atlantic Ocean, and about ten percent of it is covered by glaciers.

冰岛是一个位于北大西洋的火山岛，大约百分之十的地方都被冰川覆盖了。

MALE STUDENT:... so... is it too cold to work there? Or maybe everything is under the ice?

男学生：所以那里太冷了，所以不能工作吗？或者，可能一切都在冰的覆盖下？

FEMALE PROFESSOR:Uh, no, that’s not the problem.

女教授：呃，不，这不是问题所在。

It’s that Iceland has virtually no trees to hold down soil, and so there’s been a lot of erosion, especially erosion of soil from the highlands to lower coastal areas.

这是冰岛几乎没有树木来固定土壤，所以有很多侵蚀现象，特别是从高地到低沿海地区的土壤侵蚀。

And this erosion has buried much of Iceland under deep deposits of soil.

而这种侵蚀已经将冰岛的大部分地区掩埋在深层土壤之下。

And remember what I said about few trees?

还记得我说过几乎没有树吗？

Well, with so little wood available, the earliest dwellings in Iceland were built mainly from compressed peat.

由于可用的木材很少，冰岛最早的住宅主要是用压缩泥炭建造的。

MALE STUDENT:Did you say, “peat”?

男学生：你说的是泥炭吗？

FEMALE PROFESSOR:Yes, peat ... That’s a light kind of airy soil that comes from bogs and wetlands and contains a high proportion of decayed organic matter.

女教授：是的，泥炭。这是一种来自沼泽和湿地的轻质透气土壤，含有大量腐烂的有机物。

Anyway, the peat can be compressed and dried and made into big, thick blocks.

无论如何，泥炭可以被压缩和干燥，制成又大又厚的块。

And that’s what the walls of the early Icelandic houses were made of, mostly.

这就是早期冰岛房屋墙壁的主要材料。

Now, since the walls of these old houses were made basically of a kind of soil, they’re really hard to locate underground... ‘cause the material these buried structures are made of doesn’t differ very much from the soil that surrounds them.

由于这些老房子的墙壁基本上是由一种土壤制成的，因此很难在地下找到它们，因为这些埋藏结构的材料与周围的土壤没有太大区别。

FEMALE STUDENT:So how do ya find these peat walls, buried in all that other soil?

女学生：那么你是如何找到埋在所有其他土壤中的泥炭墙的？

FEMALE PROFESSOR:Well, one way is to borrow a modern technique used by geophysicists...

女教授：嗯，一种方法是借用地球物理学家使用的现代技术。

MALE STUDENT:Uh, sorry if you said this already... but uh... what are they looking for in Iceland anyway?

男学生：啊，抱歉如果你已经说过了。但是他们究竟在冰岛找什么呢？

FEMALE PROFESSOR:Uh... yes, good question! Iceland, and stories about it... uh, Icelandic sagas ... have intrigued people for centuries.

女教授：啊。是的，好问题，冰岛，以及关于它的故事。嗯。几个世纪以来，冰岛的传奇一直吸引着人们。

The sagas seem to be historical accounts of actual Norse explorers and settlers... but since we’ve always lacked hard evidence to support the truth of the stories, they seem to be more like legends.

这些传奇似乎是真实的北方探险家和定居者的历史记载，但由于我们一直缺乏确凿的证据来支持这些故事的真实性，它们似乎更像是传说。

There’s always been a draw, though, almost like a calling for some of us, to verify the truth of these stories.

然而，一直总有一种吸引，几乎就像是在呼吁我们中的一些人验证这些故事的真实性。

Historians, astronomers, navigators – they’ve all tried to find proof that people settled where the stories indicate.

历史学家、天文学家、航海家，他们都试图找到证据证明人们在故事所指的地方定居。

And we archaeologists have, too... by trying to locate dwellings, evidence of animal domestication, or farming or iron smelting—any signs of early settlement.

我们考古学家也是如此，通过试图找到住所、动物驯化或耕作或炼铁的证据，即任何早期定居的迹象，来达到目的。

MALE STUDENT:Cool... are you talking about, like, the time of the Vikings?

男学生：太酷了！你说的是维京人的时代吗？

FEMALE PROFESSOR:Yes, yes, that’s exactly it. One of these Icelandic sagas tells of some Viking explorers who were probably the first Europeans to cross the Atlantic and live in North America.

女教授：是的，就是这样。其中一个冰岛传奇讲述了一些维京探险家，他们可能是第一批穿越大西洋并居住在北美的欧洲人。

FEMALE STUDENT:North America? But I thought you were talking about Iceland.

女学生：北美？但我以为你在谈论冰岛。

FEMALE PROFESSOR:I am. See... the story tells of a Viking family from Iceland called Thorfinsson, who settled in North America for a few years, but then moved back to Iceland, which is not that far away.

女教授：我是在说冰岛。你看，这个故事讲述了一个名叫Taufinsen的冰岛维京家族，他们在北美定居了几年，然后又搬回了不远的冰岛。

So, there is a great interest in investigating Viking-era sites in Iceland, especially in the place where the saga says this family finally settled.

因此，人们对调查冰岛的维京时代遗址产生了极大的兴趣，尤其是在传说中这个家庭最终定居的地方。

But, back to my point... one team of archaeologists working there decided to use an electromagnetic remote sensing tool to try to locate buried structures.

但回到我的观点。在那里工作的一个考古学家团队决定使用电磁遥感工具来尝试定位埋藏的结构。

Now, this remote sensing tool, which as I mentioned before, is usually used by geophysicists... uh, this tool can distinguish between different materials that look the same to the eye, but have different compositions.

那么，正如我之前提到的，这种遥感工具通常被地球物理学家使用。嗯，这个工具可以区分看起来相同但成分不同的不同材料。

Here’s how it works: regular soil conducts electricity well, but walls made of peat do not conduct electricity well.

这是它的工作原理：普通的土壤可以很好地导电，但泥炭墙不能很好地导电。

So the tool sends down alternating currents of electricity and then measures how well the electric current travels through the ground in different places.

因此，该工具会发送交流电，然后测量电流在不同地方穿过地面的情况。

Then you look at all of your data... look for patterns of electrical resistance... and this reveals where walls are located.

然后你查看所有数据，寻找电阻的模式。这揭示了墙壁的位置。

So anyway, the team wanted to investigate a site in Iceland that looks like the place where the old saga says the Thorfinssons built their home.

所以，不管怎么说，这个团队想要调查冰岛的一个地点，该地点看起来就像古老的传奇所说的Taufinsen人建造家园的地方。

And so they used this technique and found the remains of a large farmhouse there that they think probably did belong to the Thorfinsson family!

因此，他们使用这种技术，在那里发现了一个他们认为可能确实属于 Taufinsen 家族的大型农舍的遗迹。

Because when they dated the building, it corresponded exactly to when the Thorfinsson family should have been there, according to the sagas!

因为当他们确定这座建筑的年代时，它与传说中Taufinsen家族应该在那里的时间完全一致。

Now the team is working to find other evidence, especially personal artifacts, to show that it really was that family who lived there.

现在，该团队正在努力寻找其它证据，尤其是个人文物，以表明确实是那个家庭住在那里。

Everyone had always thought the Thorfinsson house might be in that area, though probably right underneath a nearby museum... where it might’ve been damaged during museum construction.

每个人都一直认为Taufinsen的房子可能就在那个区域，尽管它可能就在附近的博物馆下面，它可能在博物馆建设期间被损坏了。

But, in fact, this Viking-era structure was located in a field behind the museum, buried just below the surface.

但事实上，这座维京时代的建筑位于博物馆后面的一块田地里，就埋在地表以下。

Thank goodness for the remote sensing tool, or this house might never have been found!

多亏了遥感工具，否则这所房子可能永远不会被发现。