Can You Dig It? An investigation of how archaeology is done and how careful observations are used to create well-supported inferences. The first standard of the year in seventh grade social studies is called “Thinking Like a Historian”. Work in the first few weeks of the year has centered around the different tools and methods historians use to put together the different stories of the past. Piecing together the ancient past is particularly tricky, as we have no written records to help us understand what people did or believed or how they felt. Instead, historians and archaeologists have to rely on making observations and then using those observations to come up with inferences and conclusions. On Wednesday, October 3, the seventh graders put the skills that they learned about into practice by taking part in an archaeological dig. Four sites complete with artifacts were discovered by our beloved “blue barn”. The students worked in teams to uncover the artifacts that lay beneath the soil. One site had objects right on the surface while another had objects a foot below the grass. After carefully brushing away dirt and uncovering the artifacts, they worked to make detailed site maps and inventories of what they discovered. Only after each artifact was recorded in their fieldnotes were objects taken from the ground and given closer observation. The notes generated from this experience were then used to create inferences about what happened in each site.
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