6A Human Identity #3 Artifacts and preserved remains provide some evidence of the physical characteristics and possible behavior of human beings who lived a very long time ago....

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Artifacts 1: What Can We Learn From Artifacts?

To determine what artifacts are, how they are discovered, and what information can be learned from them.

Students have learned very general things about people: what they need to live and that they live in families and communities. Learning about artifacts will expand on the basics. For instance, people need food to live, and by studying artifacts we can learn about what foods people ate long ago, as well as how they ate them. Artifacts can also give insight to behavior, and students may discover clues to how that community operated. They can use their own experiences to compare and contrast how other communities lived.

In this, the first of two lessons on archaeology, students will learn about artifacts-what they are, how they are initially buried and then excavated. In the second lesson, entitled Artifacts 2: Artifacts in Context, students explore an online archaeological site to learn about Catalhoyuk, an ancient city found in the country of Turkey. Thinking about artifacts as clues to how people once lived will help students take on the role of archaeologist as they read about this mysterious city.

Ideas in this lesson are also related to concepts found in the following benchmark:

• 6A The Human Organism: Human Identity (3-5) # 2

Preview the Stratigraphy game at the Games and Puzzles section of the Kids Dig Reed website (once at the site, click on Stratigraphy).

As part of the game, students are welcomed to email their answers and address to find out if they are correct. You likely will not want to encourage your students to do this, so please be aware that you will have to set guidelines ahead of time. Or, you may wish to eliminate the issue by conducting the activity offline. If so, print hard copies of the Stratigraphy game ahead of time.

Materials:

• Rubber gloves
• Trash can filled with garbage
• Newspaper
• Trash Checklist from the If Trash Could Talk activity on the American Museum of Natural History website

Ask the students: "If I had never met you and walked into your bedroom, what would I know about you from the things you have there? Would I know if you were a boy or a girl? Would I know what your interests are? Would I know if you share your room?"

Now ask students to think of something in their bedroom that is very special to them. Ask them: "How does that object tell something about you, along with everything else in your room?" Tell students that everything together tells about you because it is in context. You have selected certain things to have, and these things tell about you when they are all found together.

Explain to students that an artifact is any object that was made, modified, used, or moved, by past human behavior. Have students look around the classroom. Ask them: "Could any of the objects in this room be considered artifacts?" Have students describe how objects in the classroom could be artifacts.

Print out the If Trash Could Talk activity found on the American Museum of Natural History site. Have students do the activity described on the page, emphasizing that they should be careful with handling the trash and be sure to wear rubber gloves.

Once students have finished sorting the trash, they should answer the questions on the Think About It: What Does Your Trash Say? sheet. In addition to the questions at the site, ask questions such as:

• What items in someone's trash could tell us what the person might look like (physical characteristics)? (For example, if clothes were found, perhaps students could know the size of the person.)
• What items in the trash could tell us something about the person's behavior? (For example, wrappers or left-overs could provide clues about eating habits.)

Ask students to consider the following as they search:

• Name some of the artifacts that were found at the Reed Farmstead site.
• How were the artifacts found?
• What are some of the processes that the archaeologists use to uncover the artifacts?
• What are some of the tools that they use?
• Look at the Artist's Reconstruction. How were the archaeologists able to learn where each of the buildings stood and how each was used?
• What did you learn about the Reed Family from the artifacts?

As noted in the Planning Ahead, students are welcomed to email their answers and address to find out if they are correct. You likely will not want to encourage your students to do this, so please use your established guidelines. Or, you may wish to eliminate the issue by conducting the activity offline. If so, distribute print out copies of the Stratigraphy game.

Ask groups to discuss and be prepared to share their ideas on the following:

• Can you put the layers in order from oldest to newest?
• What types of artifacts do you see in the different layers?
• Why do we see different artifacts in different layers?
• What might happen to some of the artifacts in the newer layers over time?
• Which ones might hold up over time?
  

Once you have generated a substantial list, ask students to think about how these things were preserved for thousands of years. Even if students are unsure, encourage them to come up with ideas. For example, an earthquake could have buried artifacts and they would be found later when digging to put in a new subway system. You may also want to list and record the questions students might have about the process of preserving artifacts.

Ask students to brainstorm a list of artifacts from our civilization that archaeologists in the future might find. Encourage them to think of things from school and home that could be preserved over time. Students should select those artifacts that would give archaeologists strong clues about the physical characteristics and behaviors of early 21st century people in your community or school.

Ask students to:

• Name two artifacts that would help the archaeologists of the future to know more about our physical characteristics. Explain what each artifact suggests and why.
• Name two artifacts that would help archaeologists of the future to know more about our behavior. Explain what each artifact suggests and why.

Follow this lesson with part two of the Science NetLinks series, entitled Artifacts 2: Artifacts in Context.

Created : 10/20/2001