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READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which
are based on Reading Passage 2 below.
The Lost City
Thanks to modern remote-sensing techniques, a ruined city
in Turkey is slowly revealing itself as one of the greatest and most mysterious
cities of the ancient world. Sally Palmer uncovers more.
A
The low granite mountain, known as Kerkenes Dag, juts from
the northern edge of the Cappadocian plain in Turkey. Sprawled over the
mountainside are the ruins of an enormous city, contained by crumbling
defensive walls seven kilometers long. Many respected archaeologists believe
these are the remains of the fabled city of Pteria, the sixth-century BC
stronghold of the Medes that the Greek historian Herodotus described in his
famous work The Histories. The short-lived city came under
Median control and only fifty years later was sacked, burned and its strong
stone walls destroyed.
B
British archaeologist Dr Geoffrey Summers has spent ten
years studying the site. Excavating the ruins is a challenge because of the
vast area they cover. The 7 km perimeter walls run around a site covering 271
hectares. Dr Summers quickly realised it would take far too long to excavate
the site using traditional techniques alone. So he decided to use modern
technology as well to map the entire site, both above and beneath the surface,
to locate the most interesting areas and priorities to start digging.
C
In 1993, Dr Summers hired a special hand-held balloon with a
remote-controlled camera attached. He walked over the entire site holding the
balloon and taking photos. The one afternoon, he rented a hot-air balloon and
floated over the site, taking yet more pictures. By the end of the 1994 season,
Dr Summers and his team had a jigsaw of aerial photographs of the whole site.
The next stage was to use remote sensing, which would let them work out what
lay below the intriguing outlines and ruined walls. “Archaeology is a
discipline that lends itself very well to remote sensing because it revolves
around space,” says Scott Branting, an associate director of the project. He
started working with Dr Summers in 1995.
D
The project used two main remote-sensing techniques. The
first is magnetometry, which works on the principle that magnetic fields at the
surface of the Earth are influenced by what is buried beneath. It measures
localised variations in the direction and intensity of this magnetic field.
“The Earth’s magnetic field can vary from place to place, depending on what
happened there in the past,” says Branting. “if something containing iron oxide
was heavily burnt, by natural or human actions, the iron particles in it can be
permanently reoriented, like a compass needle, to align with the Earth’s
magnetic field present at that point in time and space.’ The magnetometer
detects differences in the orientations and intensities of these iron particles
from the present-day magnetic field and uses them to produce an image of what
lies below ground.
E
Kirkenes Dag lends itself particularly well to magnetometry
because it was all burnt at once in a savage fire. In places, the heat was
sufficient to turn sandstone to glass and to melt granite. The fire was so hot
that there were strong magnetic signatures set to the Earth’s magnetic field
from the time – around 547 BC – resulting in extremely clear pictures.
Furthermore, the city was never rebuilt. “if you have multiple layers confusing
picture because you have different walls from different periods giving
signatures that all go in different directions,” says Branting. “We only have
one going down about 1.5 meters, so we can get a good picture of this fairly
short-lived city.”
F
The other main sub-surface mapping technique, which is still
being used at the site, is resistivity. This technique measures the way
electrical pulses are conducted through sub-surface oil. It’s done by shooting
pulses into the ground through a thin metal probe. Different materials have
different electrical conductivity. For example, stone and mudbrick are poor
conductors, but looser, damp soil conducts very well. By walking around the
site and taking about four readings per metre, it is possible to get a detailed
idea of what is where beneath the surface. The teams then build up pictures of
walls, hearths and other remains. “It helps a lot if it has rained because the
electrical pulse can get through more easily,” says Branting. “Then if
something is more resistant, it really shows up.” This is one of the reasons
that the project has a spring season when most of the resistivity work is done.
Unfortunately, testing resistivity is a lot slower than magnetometry. “If we
did resistivity over the whole site it would take about 100 years,” says
Branting. Consequently, the team is concentrating on areas where they want to
clarify pictures from the magnetometry.
G
Remote sensing does not reveal everything about Kerkenes
Dag, but it shows the most interesting sub-surface areas of the site. The
archaeologists can then excavate these using traditional techniques. One
surprise came when they dug out one of the fates in the defensive walls. “Our
observations in early seasons led us to assume that wall, such as would be
found at most other cities in the Ancient Near East,” says Dr Summers. “When we
started to excavate we were staggered to discover that the walls were made entirely
from stone and that the gate would have stood at least ten metres high. After
ten years of study, Pteria is gradually giving up its secrets.”
Questions 14-17
The Reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-G
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-G, in boxes 14-17 on
your answer sheet.
14 The reason why various investigative
methods are introduced.
15 An example of an unexpected discovery.
16 The methods to survey the surface of
the site from above.
17 The reason why experts want to study
the site.
Questions 18-25
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading
Passage
Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the
Reading Passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 18-25 on
your answer sheet.
Exploring the Ancient City of Pteria
The relevant work was done ten years ago. To begin with,
experts took photos of the site from the ground and then from a distance in
a 18…………………………… To find out what lay below the surface, they used
two leading techniques. One was magnetometer, which identifies changes in the
magnetic field. These changes occur when the 19…………………………… in
buried structures have changed direction as a result of great heat. They match
with the magnetic field, which is similar to a 20………………………….
The other one was resistivity, which uses a 21……………………………..
to fire electrical pulses into the earth. The principle is that building
materials like 22………………………… and stone do not conduct electricity
well, while 23……………………………. does this much better. Archaeologists
preferred to use this technique during the 24……………………………………, when
conditions are more favourable. Resistivity is mainly being used to 25………………………………..
some images generated by the magnetometer.
Question 26
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in box 26 on your
answer sheet.
How do modern remote-sensing techniques help at the site?
A They avoid the need for experts to dig
any part of the site.
B They bring parts of the site into the
light so that key areas can be researched further.
C They show minute buried objects for the
archaeologists to dig up.
D They make the investigation more
flexible as they can be used at any time of year.
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ANSWERS
14. B
15. G
16. C
17. A
18. hot-air balloon
19. iron particles
20. compass/compass needle
21. thin metal probe
22. mudbrick
23. looser damp soil
24. spring season
25. clarify
26. B
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