美国国家公共电台 NPR Looking Back At Human History, Archaeologist Suspects 'We're 51% Good'

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The first line in Sarah Parcak's new book might come off as a little bleak¹. My entire life is in ruins. She's an archaeologist. My life is in ruins. Get it? The book is called "Archaeology² From Space." Parcak uses new technology like satellite images to spot ancient settlements, tombs and temples buried under the ground.

SARAH PARCAK: The things on top of the buried sites are affected³ by what's beneath. So by looking at different parts of the light spectrum⁴, especially the near, middle and far infrared⁵, we can see these shapes and outlines in ways that we absolutely cannot see with our naked eyes alone. So it's almost like a space-based X-ray system to help us view, in some cases, entire maps of ancient archaeological sites.

SHAPIRO: Using satellite imagery, she has spotted⁶ more than a dozen potential pyramids and thousands of ancient tombs in Egypt. In some ways, this work is in Sarah Parcak's blood. Her grandfather was a paratrooper in World War II. And the mapping techniques that he used back then helped pave the way for Parcak's work.

PARCAK: During World War II, all the paratroopers would get, like, little pocket fold-up maps that were black and white aerial photographs taken from the sky of exactly where they were landing and where they were supposed to meet up with their men. My grandfather took this new technology with him when he went to grad school in the 1940s and decided⁷ to apply this very cutting-edge technology to forestry⁸.

SHAPIRO: Tell me about the moment that you realized that what you are doing in the 21st century actually harkens back to what your grandfather did.

PARCAK: So he's the reason I took my first, you know, remote sensing class. And, of course, it's very, very different than the work that he did. But I was trying to find some articles he wrote. And I found an article he wrote in 1953, and he's talking about the advent⁹ of all these amazing new technologies like infrared and how it can help to map different trees in ways that they'd never seen before. And I realized, line for line, it was almost identical to what I had written about the way infrared satellite imagery could be used to map archaeological sites. I'm like, whoa.

SHAPIRO: Yeah, it's like your ancestor's reaching out and tapping you on the shoulder (laughter) in the present day.

PARCAK: It is. You know, my - unfortunately, my grandfather passed away more than 20 years ago, but I feel like he's with me all the time.

SHAPIRO: How much of your work is spent looking at satellite images on a computer screen versus¹⁰ digging in the ground and brushing off artifacts that you actually pull out of the Earth?

PARCAK: So yeah, it's sort of like a 12-1 ratio.

SHAPIRO: OK.

(LAUGHTER)

PARCAK: I typically spend about a month a year in the field. I wish it were the other way around.

SHAPIRO: Yeah.

PARCAK: I mean, I love trying to get out in the field as much as I can because the best part is the digging, getting the dirt beneath your fingers. I tell people if my sand to blood ratio drops below a certain amount, you probably don't want to be around me anymore.

(LAUGHTER)

SHAPIRO: You describe so many moments in this book of pulling an object out of the Earth that, for me as a lay person, the only thing I can think about is that you're literally¹¹ the first human in centuries to have laid eyes on this thing that was made by human hands longer ago than I can imagine. Will you just describe what that moment is like, what that feels like?

PARCAK: I remember the first time this happened. It was on an - my first excavation¹² in Egypt 20 years ago. And I was working at a site in the northeast Egyptian Delta¹³. So I was excavating¹⁴ down, found what looked like a piece of a pot. And then I realized it was actually an intact pot squished down that dated to about 4,200 years ago. And on the handle of that pot was a thumbprint.

SHAPIRO: Wow.

PARCAK: And I just had this vision of a larger man, you know, using a kick wheel making this pot from so long ago. And it was this moment that made me realize we're not actually digging for things. We're actually digging for people; the people who made these things. And that's what I try to remember no matter what I take out of the ground. I try to imagine the humans that made it that were so much like us in spite of being separated by thousands of years.

SHAPIRO: It's wild to think about people today wondering what they will leave behind when they die. And to think that that man more than 4,000 years ago, at some point, just pushed his finger into some soft clay. And that's the thing that, 4,000 years later, you lay eyes on for the first time in all of those thousands of years.

PARCAK: To me, this is the greatest privilege I have. You know, I feel like I'm adding little footnotes to the history of humanity one at a time with every little thing that I excavate¹⁵. And I try to never take it for granted for a moment. I was at the National Geographic¹⁶ Queens Of Egypt exhibit yesterday and hearing everyone around me oohing and aahing over the objects. And I thought, this is my life. You know, this is...

(LAUGHTER)

PARCAK: These are my friends.

SHAPIRO: (Laughter).

PARCAK: And it was just - it was - it's wonderful.

SHAPIRO: Do you mean the ancient people of Egypt are your friends?

PARCAK: Yes. I feel...

SHAPIRO: OK, not the tourists.

PARCAK: No. I mean, some of my real friends were there too.

SHAPIRO: Oh.

(LAUGHTER)

PARCAK: But, yeah, I just - I guess I feel such kinship with these objects because I live in this world that's thousands of years old. And I have a hard time separating, sometimes, the past from the present.

SHAPIRO: When there are hundreds of thousands or millions of unmapped, undiscovered sites out there, what's the value in actually digging and understanding in as many of them as possible?

PARCAK: So if you imagine a jigsaw¹⁷ puzzle - right? - and the complete jigsaw puzzle represents the entirety of what existed in an ancient culture, what we archaeologists are dealing¹⁸ with are fragmentary pieces from maybe five or six of those jigsaw puzzle pieces, right? So it's just this teeny, tiny bit of evidence. So the more information that we have, the more puzzles - pieces that we're able to start to fit together, the bigger picture that we have from those civilizations. We say in archaeology it's not what you find. It's what you find out. And it's all about the bigger questions that you're able to ask, so it's one thing to know about five or six sites. What if you have information for 5,000 sites? I mean...

SHAPIRO: Like, what's a question that you would be able to answer with information from 5,000 sites that you personally are dying to answer?

PARCAK: Right. So what really caused ancient Egypt to collapse¹⁹? And when we look at all the settlement data, when we look at all the social, political, economic and environmental data, we can look at these much bigger questions about, what caused it to rise? What caused it to fall? And now that we have more evidence, we can kind of - we can try to answer that question.

SHAPIRO: You look at the rise and fall of civilizations over eons. How does that scale and that perspective inform your understanding of the present-day rise and fall of political powers or acceleration²⁰ of climate change or the other things that make Earth and humans on it seem to be caught in change faster than what any of us have experienced in our lifetimes?

PARCAK: I think today it can be really daunting²¹. I'm asked more and more, you know, do you have any hope for our civilization today given everything that goes on? And what I tell people is that by looking at satellite images, I think I have the same perspective of Earth that astronauts have. I don't see borders. I see how connected we are. And by studying all these civilizations, by looking at all the things that cause some civilizations to rise, others to fall, others to muddle²² along and then rise and then fall, I think it's given me a little bit of hope - not like boundless²³ hope but hope in that humans are very resilient. And in spite of all the terrible things that we have done to each other, I think we're 51% good.

(LAUGHTER)

PARCAK: So I hold - I try to hold on to that, especially being the parent of a young child.

SHAPIRO: Archaeologist Sarah Parcak - her new book is called "Archaeology From Space: How The Future Shapes Our Past."

Thanks so much.

PARCAK: Thank you for having me.

(SOUNDBITE OF BLACKBOXX'S "A HAUNTING (MACONDO)")

1 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

2 archaeology   

n.考古学

参考例句：

• She teaches archaeology at the university.她在大学里教考古学。
• He displayed interest in archaeology.他对考古学有兴趣。

3 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

4 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

5 infrared   

adj./n.红外线(的)

参考例句：

• Infrared is widely used in industry and medical science.红外线广泛应用于工业和医学科学。
• Infrared radiation has wavelengths longer than those of visible light.红外辐射的波长比可见光的波长长。

6 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 forestry   

n.森林学；林业

参考例句：

• At present, the Chinese forestry is being at a significant transforming period. 当前, 我国的林业正处于一个重大的转折时期。
• Anhua is one of the key forestry counties in Hunan province. 安化县是湖南省重点林区县之一。

9 advent   

n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临

参考例句：

• Swallows come by groups at the advent of spring. 春天来临时燕子成群飞来。
• The advent of the Euro will redefine Europe.欧元的出现将重新定义欧洲。

10 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

11 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

12 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。

13 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

14 excavating   

v.挖掘( excavate的现在分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘

参考例句：

• A bulldozer was employed for excavating the foundations of the building. 推土机用来给楼房挖地基。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A new Danish expedition is again excavating the site in annual summer digs. 一支新的丹麦探险队又在那个遗址上进行一年一度的夏季挖掘。 来自辞典例句

15 excavate   

vt.挖掘，挖出

参考例句：

• They plan to excavate a large hole.他们计划挖个大洞。
• A new Danish expedition is again excavating the site in annual summer digs.一支新的丹麦探险队又在那个遗址上进行一年一度的夏季挖掘。

16 geographic   

adj.地理学的，地理的

参考例句：

• The city's success owes much to its geographic position. 这座城市的成功很大程度上归功于它的地理位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Environmental problems pay no heed to these geographic lines. 环境问题并不理会这些地理界限。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

17 jigsaw   

n.缕花锯，竖锯，拼图游戏；vt.用竖锯锯，使互相交错搭接

参考例句：

• A jigsaw puzzle can keep me absorbed for hours.一副拼图就能让我沉醉几个小时。
• Tom likes to work on jigsaw puzzles,too.汤姆也喜欢玩拼图游戏。

18 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

19 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

20 acceleration   

n.加速，加速度

参考例句：

• All spacemen must be able to bear acceleration.所有太空人都应能承受加速度。
• He has also called for an acceleration of political reforms.他同时呼吁加快政治改革的步伐。

21 daunting   

adj.使人畏缩的

参考例句：

• They were faced with the daunting task of restoring the house.他们面临着修复房子的艰巨任务。
• Starting a new job can be a daunting prospect.开始一项新工作有时会让人望而却步。

22 muddle   

n.困惑，混浊状态；vt.使混乱，使糊涂，使惊呆；vi.胡乱应付，混乱

参考例句：

• Everything in the room was in a muddle.房间里每一件东西都是乱七八糟的。
• Don't work in a rush and get into a muddle.克服忙乱现象。

23 boundless   

adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的

参考例句：

• The boundless woods were sleeping in the deep repose of nature.无边无际的森林在大自然静寂的怀抱中酣睡着。
• His gratitude and devotion to the Party was boundless.他对党无限感激、无限忠诚。