which is not in writing, the actual remains of places

这些并不是文字而是先人们的遗迹
where they lived, the implements that they used and so on, and so on.

他们生产生活所使用的工具等等
And the beautiful thing about that is you actually have it.

最重要的是我们能看得到摸得着
It's objective. It's an object.

它是客观存在的物体一个实物
It's not something that somebody imagined,

这并非某个人的天马行空
but you shouldn't derive as much confidence from it

但我们仍然不能像许多考古学家认为的那样
as a lot of archaeologists like to, because it's only a thing

能从中获取什么重要信息因为它只是
until you say what it means, until you put a date on it,

一个物体是人们赋予它意义
until you try to understand what it really is,

或标注年代或真正了解它的本质
what its function was, who brought it there,

它的功用它的来历
who left it there. All those things have to be

它的历史所有的这些
reasoned out from all the evidence, all the information

都是从证据中得来的从所有