"artifacts" for archaeological dig?

[MeganW]

Our history group is doing an archaeological dig on Friday. (This is young elementary school kids.)

 

Fun ideas for "artifacts" to bury?

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

Where will you be getting the artifacts? Are they supposed to be old?

 

Without more info, I'd say, bury some plastic cups, a watch or other jewelry, a pen, some toys, old tools- like a wrench or screwdriver.

[Samiam]

I'd try to do it more on a theme, meaning having clues that link together so you could show how we can use artifacts to create a story. For example, chocolate wrapper, hot wheel car, Lego, small child cup, etc......so we an see that most likely a young person, maybe male, who liked chocolate was here.

[MeganW]

Hmm. I hadn't even thought about it being a modern person. I assumed the group wanted me to indicate some certain time period in history (ie Stone Age), and that's what has been stumping me!

[Chris in VA]

Break up a little pot (like a clay pot), so they can see potsherds and how to reconstruct them into a pot. You could make this go along with the "young person" post by maybe putting a handprint on it or a childlike picture (would make it easier to reconstruct, too).

[Barb_]

Change! Kids love to dig up money :D Unless of course your guy is from the stone age and then you're on your own.

[Jenny in Florida]

Break up a little pot (like a clay pot), so they can see potsherds and how to reconstruct them into a pot. You could make this go along with the "young person" post by maybe putting a handprint on it or a childlike picture (would make it easier to reconstruct, too).

 

I did a "Greek" dig with my kids when they were younger. I bought inexpensive little terra cotta pots (like 3 for $1 or something), painted psuedo-Greek designs on them, then broke them into large-ish pieces and buried them. My daughter (my son was a little young for it) LOVED figuring out which pieces went together and then gluing everything back in place.

She still talks about that project -- what? -- 10 years later.

[MamaSheep]

For an "older" dig:

a few chicken bones (boiled to get the meat off)

a leather shoe lace

a broken clay pot

beads made of clay or wood

wood shavings

a stick with a burned end

[Plink]

We did an archaeology party and the kids dug up clues to solve the simple mystery of "How did ancient Egyptians celebrate?"

 

I posted the party plans here, with details on how to make treasure stones and the rest of the items we uncovered. Their favorite part was reassembling a tablet (made of plaster of paris) so that they could read the clue written on it.

[MeganW]

Great ideas - THANKS!!!

[MamaSheep]

It occurs to me that a couple of years back we made "ancient coins" by making molds in clay (made a round indentation with the end of a fat dowel rod, and then used a toothpick to make a design in the bottom--the coins we made were one-sided), and then pouring in melted paraffin that had been colored with "antique gold" pigment (the wax needs to be fairly cool before you pour it into the clay so the clay doesn't get melty and stick to the wax--we used FIMA clay). They were quite a hit with the kids (and their friends), and could make for some interesting additions to an "ancient" archaeological dig.