DIG IN! 

Kids and archaeology--it is such a natural combination! Kids are curious, they love to explore and they love to dig. I have been able to share some of my own archaeological experiences with elementary school classes in the past, and had great fun doing it. For the past few years the idea of offering a formal program to schoolchildren had been brewing in my mind, together with a steady stream of ideas for activities that would be fun to try.

Last summer I had the opportunity to offer a week-long summer program that I called "Dig In!" through the Essex Town Park and Recreation Department in Essex, Vermont. The town handled all the publicity and administration of the program and provided space in Memorial Hall, a large building otherwise used for meetings and theatrical productions. I limited enrollment to 12 because of the configuration of the simulated excavation, and the program filled up rapidly. I met with my campers, ages 8-10, for three hours each morning for our archaeological experience.

My goals for the week were simple: I wanted the children to learn something about what archaeologists do and how they do it, and to have fun trying it themselves. We spent the first two days doing a variety of activities to prepare them for the big dig. We looked at objects from our own culture and talked about whether or not they would survive being buried in the soil for thousands of years for future archaeologists to find and what they would think of them! We played "What am I?" with weird or partial objects and tried to formulate hypotheses about what they might be. The children worked on jigsaw puzzles made from old archaeology magazine covers, and mended flower pots that had been painted and broken. I showed some slides and told some stories -- Troy, Pompeii, Theseus and the Minotaur and the palace at Knossos. We looked at some of the tools archaeologists use and how a site is divided into a grid for excavation to help keep track of where everything is found. The children each made a journal where they were to record their discoveries.

The centerpiece of the week was the simulated excavation that the children worked on for two mornings. The simulation, which was a joint creation of all members of the Kling family, consists of a series of six 2' x 2' wooden boxes divided into twenty four 1' x 1' squares. Into these squares we constructed a site on a miniature scale (1:12). The site contains buildings, roads, a large enclosure wall, features such as pits, wells, hearths, a tomb (complete with skeleton) and an altar; and numerous artifacts. Materials were inexpensive and readily available. We had great family fun making pots, figurines, inscribed tablets, benches and other objects of air-drying clay. Landscape stone made great walls; aquarium stone was good for roads. Small sheets of plaster of paris, dried on aluminum foil and painted, provided fresco fragments. Dried seeds from watermelons, cantalopes and other fruits, and small chicken bones were scattered throughout the site, as were tiny beads and some "gold" trinkets of costume jewelry.

Everything was buried in sand, with just a tiny piece of stone wall visible to tip us off that there was a site at this place.

Now our young excavators could begin their work. Armed with plastic cups, spoons, brushes, buckets and sieves, they dug right in! They were terribly eager to see what was buried in this site, and very excited about every new discovery. There was a steady murmur as they worked, punctuated by the occasional "Ooh, look at this!" Working slowly was not always easy. But I stressed that this had to be a slow process, and encouraged them to work carefully, sifting each cupful of sand they removed. We had discussed the importance of keeping close track of context, so they placed each artifact into a plastic bag that they labeled with the square of the grid in which it was found. When the squares were excavated, the children wrote a journal entry of their discoveries. On pre-measured graph paper, they drew maps of all the features in their own squares. This was the most challenging activity of all, and most of the children needed help creating their maps. But they all gave it a try and saw the fruits of their efforts when we placed them together to see a complete picture of the site.

As a group we stepped back to see what we had uncovered. Theories abounded. They noticed that various features connected from square to square, and that each individual part of the site contributed to understanding the whole. They tried to find joining pieces of artifacts in different squares and explain how they could have gotten spread so far over the site. They wondered:

They very much enjoyed making up stories about the site and trying to account for the different things they had found. I encouraged them to write their stories in their journals, but this activity was too time-consuming for all but the oldest.

For the final activity the children worked in small groups-- or on their own if they preferred -- and built their own sites. Large cardboard cartons from the supermarket provided the space into which they placed their constructions. I provided a variety of materials for them to work with -- air-drying clay, craft sticks, construction paper, beads, seeds, string, small colored stones and glue. The children worked with great focus for an entire morning on this activity. The result was some wonderful creations that they shared with the other children and parents who were invited to come early on the final day.

We concluded our week with a closing circle in which we all shared our favorite parts of the experience. Not surprisingly, the dig itself was the big favorite. The original site creation was also mentioned many times, and several of the children, particularly the older ones, mentioned that they had enjoyed the slide shows and stories. For me, it had been a magical week. The high level of interest and energy of the children was wonderfully stimulating and refreshing. Their obvious enjoyment of the experience was a tremendous reward for me. I think of one little 8 year old girl, who pleaded at the end of the first day of digging the site, "PLEASE can't I stay and finish? I want to see what's there!" And I can't wait to do it again next year.

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