Archeological+Digs+strategy

GRADE LE-VE-L-S --~ II 3-5 II 6-8 I Culture II Time, Continuity, and Change IV Individual Development and Identity In an archaeological dig, an anthropologist "reads" the remains of a group of people and their material culture to determine the life experience of that group. In a simulated archaeological dig created by the teacher, students can formulate research questions by examining artifacts and records recovered from the site. They can reconstruct events that occurred on the site and make inferences about the quality of life these people experienced. Based on the evidence they recover, students can create stories about the site. What items were next to one another? Are the items from the same or different eras? Why did some items deteriorate more than others? In working with a mock archaeological site, students use higher-order thinking skills by weighing evidence and placing it in context through documentation of the site. Without going into the field, students can determine the uses of evidence and learn how sources contribute to the narrative an archaeologist creates to explain events. Students also get an opportunity to discredit a hypothesis if it is incongruent with evidence or if it remains unsupported by evidence. Younger students can read artifacts and make comparisons to the present. Older students can support their inferences and document their hypotheses with evidence derived from primary sources. • Select a site or span of time to interpret. • Generate a possible story appropriate to the time or place. • Determine the evidence needed to explain the story. • Determine the sequence for disclosing bits of information. • Have students use books on the history of architecture to find a floor plan and an exterior picture of the predetermined time or place. If a plan is unavailable, the teacher can draw one on graph paper based on an actual or virtual visit to the site. Save the picture for the conclusion of the dig. • Select historically accurate artifacts for each part of the dig. If possible, purchase authentic artifacts to include in the site. If this is not possible, use photographs of artifacts. • Find supporting explanatory information. Some artifacts are accompanied by descriptive tags or informative inserts. Other explanatory information can be found in works of art, encyclopedias, reference books, or on the Internet. • Approach the dig from one of two perspectives: Begin the project as if archaeologists have already removed all of the artifacts from the site, or create a mock site by burying artifacts in the site. • If student work begins after the removal of artifacts from the site, place each bit of evidence or artifact in a folder and sequentially label the folders (i.e., in the order in which they would have been recovered or in which they should be examined). • Have students sketch the site and describe the artifacts found. Timing is dependent on each site; usually, students can begin a sketch after examining one-quarter to one-third of the artifacts. • Write directions for the students. Include directions describing when they are to open the folders. Also, include an archaeologist's report to be read after all of the folders have been opened so that students see what the site might have looked like. • Through effective questioning, help students recognize that the archaeologist presents his or her best ideas only after considering all of the evidence discovered and examined. • If student work begins with the recovery of artifacts, students will need more detailed directions on how to prepare a site for artifact recovery, how to section off a site, how to recover artifacts wi!;hout damaging them or the surrounding area, and how to clean, label, and store artifacts. • Have students sketch the entire site, including the grid lines they created when they sectioned the site. Direct them to create notes regarding each artifact recovered. Third grade students are assigned an archaeological dig at a site from the American Revolution. The artifacts recovered at the site are contained in a series of folders. The students examined the contents of each folder and then carried out the tasks as directed. Table 5.1 summarized the folder contents and directives. The foundation, which indicated the arrangement of the rooms, and the picture of the house reveal it to be a Georgian-style house of colonial Virginia gentry. Both loyalist and patriot buttons found on the site establish the groups of people present at the site, and coins establish the period in time. An archaeologist also worked with records to determine the use of artifacts and looked at precedent from other historic sites from a similar time or place. In this simulation, students also got to read records to determine how the artifacts they found fit into the context of the site and how they could connect the artifacts to the story of the site. Students needed to re-create the story of what happened at this site based on the evidence from the artifacts recovered. The lead pencil indicated literacy, and the wine bottle impression revealed that there was foreign trade. The story the students re-create is defined by the archeology; for example, the arrangement of the rooms disclosed that people heated the rooms with fireplaces and cooled them with symmetrical paired openings that allowed breezes to pass through the house. The students could determine some facts but not others; for example, there was evidence that loyalists and patriots were both present in the house, but there is no evidence that they were both there at the same time or that they were in a battle at the site. Students need to use their historical thinking skills to determine what was possible at the site and to determine what they do not have evidence [0 support. TABJE 5.t~!tll@.:G!AOE.~!S,!!~§'9J;.o~I,CALDIG " ic 7% ",-~ " FOLDER CONTENTS TASK(S) 1 Blueprints showing four rooms off a central These are the foundations of a house. List hall; center stairway; fireplaces in every room; five things they tell about the home. symmetrical arrangements of the floor plan including windows, fireplace, doors; front and back porches; evidence of columns 2 Butler's Rangers button; musket ball; Royal List one thing an archaeologist can learn Regiment of Artillery button about its owner from each object. Find out more about these objects. 3 Picture, diagram, and text describing a List one new thing learned about each Revolutionary War cartridge; illustration and . artifact from the documentation. How does description of the Butler's Rangers button; this confirm or refute the list created in the illustration and description of the Royal last folder? Sift through dirt of the back right Regiment of Artillery button room. 4 George II coin; lead pencil Find these objects. List one thing each object tells about its owner. Find out more about these objects. 5 Description of the King's shilling; photo and List one new thing learned about each description of a lead pencil artifact from the documentation. How does this confirm or refute the list created in the last folder? Sift through dirt from the back left room. 6 .. Hand-forged spike; wine bottle impression; small Find these objects. List one thing each object -: porcelain cup tells about its owner. Find out more about these objects. 7 Description of a wine seal; chart illustrating List one new thing learned about each the types and dates of handmade nails artifact from the documentation. How does this confirm or refute the list created in the last folder? Sift through dirt from the front left room. B A hand-forged nail; Continental infantry button; Find these objects. List one thing each object American artillery button tells about its owner. Find out more about these objects. 9 Illustration and description of an American List one new thing learned about artillery button; illustration and description each artifact from the documentation. How of a Continental button does this confirm or refute the list created in the last folder? Draw how each room in the house might have looked. 10 A picture of a two-story Georgian-style Based on all the evidence you have colonial brick home gathered, write a story to explain what might have occurred at the house. Teachers can also create mini-archeological digs by using dishpans filled wid1 sand to represent me different grid squares in an archeological site. The teacher salts me site wim artifacts mat would not have decomposed such as glass, china, metal, bone, stone, horn, or shell. Smdents use trowels, paintbrushes, or dental picks to remove artifacts. The teacher can use permanent marker on d1e bottom of me lightcolored dishpans to indicate soil stains such as posmoles, trenches, or trash pits. Dark soil stains indicate human activity: A stain for a posmole indicates a fence or strucmre, one for a trench indicates a possible wall or strucmre, and a trash pit is a great place to look for castoff rubbish. The teacher can also use permanent marker on d1e dishpans to indicate building materials such as brick, stone, or clay. Black, M. S. (1998). Using archaeology to explore cultures of North America through time. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 11( 1), 11-16. Black, M. S. (1999). Transformations of the past: Teachers' knowledge of North American archaeology. Social Studies) 90( 6), 266-272. Black, M. S. (2001). Maturing gracefully? 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