Delmar-Harvard Time Travelers
June 03, 2008
Students in grades 3-6 traveled back in time with the visit of Mary Pirkl, an anthropologist from the American Center for Archeology from nearby Kampsville, Illinois. Archeologists are like history detectives; they find out about people in the past and how they lived by searching for and studying whatever physical evidence remains—such as graves, buildings, tools, and pottery. We live close to an area—where the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers come together—where humans have lived for more than 10,000 years; there are thousands of recorded archeological sites here.
Back in the present—at Delmar-Harvard School—time traveling detectives were needed! Students met in the science lab to examine the evidence. Although Ms. Pirkl could not bring authentic artifacts or fossils (those stay in the museums), she did bring more recent examples that students could examine and develop hypotheses about what they were, how they were used, what they might tell us about the people who used them. Detectives were especially intrigued by the animal skulls and bones; they identified a rabbit, a raccoon, and a deer.
You can visit the Center for American Archeology on Archeology Day, Saturday, July 12, 2008, 10 AM-4PM. Admission is free for the following activities: flintknapping demonstration; artifact identification, hands-on activities, a tour of a 2000 year-old excavation site, archeological sample processing, and more! Visit CAA’s website, http://www.caa-archeology.org/ , and click on the link desecribing Archeology Day.
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site also celebrates Archeology Day on Aug. 2, 10am-4pm with demonstrations of ancient crats, artifact washing and processing, hands-on activities, tours of excavations, and storytelling. Visit their website for more information: http://www.cahokiamounds.com/cahokia.html
