This week we covered an introduction to material culture as well as an overview of the Whispering Woods artifacts, what students are likely to find, and how to label and document artifacts.
To start off with material culture, students were asked to bring in 5 objects from home that they thought represented their “story”, i.e. their activities, values, and personality. Students were given another student’s objects and analyzed them using a data worksheet. At the end, they were asked to guess which student they had and to come up with some assumptions about that person. Most guessed correctly and we then tied this in to what archaeologist do with artifacts and other material culture. Unfortunately, I have, so far, forgotten to take any pictures in class, but you can check out the data worksheet MaterialCultureExercise.
Tovah treated us to a great powerpoint regarding artifacts at the Whispering Woods site and the students got to pass around the actual finds and ask questions. We were also treated to a video of “PaleoMan Jim” who demonstrated flint napping. You can view his “Flint Napping for Beginners” video here.
Next week we will be looking at human history, dating, and constructing a timeline of historic dates. I promise to take some good photos!