In the normal course of events,

因为在一般的情况下
clay dissolves and disappears, and any message on it is erased.

粘土会分崩离析所有的信息将灰飞烟灭
In other words, this was not meant to be

换句话说这些并不是刻意为将来
a record to be left for the future. It was an accident.

留下的记录只是个意外而已
These things that we discovered

而这些我们发现的东西
were meant for a practical usage in ways

在某些方面是有实际用途的
that I will tell you about in a little while.

稍后我会提到
So, anyway, that writing--let me back up a step.

好吧那些文字...我们先从早的开始说
When Evans found writing at Knossos,

当埃文斯在克诺索斯发现文字
he found two--

他找到两种
well, he actually found seven,

事实上他一共找到了七种
but only two that turned out to be significant--

不过只有两种被认为比较重要