History Lesson Plan Using Archaeology
Dig Up the Past is a Fun Lesson Resource for History Teachers
Jun 8, 2009
This classroom (or outdoor) exercise offers students a sense of what it must be like to be archaeologists on a dig. They will experience the excitement and mystery of the find and employ knowledge, deduction, inference, intuition and plain old guesswork to determine what the finds can tell them about the culture and the individuals they have "found". The exercise works well with upper primary and junior high.
Preamble for the Classroom Exercise "Dig Up the Past"
Students are divided into groups of 4-6 "archeological teams" and are told that the year is 3009, and they have just stumbled on the ancient lost city of [insert name of home town]. Each team is working in different areas of the site, slowly scraping away the layers to reveal the remnants of house walls. As they carefully uncover artifacts, they have to examine them and determine what they are, and label them,
When all the artifacts have been uncovered, the team must work together to establish what the items can tell them about the person or persons living in the household and build up a picture of the society.
Process for Classroom Exercise
The simplest, cleanest process and the one that requires least teacher preparation and work involves placing a selection of 6 items in a cardboard box or similar receptacle and placing it on the desk of the "archaeological team".
Alternative Process for Classroom Exercise
The process that provides greatest stimulus and fun for students but is the messier, more arduous task for the teacher to organize is to place the items to be discovered at various depths in a bucket of sand (or polystyrene beads). The exercise must be conducted outdoors. Students have a trowel and household sieve and must sift the sand to recover the items. This creates a great level of expectation and excitement, especially when the ‘finds’ are objects that are not instantly recognizable.
Possible Items to be Discovered and Analysed in "Dig Up the Past"
The teacher will need to spend some preliminary time gathering suitable items for the exercise, especially if working with a large class, as there needs to be at least 6 items per group. The following list is by no means exhaustive or definitive. It is offered to prompt teachers’ own imagination. Items can be chosen to reflect other lesson themes such as gender, religious studies, work and careers.
The teacher needs to decide which 6 of this assortment of items will best go together to create an interesting puzzle for each "archaeological team".
- Rubber pet toy
- Baby’s pacifier/dummy
- Religious medal or insignia
- Foreign coin
- Comb
- Lipstick
- Broken fragment of cheap figurine (preferably difficult to identify)
- Plastic toy
- Piece of uncooked spaghetti or macaroni
- Bottle cap or ring pull
- Fragment of old shirt or blouse with a button attached (Button placement may indicate male or female garment)
- Disposable razor (blade removed)
- Fragments of small china item that can be re-constructed
- Small item belonging to particular trade
- Apple core
- Newspaper fragment (may give ‘clue’ to era)
- CD cover
- Old photo
- Brand name logo patch
- Sweet wrapper
- Hair ribbon (discussion on gender assumptions)
Fun or Wacky Puzzles to Include
As well as fairly pedestrian items that students have to analyse, the teacher can include any number of things that may generate debate and some creative thinking. For example:
- Love letter or rejection note torn into several fragments
- Corner of letter with just a few words per line: Nothing wrong …. Imprisoned …. Friends won’t
- Carrot with notches or symbols carved on it
Debriefing After the Exercise
Teacher needs to round up the fun by drawing students’ attention to the fact that real archaeologists use similar skills to define ancient cultures from the few fragments they uncover. A subsequent lesson could look at some real finds, the assumptions and deductions made and perhaps some of the uncertainties and controversies. A fun lesson is guaranteed.
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