首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Reconstructing Ancient Environments P1: Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for whom
Reconstructing Ancient Environments P1: Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for whom
admin
2018-10-18
32
问题
Reconstructing Ancient Environments
P1: Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for whom there may be no written records to study. Besides, global climates, topographical features and constituents of the Earth’s crust have considerably changed with the passing of time. The first effort archaeologists should make is to use evidence preserved in historical sites to reconstruct the ancient physical environment of a region.
P2: One of the most important sources of information for reconstructing human’s adaptive response to prehistoric environments is the faunal remains found in archaeological sites. Faunal remains are considered to include fish, birds, and mammals. These remains are used to reconstruct past environments and human diet. The prehistoric record of the meat-eating habits of early humans is far from clear about the prevalence of scavenging. One faction of prehistorians argues there is evidence that early humans were primarily scavengers who found the remains of animals killed by lions and other carnivores, and then butchered them. Another faction disagrees, proposing that early humans hunted for their own meat. Marks left by humans cutting up animals with stone tools are now being analyzed to help distinguish between cases in which people butchered animals they had killed themselves and those in which they butchered animals they scavenged from the kills of other animals.
P3: Another source to reconstruct ancient environments comes from the study of the remains of plants cultivated or used by man in ancient times, which have survived in archaeological contexts. Carbon is chemically quite stable, so charred plants (plants converted to charcoal or carbon) and seeds preserve well. Charred plant remains are usually retrieved by flotation: excavated sediments are mixed with water or some other fluid. Heavy fractions will sink to the bottom and less dense organic material such as charred seeds, grains, and charcoal will tend to float to the surface. The importance of such analyses lies in the fact that these plants indicate much about the climates and vegetation of the periods in which the animals lived. For example, there are ongoing debates about when and where various animals were domesticated. If phytoliths (tiny mineral particles formed inside plants) of domesticated grains are found on the teeth of these animals, the probability is high that they were part of an agricultural economy.
P4: Apart from faunal and floral remains, human bodies, especially well-preserved ones, can also be of extraordinary significance to archaeological discoveries. For example, eleven naturally mummified bodies were found in beach sand in northern Chile and date to about 1000 B.C. Chemical reconstruction of their diet demonstrates that one of them was a coca leaf chewer, and they had the kinds of dental problems and missing teeth associated with the sticky starches of an agricultural diet, although their principal food was derived from marine resources with only minor supplementation from terrestrial hunting and food-gathering. Then, during bones analysis, the bodies showed the changes of the bones of the inner ear that are characteristic of people who frequently dive in freezing water.
P5: To better interpret these prehistorical mysteries, a technical specialty is combined with archaeology, which is know as geoarchaeology. ■ Geoarchaeologists’ work frequently involves studying soil and sediments, as well as other geographical alterations, to contribute to an archaeological study. ■ Geoarchaeological analyses also involve many different kinds of questions and techniques. ■ In the Egyptian Delta region, for example, many of the earliest communities were built on large sand-and-gravel mounds created by the Nile River as it deposited the sediments it carried. ■ But many of these communities have been buried under meters of sediment from numerous ancient floods, and by other factors as well. On top of this, the streams feeding into the Nile River in the delta have changed course many times, leaving a maze of crisscrossed, buried river channels. Finding these buried sand-and-gravel mounds and the archaeological sites on them often requires complex geological analyses involving special digging, satellite image analysis, and many other techniques.
The word "alteration" in the passage is closest in meaning to
选项
A、destruction
B、preservation
C、authenticity
D、modification
答案
D
解析
【词汇题】alteration意为“变化”。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/LchYFFFM
0
托福(TOEFL)
相关试题推荐
Completethenotesbelow.WriteNOMORETHANTWOWORDSforeachanswer.ROBERTSCOMPANYFoundingThemostimportantprincipa
Completethenotesbelow.WriteNOMORETHANTWOWORDSforeachanswer.AdvertisingEffectTheimportantfactortoconsiderThe【
Completethenotesbelow.WriteNOMORETHANTWOWORDSforeachanswer.AdvertisingEffectTheimportantfactortoconsiderThe【
Completethenotesbelow.WriteNOMORETHANTWOWORDSforeachanswer.TheroleofsleepinhumansandanimalsImportanceofsl
Completethenotesbelow.WriteNOMORETHANTWOWORDSforeachanswer.TheroleofsleepinhumansandanimalsImportanceofsl
Completethenotesbelow.WriteNOMORETHANTWOWORDSforeachanswer.TheroleofsleepinhumansandanimalsImportanceofsl
Completethenotesbelow.WriteONEWORDONLYforeachanswer.EffectsofurbanenvironmentsonanimalsIntroductionRecenturba
AsystemwasdevelopedtocontroltrafficcongestionontheM25motorway.Expertsuse【L5】________informationfromthemotorw
HowtoMakePersonalControlofOne’sHealth【L31】________shouldtakechargeoftheirhealth.Thesinglegreatestthreattoheal
LaughterThenatureoflaughterlaughterisa【L31】________process—involvesmovementandsounditiscontrolledbyour【
随机试题
行为治疗模式的核心特点是()。
1912年,蒙可马利在其出版的《审计一一理论实践》一书中提出()的概念,为现代意义上的内部控制奠定了理论和实践基础。
确定垂直距离通常是指
某证券公司在业务活动中实施了下列行为,其中哪些违反《证券法》规定?()
测编定额时,需对施工过程进行分解。对比工作过程的特点,工序还应具有的特征是()。
下列会计要素中反映企业财务状况的静态要素的是()
下列关于银行风险管理的说法正确的是()。
某公司为了提高员工的工作效率,公司高层决定通过工作研究的方法来提高员工的作业能力和降低劳动的疲劳程度。根据以上资料,回答下列问题:工作研究包括()。
甲有限公司(以下简称“甲公司”)为上市公司,该公司2×16年发生的有关交易或事项如下:(1)1月2日,甲公司在天猫开设的专营店上线运行,推出一项新的销售政策,凡在1月10日之前登陆甲公司专营店并注册为会员的消费者,只须支付500元会员费,即可享受在未来两
Thecaseforcollegehasbeenacceptedwithoutquestionformorethanageneration.Allhighschoolgraduatesoughttogo,says
最新回复
(
0
)