Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1131, Visiting an Archaeological Site.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 1131.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Go to eslpod.com and download the learning guide for this episode.
What's in the learning guide?
It has a complete transcript of everything I say, and a whole lot more.
This episode is a dialogue between Lillian and Bruce about going to an archaeological site, a place where we find out what people were like many, many years ago, before we had Wikipedia.
Let's get started.
Look at this.
I'm going to take this home as a souvenir.
You can't do that.
That might be an artifact of some kind.
It belongs to this archaeological site.
It's just a rock.
No one will miss it.
That's not the point.
Everything here should be preserved.
That's the point of doing a careful excavation.
Everything should be recorded and nothing should be lost.
Take it easy.
It's not like I'm defacing anything.
And if they're trying to preserve this site, why are they doing this dig?
Wouldn't it be better just to leave it frozen in time?
The point is to learn more about the peoples of ancient civilizations who lived here in prehistory.
In my opinion, it's disrespectful to disturb burial mounds and tombs.
They were never meant to be desecrated like this.
Some people would agree with you, but that's the price we have to pay to add to our knowledge about human history.
I really think you should leave that rock where you found it.
It could be a fossil.
Do you really think so?
You never know.
You could hold in your hand the key to understanding this entire civilization.
If I take it, I could preserve it for posterity.
What happened to leaving things undisturbed?
That's before I realized I could go down in history for my own discovery.
This dialogue is all about visiting or going to an archaeological site.
Archaeological A-R-C-H-A-E-O-L-O-G-I-C-L is the study of human history by looking at what people many years ago left behind, things that we usually find in the ground, to understand what life was like a thousand years ago or five thousand years ago.
We dig into the ground, we make a hole or remove ground so we can see what is still there from these old civilizations.
The study of archaeology is the study of these old civilizations, the way people lived many years ago.
Specifically, archaeology deals with looking at what remains physically, what we can find, as I said before, usually buried in the ground.
Lillian begins our dialogue by saying to Bruce, look at this.
I'm going to take this home as a souvenir.
A souvenir, S-O-U-V-E-N-I-R, is something you bring home from a place that you have visited.
Now, of You can't bring a souvenir home.
That's usually not allowed.
And that's what Bruce tells Lillian.
You can't do that.
That might be an artifact of some kind.
An artifact.
A-R-T-I-F-A-C-T is a word that we use to describe anything that was made by human beings many years ago and then is found.
So archaeological sites or areas where we are digging into the ground find things, physical things that we call artifacts.
Bruce says it belongs to this archaeological site.
The word site, S-I-T-E, just means place or location where something is done.
Lillian says, however, it's just a rock.
No one will miss it, meaning no one will even know it's gone.
Bruce says, however, that's not the point.
That's not the point means you don't understand or you're giving a reason that is not relevant here.
He says everything here should be preserved.
To preserve, P-R-E-S-E-R-V-E, means to take care of something. so that it is saved for the future.
You take care of the condition of the object.
The verb is to preserve.
The noun is preservation.
Bruce says that's the point of or that's the reason for doing a careful excavation.
An excavation, E-X-C-A-V-A-T-I-O-N, is also sometimes called a dig, D-I-G.
An excavation is a place where you dig into the ground, you remove the dirt and the rocks in order to see what's underneath them.
You will normally only hear or read this word, excavation, relating to archaeological sites.
Bruce says everything should be recorded and nothing should be lost.
To record something here means to write it down or perhaps to take a film of it.
Lillian says take it easy, meaning don't get excited, Bruce.
It's not like I'm defacing anything, she says.
To deface D-E-F-A-C-E.
Something is to change the way something looks, usually by painting on it or perhaps scratching it.
If someone puts a sign up on a wall, for example, and you don't like what the sign says...
You could, say, take some paint and put a big X on it.
That would be defacing the sign.
By the way, that's usually illegal when you deface someone else's property, so you should probably not do that.
Lillian continues, And if they're trying to preserve this site, why are they doing this dig?
Dig, remember, means excavation.
Wouldn't it be better just to leave it frozen in time?
The phrase frozen F-R-O-Z-E-N in time means not changing anything, or perhaps a situation that has been the same for many, many years.
If you don't dig it up, Lillian says, it will remain the same as it was before.
Of course, the difficult part of archaeology is digging things up without ruining them.
Bruce says the point once again.
The reason is to learn more about the peoples of ancient civilizations who lived here in prehistory.
Ancient, A-N-C-I-E-N-T, means very old, usually thousands of years old.
Civilization refers to a society or group of people who live together here with similar customs and similar laws and similar practices.
The point of archaeology is to learn about the peoples of ancient civilizations who lived in what we call prehistory.
Prehistory, P-R-E-H-I-S-T-O-R-Y is the period of time before human beings began to write, before they began to record things so that they could be read later on.
Lillian says, in my opinion, it's disrespectful to disturb burial mounds and tombs.
They were never meant to be desecrated like this.
To disturb D-I-S-T-U-R-B can mean to bother or to interrupt someone.
Here, it means to change something in a negative way.
The word burial, B-U-R-I-A-L, refers to putting a dead body into the ground.
A mound M-O-U-N-D is basically a pile of dirt, an area that is higher than the ground or earth around it.
A burial mound is a place where someone is buried.
Instead of digging in the ground and putting the body in the ground in a hole, you put dirt or earth over the body.
Burial mounds were very common in many different civilizations, including the Native American civilizations in the area where I grew up in Minnesota, where you can still see burial mounds from the ancient times,
American Indian civilizations.
Tombs, T-O-M-B-S are also places where you put a dead body, except usually it's an area or a room, instead of underground in a hole or in a.
These are places where you bury someone above ground in a room or in a large area.
Lillian is saying that they should not be digging into these burial mounds and tombs.
She says they were never meant to be desecrated like this.
To desecrate D-E-S-E-C-R-A-T-E means to treat something with disrespect, especially something that you consider holy, something that has religious value or religious significance.
Bruce continues Some people would agree with you, but that's the price we have to pay to add to our knowledge about human history.
I really think you should leave that rock where you found it.
It could be a fossil.
A fossil.
F-O-S-S-I-L is a rock that contains the image of an animal or a plant that died many years ago.
Lillian says, do you really think so?
Meaning, do you really think this could be a fossil?
Bruce says, you never know.
You can never be sure.
You could hold in your hand the key to understanding this entire civilization.
Bruce means you could be holding in your hand right now a very important piece of information that would help us understand this civilization.
Lillian says, wow, if I take it, I could preserve it for posterity.
Posterity, P-O-S-T-E-R-I-T-Y, refers to future generations, people who have not even been born yet.
Lillian is still thinking of taking this rock with her.
Bruce asks her, Meaning, why did you change your mind about leaving things undisturbed?
Because now you're talking about taking this rock with you.
Lillian says, that's before I realized I could go down in history for my own discovery.
The expression to go down in history means, means to be remembered for a particular accomplishment or to be remembered in a certain way.
It could be a good way, it could be a bad way.
Adolf Hitler will go down in history as being a very evil man, a man who was responsible for killing millions of people.
Gandhi in India will be remembered or go down in history for helping establish the independence of his country.
I will go down in history as being one of the great singing podcasters of the 21st century.
Hey, don't laugh.
Lillian wants to go down in history for her own discovery.
Discovery comes from the verb to discover D-I-S-C-O-V-E-R, which means to learn something about something else for the first time, before anyone else has learned it.
You could discover a cure for a disease.
You could find the answer to help people get over their sickness.
That would be a discovery.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Look at this.
I'm going to take this home as a souvenir.
You can't do that.
That might be an artifact of some kind.
It belongs to this archaeological site.
That's not the point.
Everything here should be preserved.
That's the point of doing a careful excavation.
Everything should be recorded and nothing should be lost.
Take it easy.
It's not like I'm defacing anything.
And if they're trying to preserve this site, why are they doing this dig?
Wouldn't it be better just to leave it frozen in time?
The point is to learn more about the peoples of ancient civilizations who lived here in prehistory.
In my opinion, it's disrespectful to disturb burial mounds and tombs.
They were never meant to be desecrated like this.
Some people would agree with you, but that's the price we have to pay to add to our knowledge about human history.
I really think you should leave that rock where you found it.
It could be a fossil.
Do you really think so?
You never know.
You could hold in your hand the key to understanding this entire civilization.
Wow.
If I take it, I could preserve it for posterity.
What happened to leaving things undisturbed?
That's before I realized I could go down in history for my own discovery.
Lucy Say will go down in history as being one of the great scriptwriters on the internet.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
