中英双语新闻 伦敦挖出两千年前古代市场证据

London is one of the busiest financial centers of the modern world. And historians have revealed evidence that two thousand years ago, business deals were being struck on exactly the same spot. Archeologists have unearthed¹ the oldest handwritten documents ever found in Britain. And perhaps fitting me for the financial district, they include receipts for copious² amounts of beer. Sophie Jackson, project manager for Museum of London Archeology told Rebecca Caspi more.

Well, we found all the tablets on an excavation³ that we were doing right in the center of the city of London, one of the richest archeological areas in Britain. And as we dug down, we were digging through essentially⁴ what was a Roman river valley. And we started finding these little fragments of wood. There are little fragments of notes of memos⁵, essentially Roman memos, contracts. And there are some documents which are almost like e-mails that sort of people chatting to each other backwards⁶ and forwards. So there’s one where one Roman is telling that the people are boasting in the market that he’s done a really dodgy investment. But he can’t do anything about it cuz he will appear shabby.

Well, that may be the first message of that sort in the city of London, I’m sure, and certainly not the last. But, but how did they manage to survive so long because we are talking about two thousand years ago really, aren’t we?

The reason they’ve survived is cuz they are in this lovely boggy⁷ wet, essentially back field river channel really. And the water in the channel keeps the oxygen out, preserves all sorts of organic materials that normally decay. So it’s really the exceptional preservation⁸ conditions on the site that means we have these tablets.

And what does it tell us about these early Londoners? And what do we already know about what London was like as a town back then?

Well, what’s really exciting about the tablets is that they’re very early. We think London was founded quite soon after the invasion, possibly 46 or 48. There’s been a lot of debate about what the character of the town looked like in those early years. What these tablets tell us is it was absolutely full of businessmen really. Yes, there’s evidences of military, as well. But you know, it’s obviously the town that setting up really really quickly. We even have information on pretrial hearings and people being caught. You know, there’re magistrates⁹ in place. We found these legal documents where they are actually almost like templates for writing contracts. There were spaces on these writing tablets for people to write their signatures, to press their seals in. I mean, it was all fantastically organized.

So in terms of the practicalities, would they be sort of scratching these messages directly onto the Word or how would they do it?

伦敦是当今世界最繁忙的金融中心之一。历史学家揭示了两千年前同一地点商业贸易的证据。考古学家发掘出英国现存最古老的手写文件，包括大量啤酒的发票，个人觉得金融区有这个还是挺好的。伦敦考古博物馆项目经理索菲亚·杰克逊向丽贝卡·卡斯皮透露了更多信息。

我们在英国考古资源最丰富的区域之一——伦敦市正中心挖掘时发现了这些写字板。我们往下挖的时候，实际上挖穿了一个罗马河谷。然后发现了这些小木片，有罗马备忘录和合同注释的小碎片。一些文件基本上就像电子邮件一样，大家来回聊天。在一个文件中，一个罗马人说市场上的人都在吹牛导致他投错了资，但什么也不能做了，否则会显得很寒酸。

这可能是伦敦第一条这样的信息，我确信，当然，肯定也不是最后一条。但是，它们是怎么留存这么长时间的？那可是两千年呀。

它们能留存下来是因为这片美丽的湿地，更确切地说是河道后面的地域。河道中的水将氧气挡在外面，保存着各种通常衰减的有机物质。所以，是这个地方异常的保存条件才让这些写字板留存了下来。

那么我们从这些发现中能了解到关于早期伦敦人的什么信息呢？还有，关于当时的伦敦，我们已经了解的有哪些呢？

关于写字板，特别令人激动的是它的年代很久远。我们认为，在（罗马）入侵后不久伦敦就建立了，可能是在（公元前）46年或48年。关于早年间伦敦有什么具体特征，众说纷纭。而这些写字板可以告诉我们的是，当年的伦敦真的到处都是商贾。对，也有军队的证据。很显然这是个建立非常非常快的城市。我们甚至还掌握了审前听证会以及抓人等信息，当时有地方法官的。我们发现这些文件实际上差不多就是起草合同的模板。写字板上都有空白部分，方便人们签名盖章。安排得极好。

那么，就可行性来讲，他们会把这些信息直接拼凑到Word上还是怎么做？

1 unearthed   

出土的（考古）

参考例句：

• Many unearthed cultural relics are set forth in the exhibition hall. 展览馆里陈列着许多出土文物。
• Some utensils were in a state of decay when they were unearthed. 有些器皿在出土时已经残破。

2 copious   

adj.丰富的，大量的

参考例句：

• She supports her theory with copious evidences.她以大量的例证来充实自己的理论。
• Every star is a copious source of neutrinos.每颗恒星都是丰富的中微子源。

3 excavation   

n.挖掘，发掘；被挖掘之地

参考例句：

• The bad weather has hung up the work of excavation.天气不好耽误了挖掘工作。
• The excavation exposed some ancient ruins.这次挖掘暴露出一些古遗迹。

4 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

5 memos   

n.备忘录( memo的名词复数 )；（美）内部通知

参考例句：

• Big shots get their dander up and memos start flying. 大人物们怒火中烧，备忘录四下乱飞。 来自辞典例句
• There was a pile of mail, memos and telephone messages on his desk. 他的办公桌上堆满着信件、备忘录和电话通知。 来自辞典例句

6 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

7 boggy   

adj.沼泽多的

参考例句：

• Of, resembling, or characterized by a marsh or marshes; boggy. 沼泽般的，湿软的：类似沼泽地的，沼泽地所特有的；多沼泽的。 来自互联网
• The boggy is out of order, would be instead another one! 球车坏了，需要更换一部。 来自互联网

8 preservation   

n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持

参考例句：

• The police are responsible for the preservation of law and order.警察负责维持法律与秩序。
• The picture is in an excellent state of preservation.这幅画保存得极为完好。

9 magistrates   

地方法官，治安官( magistrate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• to come up before the magistrates 在地方法院出庭
• He was summoned to appear before the magistrates. 他被传唤在地方法院出庭。