Curriculum Resources for the Alaskan Environment
Subject Areas: local
history, archaeology, natural history, math, report
writing
Timeline: 1-2
months
Grade Levels:
7-12
Purpose: to develop and
preserve a sense of local history; to organize an
archaeological "dig" either within the village or
within camping distance; to employ various methods
of excavation
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T. Wagner and J.
Boyle
Village
Archaeology
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Activities
- Talk to elders about where people
used to live, where structures used to stand, or where
festivals used to occur. Ask about old village sites,
abandoned camp sites, and
ancient battle grounds ... maybe even old burial grounds.
Attempt to determine ownership or previous occupancy by
word-of-mouth or through village records.
- Once you've chosen a site, either
in the village or elsewhere, sectionally divide the site
with string or rope in a grid fashion. Make sections
about three yards square.
- Each student should be responsible
for one grid. Start careful digging and use a screen
sieve for fine work. Look for pits, mounds, bones,
utensils, cut rock, etc.-anything
that looks out-of-the-ordinary.
- When something is discovered,
record from which grid, how deep it was found, and what
else was there. Write to the museum at the University of
Alaska for survey methods and
mapping used and for methods of preservation.
- Use photographs where possible and
do "exploded" drawings to show relative positions of
artifacts in relation to other artifacts at the same
dig.
- Send samples to the museum for
dating and write a site report.
Resources
- University of Alaska Fairbanks
Museum
- Alaska Historical Library and
Museum
- Society for Historical
Archaeology, Department of Sociology and Anthropology,
University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83843
- a long handled, rounded or pointed
shovel
- some trowels, several cheap paint
brushes
- small screen with wooden frame,
some containers, and an atomizer
- Robbins, Maurice. (1973). The
Amateur Archaeologist Handbook. Crowell
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Variations
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