Archaeology in the Classroom

 

October happens to be Archaeology Month, recognized and observed internationally as well as throughout the US; the third Saturday in the month is International Archaeology Day on which the Archaeological Institute of America sponsors numerous events and online activities. After a brief introduction to some of the lingo of the field – stratigraphy, artifact, and excavation - we devoted part of each 70 minute class in October to our first 3 practica. Temporarily setting aside our desire for sweets, we “excavated” the “artifacts” (chocolate chips) from the “soil” (the cookie) with our “trowels” (toothpicks), demonstrating the fundamental truth of archaeology – it is, essentially, a destructive science, effectively ruining the site as it reveals the story contained therein. Students described their site before lifting their toothpicks – weighing, measuring, and sketching in an attempt to preserve it for posterity. Maintaining the integrity of the chips as they came out of the cookie was at times a frustratingly futile exercise!

We discussed the idea that what we are digging up when we excavate a site is, in essence, other people’s trash, and we decided to examine what we are leaving behind in our weekly garbage, recycling, and bulk trash. Each student tracked his or her household garbage for a week and reported out to the class. We had several “sustainability moments” as students realized the truth of their family’s recycling habits, just how much packaging is around our food, and what some of the ubiquitous plastic items we throw away might say about us in the future.

The students pored over a random collection of items in a “find bag”, creating elaborate stories about the people who might have owned and used these items. We discussed the diversity of perspectives which allowed them to identify some items and not others – one person’s earring was another’s chandelier crystal; a shrimp fork had a number of different purported uses! Students then brought in their own “artifact”, something that they thought would evoke a particular part of their personalities and experiences for future scholars.

In these exercises, we began to approach the idea that an artifact can be “read” as a text, tell a story, and be as evocative of its creator and user as a poem of Catullus. This point was driven home by former Hackley faculty member Amanda Leins, who came in December to speak to the students about material culture. Amanda, who studied archaeology in college and graduate school and who worked in the field at sites in northern Israel, used both her own dig site and the Ara Pacis Augustae to illustrate for the students how to read a vase, a metal tool, or a building as a text. Amanda made the point that archaeology is what allows us insight into the lives of the silent majority of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds – women, children, and slaves – who are not often mentioned in traditional written accounts. Jewelry, toys, and manacles tell us more about the daily existence of these populations than any of Tacitus’ Histories.

As we move through the rest of the year, students will look at texts which relate specifically to their Latin or Greek classes; we will delve more into current archaeological activities around the world through web sites and “Archaeology Magazine”. We will continue to enjoy the charming adventures of the BBC’s “Time Team” crew-working archaeologists, historians, and geologists- as they explore the Roman occupation of Britain.

Thomas Rover ’12, who spent last term digging in Rome, will come in the winter to talk about his experiences in the field. And, if all goes as planned, we will both visit an active archaeological site in New York and conduct an excavation of our own on the Hackley campus, relying on the help of the Math, Science, and Visual Art Departments as we encounter triangulation, mapping, soil and rock stratigraphy, and site reconstruction.

All this gives new meaning to a button I once donned in celebration of Rome’s birthday one April 21st. It read “Rome: Older than Dirt”. Indeed.

Click here to download a PDF of Amanda Leins' presentation.
Click here to listen to a podcast of Dr. Pierce and Ms. Lein's conversation on this topic.

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