VOA慢速英语2020 澳洲首次发现水下土著人遗址（在线收听）

Scientists say they have found Australia's first underwater archeological areas off the country's west coast.

科学家称，他们在澳大利亚西海岸发现了首个水下考古遗址。

The sites are believed to be 7,000 years old. The area where they were found was once dry land.

这些遗址被认为有7000年的历史。这些被发现的遗址曾是干燥的陆地。

Archeologists say study of the hundreds of found objects will increase understanding of the culture and technological development of Australia's aboriginal people.

考古学家表示，对数百件出土文物的研究将增进对澳大利亚土著人文化和技术发展的了解。

The two ancient sites are now underwater in the Dampier Archipelago island group. Divers from Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, made the discovery.

这两个远古遗址现在位于丹皮尔群岛的水下。来自南澳大利亚阿德莱德弗林德斯大学的潜水员发现了这一遗址。

The area was already well known for its rich ancient history and its rock-art carvings. However, the two sites are the first confirmed underwater places holding evidence of human civilization in Australia and the area around it.

这个地区已经因其丰富的古代历史和岩石艺术雕刻而闻名。然而，这两个遗址是首批被证实在澳大利亚及其周边地区有人类文明证据的水下区域。

Michael O'Leary is a marine geoscientist and co-director of the project to study the tools. He told Reuters that his team wants to study "the skill, the technology, how they made these tools, to see if they represent a different cultural approach to tool making that we haven't yet identified in Australia,"

迈克尔·奥利里(Michael O’leary)是一名海洋地球科学家，也是这项研究手工艺品项目的副主任。他告诉路透社，他的团队想要研究“制造这些工具的技巧、技术以及过程，看看他们是否代表了一种我们尚未在澳大利亚发现的不同的工具制造文化。”

Archeologist Jonathan Benjamin also leads the project. He said the scientists have found cutting and grinding tools that are thousands of years old.

考古学家乔纳森·本杰明（Jonathan Benjamin）也领导了这一项目。他表示，科学家们发现了数千年前的切割和研磨工具。

"You can start to recreate what the people were doing and how they were making their life way in their economy," Benjamin said.

本杰明指出：“你可以重现人们当时的活动，以及他们如何在经济社会中生活”。

Information from the discovery is being studied to find out how old the objects are. However, the radiocarbon dating method and study of sea-level changes show the areas are at least 7,000 years old.

人们正在研究这一发现中的信息，以确定这些文物的年份。然而，放射性碳测年法和海平面变化研究表明，这些地区至少有7000年的历史。

Benjamin said the majority of objects remain on the seabed. The ones taken have been scanned for further research. They will then be given to the indigenous landowners, the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation.

本杰明表示，大部分文物仍留在海床上。打捞出水的一批文物已被扫描，以供进一步研究。之后，这批文物将归还给当地的土地所有者——Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation。

I'm Mario Ritter Jr.

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Words in This Story

archeological –adj. related to archeology, the study of past human life

site –n. a place where something was in the past

aboriginal –adj. related to the native people of Australia

carvings –n.(pl.) objects that are cut from stone or wood

civilization –n. a condition in which people have developed effective ways to organize and live as a society

approach –n. a way of doing things

grind –v. to make something sharp by rubbing it against a hard surface

scan –v. to use a machine to make a digital image of something for study or reproduction

indigenous –adj. native to a particular area