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Narrator:Listen to part of a lecture in an art history class.
獨白:聽下面一段藝術史的課程。
Professor:Good morning, ready to continue our review of prehistoric art?
教授:早上好！準備好接著復習史前藝術這一部分的內容了嗎？
Today, we will be covering the Upper Paleolithic Period, which I am roughly defining as the period from 35,000 to 8,000 BC.
今天我們會講到舊石器時代前期，這個時期時間我粗略定為公元前 35,000 年到前 8,000 年。
A lot of those cave drawings you have all seen come from this period.
你們已經見到的許多巖畫就是在這個時期產生的。
But we are also be talking about portable works of art, things that could be carried around from place to place.
但我們同時也會講講這個時期的那些可以被攜帶到不同地方的藝術品。
Here is one example.
先舉個例子吧！
This sculpture is called the Lady with the Hood, and it was carved from ivory, probably a mammoth's tusk.
這兒有一座雕塑，名字叫“帶頭巾的女人”；它是用象牙雕刻成的，很可能是猛犸象的獠牙。
Its age is a bit of a mystery.
它的時代有些神秘。
According to one source, it dates from 22,000 BC.
從某種證據上推斷，它的時代應該定在公元前22,000 年左右。
But other sources claimed it has been dated closer to 30,000 BC. Amy?
但是別的材料表明它的時代應該被定在前 30,000 年。艾米，有問題嗎？
Amy:Why don't we know the exact date when this head was made?
艾米:為什么我們不能知道雕塑的頭顱被雕塑出來的確切日期呢？
Professor:That's a fair question. We are talking about prehistory here.
教授:這個問題問到點子上了。我們這里講的內容是史前時期的藝術！
So obviously the artists didn't put a signature or a date on anything they did.
所以，很明顯，那時的作者們不會在任何作品上留下標簽或者日期。
So how do we know when this figure was carved?
那么，我們怎么才能知道作品產生的大致時間呢？
Tom:Last semester I took an archaeology class and we spent a lot time on, studying ways to date things.
湯姆:上學期我選了考古學課，我在這門課上花了功夫，學習怎么給文物斷代。
One technique I remember was using the location of an object to date it, like how deep it was buried.
我記得，其中一項技巧是通過文物的出土地點來給文物斷代，譬如它出土的深度之類的。
Professor:That would be Stratigraphy.
教授:那就是所謂的地層學。
Stratigraphy is used for dating portable art.
地層學正是移動性藝術品的斷代方法。
When archaeologists are digging at a site, they make very careful notes about which stratum, which layer of earth they find things in.
當考古學家在發掘某個坑位時，他們會很注意文物出土的地層，即文物是從地表的哪一個層面被發掘出來的。
And, you know, the general rule is that the oldest layers are at the lowest level.
并且，想必你們也知道，地層斷代法的一般原理是，越古老的東西，出土地層就越是靠下。
But this only works if the site hasn't been touched, and the layers are intact.
但是這只對那些完全沒有被盜掘過的坑位有效，因為這些坑位的地層關系完好無損。
A problem with this dating method is that an object could have been carried around, used for several generations before it was discarded.
這種斷代的一個缺點是，有可能某一件東西從一個地方被帶到了另外的地方，被好幾代人用了之后才被埋入土中。
So it might be much older than the layer or even the site where it was found.
這樣的話，它的實際時代可能要比它在坑位中的實際層位體現出來的時代要早得多。
The stratification technique gives us the minimum age of an object, which isn't necessarily its true age.
層位斷代技術只能給我們提供一件文物產生時代的最小值，這個最小值并不一定是它產生的真正時代。
Tom, in your archaeology class, did you talk about radiocarbon dating?
湯姆，你在考古學可上有沒有討論過碳元素斷代法？
Tom:Yeah, we did. That had to do with chemical analysis, something to do with measuring the amount of radiocarbon that's left in organic stuff.
湯姆:是的，我們討論過。那種方法涉及到了化學分析，與文物中殘留的有機物成分所釋放的放射性碳的含量測定有關。
Because we know how fast radiocarbon decays, we can figure out the age of the organic material.
因為我們知道放射性碳的衰變速率，所以據此我們就能夠弄清這些有機物的時代。
Professor:The key word there is organic. Is art made of organic material?
教授:這個方法的關鍵詞是“有機物”。藝術品一般是由有機物構成的嗎？
Tom:Well, you said the lady with the hood was carved out of ivory. That's organic.
湯姆:嗯，您講過，“戴頭巾的女人”這件作品是用象牙雕刻成的，這種材料應該是有機物。
Professor:Absolutely. Any other examples?
教授:完全正確！還有別的例子嗎？
Amy:Well, when they did those cave drawings.
艾米:嗯，當那時的作者繪制巖畫的時候，
Didn't they use, like charcoal or maybe colors, dyes made from plants?
他們也不都用焦炭或者植物性染色劑嗎？
Professor:Fortunately, they did, at least some of the time.
教授:好在他們那時確實用了，雖然不是每一次都用。
So it turns out that radiocarbon dating works for a lot of prehistoric art.
這樣的話，碳放射法似乎對許多史前藝術品都能派上用場。
But again there's a problem.
但是還是有一個問題。
This technique destroys what it analyzes, so you have to chip off bits of the object for testing.
這種方法會損壞被分析的文物，你們必須得從文物上剔除一些物質來檢測。
Obviously we are reluctant to do that in some cases.
很明顯，有時我們不愿意這樣做。
And apart from that, there's another problem.
除此以外，還有別的問題。
The date tells you the age of the material, say, a bone or a tree; the object is made from, but not the date when the artist actually created it.
這種斷代法告訴你的是文物的某一種材料的產生時間，比如，一塊骨頭或則一棵樹，而不是藝術家真的用這些材料來制作藝術品的時間。
So, with radiocarbon dating, we get the maximum possible age for the object, but it could be younger.
所以，我們利用碳元素斷代法得到的是文物產生時間的最大值，文物的實際時間可能要比測量出來的時間短。
Ok, let's say our scientific analysis has produced an age range. Can we narrow it down?
好的，我們假設我們的技術手段已經將某項文物產生的時間制定出來了一個范圍，我們怎么縮小這個范圍呢？
Amy:Could we look for similar styles or motives? You know, try to find things common to one time period.
艾米:我們能從相似的類型或者目的入手嗎？即從某一個特定時期的文物中找出一些共同特征。
Professor:We do that all the time.
教授:我們一直都在做這項工作。
And when we see similarities in pieces of art, we assume some connection in time or place.
并且我們我們在不同文物中也找到了許多相似的地方，并且假設這些共同之處有時間或者空間上的聯系。
But is it possible that we could be imposing our own values on that analysis?
但是，有沒有可能，我們會在這樣的操作中把我們自己的想法、對待事物的態度加入進去，使得客觀的分析受到干擾？
Tom:I am sorry. I don't get your point.
湯姆:不好意思，我沒弄懂您在說什么。
Professor:Well, we have all kinds of pre-conceived ideas about how artistic styles develop.
教授:嗯，是這樣的。對某一種史前藝術品的類型或者發展狀態，我們可能有各種各樣的先入為主的成見。
For example, a lot of people think the presence of details demonstrates that the work was done by a more sophisticated artist.
比如說，很多人認為精細的文物只可能是出自熟練的工匠之手，
While a lack of detail suggests a primitive style.
而粗糙、缺乏精細度的作品的時代則可能比較原始。
But trends in art in the last century or so certainly challenge that idea.
但是，從上個世紀甚至早些的藝術趨勢來看，這種觀念受到了挑戰。
Don't get me wrong though, analyzing the styles of prehistoric art can help dating them.
嗯，不要錯解我的意思，分析史前文物當然可以幫助我們確定它的時代。
But we need to be careful with the idea that artistic development occurs in a straight line, from simple to complex representations.
但是我們必須要摒除藝術品單線發展，即所有藝術品都是從原始到復雜，從粗糙到精細這樣的成見。
Amy:What you are saying is, I mean, I get the feeling that this is like a legal process, like building a legal case, the more pieces of evidence we have, the closer we get to the truth.
艾米:您剛才的話，據我理解，讓我覺得文物的式樣分析就像法律程序，與建立一個司法案例一樣，我們的證據越多，我們就越能夠接近事實的真相。
Professor:Great analogy. And now you can see why we don't have an exact date for our sculpture, the lady with the hood.
教授:這個總結非常棒！這樣的話你就能明白為什么我們不能對這件藝術品，“戴頭巾的女人”，進行特別精確的斷代了吧！
