PBS高端访谈:古老沉船揭开了这座城市的海上历史（在线收听）

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now to our "NewsHour" Shares, something that caught our eye that might be of interest to you. Workers at a construction site just miles from the nation's capital recently unearthed some long-forgotten treasures dating back to our nation's founding. Our Julia Griffin explains.

JULIA GRIFFIN: In Old Town, Alexandria, these days, the pulse of progress means helmets, backhoes, and 18th century ships?

ELEANOR BREEN, Acting Historic Alexandria Archaeologist: Behind us is construction in progress, but also archaeology in progress.

JULIA GRIFFIN: Eleanor Breen is acting city archaeologist for historic Alexandria. When developers want to dig on culturally significant land in the city, her team ensures archaeologists are on hand to identify and help preserve any discovered historical artifacts.

ELEANOR BREEN: With a lot of scrapes of the trowel and scoops of the shovel, there's history on unearthed. But what's being found here is really particularly remarkable.

JULIA GRIFFIN: Remarkable because, in addition to old building foundations and paved alleyways, the archaeologists at this site discovered not one, but three ships from the 1700s hidden in the dirt. But the 12-to-25-foot wide hulls are not long-forgotten shipwrecks.

ELEANOR BREEN: It was actually a fairly common practice going back centuries to take derelict ships and chop them up and actually use large fragments of the hull as part of a framework to fill in ground and make new land that didn't exist before.

JULIA GRIFFIN: This map, drawn by a young George Washington, shows Alexandria's natural shoreline with its shallow mudflats in 1748. By the early 1800s, Alexandrians added 10 new city blocks to the waterfront that continue to exist today.

ELEANOR BREEN: To be a premier port city, they need to get more land closer to that deeper channel of the Potomac River. It was much easier to get the cargo off of the ships if you can bring the land to the ship, as opposed to smaller ships to the land.

JULIA GRIFFIN: Today, the trio of unearthed ships, likely cargo vessels, sit just south of what had been Point Lumley. Now exposed, their once-waterlogged timbers must be kept moist at all times to prevent warping and degradation. Archaeologists are now removing the hulls piece-by-piece and storing them in tanks of water, just as they did with another Revolutionary War era ship found a block away in 2015. That ship is now at Texas A&M undergoing a years-long conservation process to prepare the fragile beams for study and display. Where the new ships end up has yet to be determined. But, for Breen, the painstaking measures to preserve them are well worth the effort.

ELEANOR BREEN: I think there's something in our culture about this seafaring days of discovery that captures people's attention when they see such large fragments of vessels in the ground.

JULIA GRIFFIN: City officials hope all the ships could one day be put on exhibit for modern-day Alexandrians to enjoy. For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Julia Griffin in Alexandria, Virginia.

JUDY WOODRUFF: History everywhere we look. And on the "NewsHour" online right now: A "NewsHour" reporter spends a week only consuming media from Radio Sputnik. That's a Russian government-funded outlet widely seen by experts as a vehicle to disseminate disinformation for the Kremlin. That and more is on our Web site, PBS.org/NewsHour.

朱蒂·伍德瑞夫：现在进行我们的"NewsHour"分享环节，有些事情引起了我们的注意，或许对你有用。建筑工地上，工人们挖出了珍宝，这块建筑工地距离美国首都仅几英里，这些已遭遗忘的文物可追溯到建国初期。请听朱丽亚·格里芬为您详细讲述。

朱丽亚·格里芬：现如今，在亚历山德里亚的奥尔德敦，头盔和反铲挖土机就是进步的脉搏，那十八世纪的船只呢？

历史悠久的亚历山德里亚，考古学家，埃利诺·布莱恩：我们身后的工地仍在建设，考古活动也在开展。

朱丽亚·格里芬：埃利诺·布莱恩是亚历山德里亚城市考古学家，这里历史悠久。这片土地极具文化意义，如果有开发商想在这座城市里动土，她团队内的考古学家们在场，确保识别，并帮助保存任何已经发现的历史文物。

埃利诺·布莱恩：随着那一铲又一铲，历史渐渐浮现。但在这里发现的文物确实非常引人注目。

朱丽亚·格里芬：它们非常引人注目，因为除了古老的建筑地基和铺砌的小巷，该遗址的考古学家发现了不是一艘，而是三艘18世纪的船只，它们深藏泥土之中。但是12到25英尺宽的船体，并非是长久以来遭人遗忘的沉船整体。

埃利诺·布莱恩：人们会将弃船砍断，并利用船体的大块残片，作为部分构架，填补土地，形成此前尚不存在的新土地。这种做法在几个世纪前相当普遍。

朱丽亚·格里芬：这张地图由一位名叫乔治·华盛顿的年轻人所绘，显示了1748年亚历山德里亚自然形成的海岸线以及浅滩。到19世纪初，亚历山德里亚人在海滨修建了10个新的城市街区，至今尚存。

埃利诺·布莱恩：要想成为一个发达的港口城市，就要将土地延伸到波托马克河深处。如果你能让土地靠近船只，而非相反，那么从船上卸货就容易多了。

朱丽亚·格里芬：今天，这三艘出土的船只，可能是货船，就在Point Lumley南面。现在这些船只已经出土，这些曾经浸过水的木材必须始终保持湿润，以防止翘开和腐烂。考古学家现在将船体依次拆除，并存于水箱，这一做法与他们2015年发现另一艘革命战争时期船只时的做法相同。那艘船现在德克萨斯农工大学进行为期数年的维护工作，保护易损横梁，以供研究和展示。我们会在哪里见到新船还不得而知。但是，对布莱恩来说，维护工作虽然辛苦，但很值得。

埃利诺·布莱恩：我认为我们文化中存在一些航海时代大发现的内容，当人们在陆地上看到这么大的船只残片时，这些内容会引起大家的关注。

朱丽亚·格里芬：市政官员希望有一天，所有的船只都可以展出，供现在的亚历山德里亚人参观。PBS NewsHour，我是朱丽亚·格里芬，弗吉尼亚报道。

朱蒂·伍德瑞夫：历史无处不在。现在来看NewsHour线上节目：一位NewsHour记者花费一周时间，在Radio Sputnik进行媒体消费。这是俄罗斯政府资助的一家机构，专家们广泛认为，这是克里姆林宫传播虚假情报的工具。更多内容敬请关注我们的网站，PBS.org/NewsHour。