Archaeology for Kids: Uncovering the Mysteries of Our Past, 25 Activities
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
