This trip consists of 3 activities: walking tour, mapping, artifact observation
1. Walking tour of the village streets and the Manatee River
2. Mapping of playground equipment – measuring and plot on map
3. Simulated archaeological dig – varying time periods
Protocol:
Introductions and Introduction to Archaeology
Students take clipboards, field journals and pencils. Guide leads students in discussion about archaeology, artifacts, and context. All field trip activities relate to different ways that archaeologists study the past.
Key Points:
What is Archaeology?
Archaeologists learn about the past by studying the stuff people leave behind.
These include changes to the landscape and artifacts (stuff made or altered)
How else do we study the past? OR Who else studies the past?
We read histories. Historians study the past by studying documents.
What are examples of documents?
“Official documents”, like Declaration of Independence, but also anything written: books, journals, diaries, receipts, wills, maps, photographs
What can archaeology tell us that these things can’t?
Archaeology can correct history, because people haven’t always told the truth in documents. (think mass graves) Or confirm history or legend. (Indian oral history of their version of battles with U.S. cavalry)
Archaeologists might be able to locate where something important happened, so it can be preserved.
Archaeology can tell us about the people who aren’t famous. We know a lot about the plantation owners and how they bought and sold slaves, the type of work they had slaves do, the type of punishments they gave slaves. But archaeology has allowed us to find out that enslaved people also hid things from their owners. Especially things having to do with their African religion.
Archaeology can tell us about things that people might want to hide. (smoking, alcohol use)
How do archaeologists decide where to dig?
Archaeologists know that people always have needed certain basic things where they live
Water (the spring), dry ground, source of food (Manatee River)
They think about what was important to people in the past (river – food, transportation, trade, communication, defense, escape)
They look at documents –
BRING OUT MAP –
Locate participant school and Manatee Mineral Spring on present day map; then show historical map of same area. Note on present day map the importance of roads in locating where their school is – on historical map, the importance of relationship to river.
Once they decide where to dig – how do they interpret how old something is?
Explain Stratigraphy
What is stratigraphy? (layers – oldest is at the bottom)
Explain using story of stuff piling up on their bedroom floor, then use visual of box with four layers of sand, deeper is older.
How many of you have nice clean rooms?
Messy rooms?
Well, my son is off at college now, so his room is nice and neat. But when he was at home it was pretty messy. He used to sit at his desk to do his homework, and imagine he was eating a bag of potato chips.
What would he do with the bag when he was done? (crumple it up, TRY to throw it in the trash)
Would it make it into the trash? (no) Would he pick it up off the floor? (no)
Next – he would finish with his math homework and put the math book where? (on the floor – on top of the bag of chips)
He would get hot and take off his sweatshirt (on top of the math book, on top of the chips)
He would finish his homework and play Nintendo. When done the controller would go where? (on top of the sweatshirt, math book, chips)
Next morning – rushing out the door – he forgot? (His math book)
Who would go get it? (mom) What would she find first?
(Nintendo controller) Then? (sweatshirt) Then? (math book) And then!?! (trash on the floor!)
Show Archaeological Field Journal – Place for notes for each activity
Divide into three groups: walking tour, mapping, artifact observation
Mapping exercise:
Students will locate four compass points and notate the map in their field journal, also noting scale.
Explain:
How to read the compass
How to use landmarks, the Manatee River
Scale
Stress importance of taking care of tools and using them properly.
Divide into groups of 4, sharing a tape measure and worksheet.
Working as a team, students will measure the location and size of one playground structure and record this location and scaled size on their maps. Groups gather when done and see how their piece fits into a map of the property and how archaeologists might interpret a similar pattern of buried structures.
Excavation and Analysis exercise:
What is an artifact? Stuff that someone made or altered for use.
What is context? Where something is found. Why is context important? If an artifact is out of context than we lose much of the information about the people who owned it.
Who is a big football fan? What is your favorite team and player?
Imagine student’s room with posters, t-shirts, shoes, sticker on notebooks, signed footballs, etc all emblazoned with player’s/team’s name.
What would I know if I walked into (his) room? That he loved this player.
If all those items were dispersed – to school, yard, friend’s house, etc, and I walked into his room, would I be able to tell that he loved that player?
Explain importance of technique. Archaeologists don’t “dig” because that messes up stratigraphy
(imagine I took big scoop to that pile in my son’s room – would I know that the trash was put down first?)
Stratigraphy is the most important clue about context.
Demonstrate technique of scraping layer with scoop, putting dirt in bucket, screening dirt, selecting artifact.
Go over instructions: all artifacts stay on screen. Each student will have one chance to “dig”, then must choose an artifact for analysis - to draw and answer questions about
Divide into 4 groups:
Each student gets a turn to carefully scrape dirt into a bucket for screening. Maximum dirt per student is 1/3 bucket.
Screen dirt. Of the artifacts found, student chooses one to sketch, leaves rest in screen.
Sketch, describe, and make a hypothesis about the artifact found.
Questions?
Archaeologist will gather all students, make the rounds between stratigraphy boxes, and engage students in discussing the artifacts uncovered. What was found? Do we sort by material, or usage? Can we tell anything about the people who might have used these objects?
Boxes:
A Contact Period: Native American Settlement
Arrowheads to procure food; broken bone, oyster shells represent food, could be modified to make tools; charcoal for fire, warmth, cooking; beads for trade.
Point out that Native Americans didn’t have as much stuff – mostly necessities
B 18th Century: Household
Utilitarian ceramics (used for storage or food preparation), and fancier tableware, brass buttons with shanks, spoon, 3 tined forks, cut bones.
Point out the difference in bone from NA use. These are butchered by sawing. 3 tined fork and spoon represent early use of matching tablewares.
C 19th Century: Household, also tools for building, fancy items
Fancier ceramics, glass jewelry box, could represent greater wealth. Ceramic pipe, cut nails, railroad spike would all date to later in 19th century.
D 20th Century: Modern period, health care, children with time to play
Plastic key identifier for time period; medical, leisure evidence. Think about how much more stuff the modern group has compared to the Native American.
When one excavates, it is not for things, but to record the entire biological, geographic, and human environment. And when excavation is completed, a long stage of critical analysis and reporting begins. It is only by doing good archaeology that we can hope to expand our understanding of a rich and complex past.