阅读材料: The United Kingdom (sometimes referred to as Britain) has a long and rich history of human settlement. Traces of buildings, tools, and art can be found from periods going back many thousands of years: from the Stone Age, through the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the time of the Roman colonization, the Middle Ages, up to the beginnings of the industrial age. Yet from most of the twentieth century, the science of archaeologydedicated to uncovering and studying old cultural artifactswas faced with serious problems and limitations in Britain. 英国(有的时候被称为不列颠)在人类居住建筑方面有久远丰富的历史。建筑、建筑工具以及建筑艺术的遗迹的历史可以追溯到数千年。从石器时代开始,历经青铜时代、铁器时代、罗马殖民时代、中世纪,一直到工业时代的初期。但是在20世纪的大部分时间里的英国,致力于挖掘和研究古代文化遗迹的考古学面临着严峻的问题和局限性。 First, many valuable artifacts were lost to construction projects. The growth of Britains population, especially from the 1950s on, spurred a lot of new construction in British cities, towns, and villages. While digging foundations for new buildings, the builders often uncovered archaeologically valuable sites. Usually, however, they proceeded with the construction and did not preserve the artifacts. Many archaeologically precious artifacts were therefore destroyed. |