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.
在本节课程中，我将谈论考古学的一个分支--海洋考古学，探究的是人类和海洋、湖泊和河流的互动。这是对于船、货物、运输设备和其他的遗产的研究。我会给大家一个例子，然后为大家展示这种类型的研究是如何通过使用最新科技来进行转化的。
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 spring, that might have been used for ceremonial purposes.
Atlit-Yam是地中海东部的一个村庄，看起来一直留存到公元前7000年。居民养牛，抓鱼，储存谷物。他们自己打井获取淡水，他们的很多房子都是围着庭院用石头建的。村庄里有非常令人震惊的纪念碑：七块半吨重的石头围着喷泉绕成半圆伫立，可能是用来纪念庆典的。
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.
Atlit-Yam可能是被海啸给迅速地毁灭了，也可能是气温变化导致的冰川融化和海平面上升，慢慢地淹没了这个村庄。不管是什么原因，它现在静静躺在地中海平面的十米之下，在大海深处的沙子下被掩埋。它被描述为在海床发现的最大的、也是保存最好的史前村落。
For marine archaeologists, Atlit-Yam is a treasure trove. Research on the buildings, 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.
对于海洋考古学而言，Atlit-Yam真的是无尽的宝藏。建筑、工具和人类遗骸方面的研究表明这熙熙攘攘的村庄曾经是如何运转的，甚至解释了居民们曾经遭受过什么疾病。但是当然了，这只是个小村庄，它为我们打开了一扇通往逝去的世界的窗。为了获取更加全面的认识，研究者们需要更多的淹没村落，但是困难的部分就是要找到它们。
Underwater research used to require divers 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.
水下研究曾经是需要潜水员去寻找残船或者是手工艺品，但是在二十世纪的下半叶，创造了不同类型的水下交通工具，有些是由海面上的船控制的，有一些是自动的，那也就意味着它们不需要由人进行操控。
Autonomous underwater vehicles, or AUVs, are used in the oil industry, for instance, to create 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 heavy that they had to be launched from a large vessel with a winch.
自动的水下交通工具，或者是AUV，是在石油工业中使用的，比如说，在安装设备和管道之前先去描绘海床的地图。为了探索，他们会使用传感器，比如说罗盘和声呐。直到最近它们还是很昂贵，而且很重，所以它们得用绞车从一个大的船上给送下水。