The Archaeology Program is designed to introduce students to the study of the discipline by having students participate in the excavation of a simulated archaeological site. While “on site” the students familiarize themselves with archaeological techniques for the mapping, recovery, and recording of all artifacts exposed in the course of excavation. All artifacts recovered are returned to the “lab” (the classroom), where they are measured, weighed, and analyzed to determine form, function and date of deposit. Periodically, colloquia are held during their excavation in which students discuss the significance of their findings. Our objective is to develop both the students’ analytical and inferential skills, in particular, to provide the student with experience in carrying out independent and directed research, hypothesis formulation and testing, data collection, etc. In order to support their research efforts, the children have access to a digital database of art images, created specifically for each House to help the students re-create a context for the kinds of artifacts they uncover: for instance, 17th century Dutch paintings for finds from a New Amsterdam site; Medieval panel paintings for finds from a simulated site in Venice during the time of Marco Polo; Islamic manuscript paintings for a Timurid site along the Silk Road. This enables the children to use images as historical tools to address complicated issues of commercial exchange and social and cultural identity.
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