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Listen to an Academic Talk Test #037
Listen to an Academic Talk
1. What is the talk mainly about?
A) The difficulties of excavating ancient sites
B) A method used to date archaeological finds
C) The history of Roman and Viking artifacts
D) How geological events affect archaeology
2. According to the Law of Superposition, where would the most recent artifacts be found?
A) In the layer with the most objects
B) In the deepest undisturbed layer
C) In the uppermost undisturbed layer
D) In layers disturbed by human activity
3. What might an archaeologist conclude if a modern bottle is found in the same layer as ancient pottery?
A) The pottery is a modern imitation.
B) The site has likely been disturbed.
C) The bottle is much older than it appears.
D) The ancient culture had advanced technology.
4. Why does the professor mention earthquakes and floods?
A) To provide examples of things that can mix up layers
B) To explain how ancient sites are often discovered
C) To describe the climate of the Roman and Viking periods
D) To suggest common causes of damage to artifacts
Professor: One of the most fundamental principles in archaeology is stratigraphy. This is the study of strata, or layers, of earth and rock. The basic idea, called the Law of Superposition, is that in any undisturbed sequence of layers, the oldest layer is at the bottom, and the layers get progressively younger as you go up. So, if we're excavating a site and we find a piece of Roman pottery in one layer, and then in a layer above it we find a Viking coin, we know the pottery is older. This allows us to establish a relative chronology for the artifacts and features we uncover. Of course, this only works if the layers haven't been disturbed by things like earthquakes, floods, or even later human activity like digging pits. These disturbances can mix up the layers, which complicates our interpretations significantly.
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