Summer SAVY 2017, Session 2/Day 4- Digging for the Past (Rising 4th/5th)

Posted by morganr1 on Thursday, June 22, 2017 in SAVY.

Today was a really challenging day, but it was also so much fun! Today, every student in the class worked as an archaeologist for the entire day to conduct mock excavations, analysis of artifacts, and site interpretations. The class was split into four groups, and each group was given an excavation box that represented a different activity area at a prehistoric site in Tennessee. We used the knowledge we have learned all week to excavate each portion of the site in stratigraphic layers while also collecting, bagging, and cataloging artifacts. I was extremely impressed with the entire class during the excavation! Everyone worked so well together, and I really enjoyed hearing everyone’s theories about the artifacts they were finding!! Once the excavations were finished, we cleaned up, and then we began the artifact analyses. Each group had to think critically about what the function of their part of the site was, what activities are represented by the artifacts, and what this data tells us about how prehistoric people lived. At the end of the day, each group wrote a short report of their excavations and presented it to the class. Then, we discussed as a class what our interpretations about the entire site were, and we also talked about why these types of investigations are important and how they can impact our understanding of present societies.

Ms. Johnson