Under Our Feet: People

Under Our Feet: People — page 1 — UNDER IT’S AWESOME ABOVE YOUR HEAD OUR FEET Humans have always looked up at the skies and tried to make sense of what they saw We have always reached for the stars climbed to the tops of the tallest mountains and dreamt of life on other planets We have built amazing skyscrapers and monuments to the heavens People live in some of the highest places possible and now some even live in space INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION 4

Under Our Feet: People — page 2 — IT’S AMAZING ALL AROUND YOU There aren’t many places you can go on Earth to be truly alone With over 7 billion people on Earth we’re usually surrounded by people from our families and the people we live with to densely populated cities that are home to millions of human beings all living out their lives around us LOOK DOWN Have you ever thought about the people beneath our feet though No we’re not talking about today’s people whizzing along in underground trains or digging and mining just below the surface We mean the bones tools and treasures of people who walked the surface of Earth long ago and who would have stood and looked at the same stars we do today These people have kept their secrets for hundreds and even thousands of years and their stories lie just under our feet 5

Under Our Feet: People — page 3 — SLEEPING IN THE SOIL DID YOU KNOW The art and science of looking for the things ancient people left behind is called archaeology Trash heaps may not sound very interesting to us but ancient ones can teach archaeologists a lot about the past THIS BROKEN TOY WAS THROWN AWAY DURING WORLD WAR TWO THIS ARCHAEOLOGIST IS CAREFULLY EXCAVATING A SKELETON Things that archaeologists find are called artifacts Artifacts can tell us a lot about how the people before us lived This artifact the Rosetta Stone was found in Egypt It shows the same text in three different languages This meant that Egyptian hieroglyphic writing could be properly translated for the first time There’s so much to see Up here on the street But it’s even more interesting Under our feet AKROTIRI SANTORINI GREECE IS AN IMPORTANT SITE FOR ARCHAEOLOGISTS 6

Under Our Feet: People — page 4 — FACT FILE ARCHAEOLOGY Some archaeological sites can be seen from the surface Others are buried beneath the ground Archaeologists must dig carefully artifacts can be very fragile Archaeologists use tools such as spoons knives picks brushes and shovels THINGS ARCHAEOLOGISTS LOOK FOR HUMAN REMAINS BUILDINGS DIG DEEP POSSESSIONS Archaeologists look for any signs of humans they can find By looking carefully at the artifacts they find archaeologists can begin to understand how people lived long ago Bones and bodies can tell us about what people ate how they lived and how they died Their possessions and how they stored them can tell us about their technology beliefs and culture And by looking at their buildings we can learn about their societies and how they all lived together 7

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