Archaeology for Kids: Uncovering the Mysteries of Our Past, 25 Activities
Last dinosaurs die out on 6 million First Ramapithecuse Mug million First Australopithecus o 45 million First Homo habilise 2 million ne First Homo erectus on 19 million ne First Homo sapiens neanderthalenaiso aboooo First Homo RC apiens An sapiens 4s First humans are in the New world on Goodisodic Last Ice Age ends Mesolithic period begins first attempts a farming on First edithic villages of booo R c Sumerian civilizations at its packed Great Pyramid of Ohaps built a Shang Dynasty begins in China opene Hoght of ancient Gred civilization age Alexander the Great invades Egypt a Alexander the Great inades Babylonies S Heighs of ancient Roman civilization of one Julius Caesar assassinated o a ne Mount Vesuvius erupts and hurries Pompei and Haralamaum as Great Wall of China originally built one Classic Mayor aviation begins End of the Roman Empire so Vikings and a Newfoundland aroon Cork begins conquest of the Aztea org Azarre begins tonguest of the ince a
1560 The Maya fall to the Spanish a Colony founded at Jamestoum Virginia Pilgrimsland at Plymouth Massachusetts o Excavations begin at Pompeii o American Revolutionary War an to Jeron acavates a burial mound Napoleon invades Egypt Catherwood and Stephens begin a ploration of Mayan country Lampard axcavates at Nimrud Babylonia o Neanderthal remains discovered o American Civil War Time Line to Schliemann begins search for the city of Troy Great Zimbabwe ruins discovered o Parie arrives in Egypt o Homo erectus remains discovered a o The Incan city of Machu Picchu is discovered go Caner unearths tomb of Tutankhamun o Woolery begins acavations in Babylonia o Australopithecus remains discovered Cousteaus investigates a Roman shipwreck 1974 Army of 7 000 life sized terra cotta soldiers found in China 1978 Australopithecus remains of Lucy found o New Egyptian burial ground found containing up to 10 000 mummies
INTRODUCTION What Is Archaeology ook around your room What do you see Chances are you see books magazines toys and clothing These items are your material possessions the things you own in life Now make a list of everything in your room that is in plain sight How many of these things do you think you'll still have in 20 years What will happen to the rest of the stuff Most material possessions eventually end up in the trash can and then get hauled off to a landfill many miles from where you live to slowly decay Why As you know toys break clothes become too small and stuff that was cool when you were younger becomes very uncool We live in a disposable culture where most things are thrown away This disposable culture we live in is nothing new One mil lion years ago it was the same Even the earliest humanlike crea tures that roamed the earth had a few possessions including tools made of rock What do you think happened when a stone tool broke or when a spear was thrown and lost Since material possessions have existed people have been
losing them leaving them and throwing them away In a nut shell archaeology is the science of finding and studying material possessions lost or discarded in the past Why is it a science It certainly does not look like a science on TV and in the movies where brave men and women with whips and knives and guns thrash their way through jungles and deserts against all odds to single handedly find glorious ruins and treasures In truth there are plenty of archaeological sites in jungles and deserts and archaeologists sometimes do make the kind of discoveries you see on the big screen But most of the big dis coveries don't involve piles of gold or deadly booby traps What archaeologists do come across in most excavations are thou sands of everyday artifacts bits and pieces of the past ranging in size from smaller than your pinky fingernail to twice as big as you And though you might not think so every scrap of the past no matter how small can tell us fascinating stories about the people who made and used it Archaeology is the best tool we have for solving the myster ies of ancient life In this book you will learn about how archae ologists work and what they have discovered so far about the past from the earliest humanlike creatures a few million years ago all the way up to about 100 years ago You'll also have a chance to do some fun activities that will help you understand archaeology and the amazing cultures that have been uncovered underfoot
