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Lecture4-Archaeology
Narrator
Listen to part of a lecture in an archaeology class.
Professor
It’s every archaeologist’s dream to find a lost civilization, to make some huge discovery,
to find artifacts no one else has laid a hand on in millennia. You might think that this never
happens any more, given all the research in archaeology that’s been done. But in the late twentieth
century, archaeologists discovered the remains of a sophisticated people whose settlement might
have been the hub of a civilization few people even thought existed.
They found this site at the edge of a desert in Turkmenistan, in central Asia, where a series
of mounds rise up from the plains. Now, you might remember because we’ve talked about this,
archaeologists know that mounds such as these are the kinds of geological features that indicate
the presence of ancient settlements. Jim?
Student
Um…mounds can be different things, right? Some are burial places…
Professor
Exactly.And some are the remains of cities. The inhabitants would build houses and temples
you know, what have you. And over time, those buildings would fall down or be torn down and then
be built over. Over time, generations of building and rebuilding in the same area would result
in a large hill the size of a city. Careful excavation and documentation of layers in a mound
can reveal a wealth of information about the everyday life of a people in a settlement over many
periods of occupation.
Now, this particular site is called Gonur-depe. What was found at Gonur-depe was amazing:
the ruins of a huge palace complex, the foundations of shops and houses, the remains of thick
walls and towers that fortified the city. There was even an elaborate canal system and a lot of
very intricate jewelry. All these findings seem to indicate that they are the remains of an ancient
civilization that was every bit as advanced as other more famous civilizations of the time. Like
those in Egypt, or, or China.And the site dates back to 3,000 B.C.E.
Student
Did they trade with those other civilizations? Because if they did, wouldn’t there’ve been
some evidence of that? You know,
an artifact found in the ruins of other civilizations?
Professor
That’s a good question. I mentioned Jewelry, well, Jewelry have been found in Mesopotamia
and at archaeological sites in
modern-day Pakistan. But archaeologists didn’t know where it came from. Only after the site
at Gonur-depe was excavated
were archaeologists able to identify it as coming from Gonur-depe. Uh, Sheryl?
Student
I wonder why nobody found this site before.
Professor
Well, before the discovery of this site, it was commonly believed that central Asia had always
been occupied by mostly
nomadic people. So there would be no record of major settlements. A couple of small finds
have been made in the area, but
really, no one had looked very hard.
Now, one mystery regarding this site is that archaeological records show it was inhabited
for only a few centuries.
Student
What happened to the people who lived there?
Professor
Well, the site was close to the Murgab river, which they would have depended on for their
water. And the Murgab river,
which runs toward the west, is the kind of river that shifts its course over time. So one
theory is that the river’s course
shifted toward the South, and they simply followed it and built new towns to the South.
Another theory is that they were involved in wars with neighboring settlements. But we might
never know the truth.
One thing we do know is that in the decades since Gonur-depe was discovered, the site has
deteriorated significantly. I mean,
it’s been disturbed for the first time in millennia. And being exposed to the Sun and wind
has taken its toll on the ancient
city.
So now the question is, do we partially restore and rebuild the site before the entire thing
disintegrates?
It will take a lot of
funding to restore it and I am not sure it’ll be made available, which would be a pity. Even
a partly altered site can provide
valuable information, which would be lost otherwise
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