Have you ever wondered what it would be like to go on an
archeology excavation? It's a lot of hard work but it is a cross between
finding buried treasure and being a detective. Come along and I will show
start with what is an archeologist? Many people think an archeologist digs
up dinosaurs. But, they're not. The scientists that dig dinosaurs
are called paleontologists. Paleontologists study the fossils of plants
and animals. Some people think archeologists know all about rocks and the
history of the earth. But, that's not quite true either. While it is
important that archeologists know about how land is formed, people who study
rock formations specifically are called geologists.
then, what is an archeologist? Archeologists are scientists who study the
life and culture of ancient peoples. In movies, archeologists are always
in the middle of an adventure like the old Indiana Jones movies, but in real
life an archeologist spends time piecing together the past by studying the
places and objects left by people who lived here a long time ago. In many
ways an archeologist has to know a lot about what a paleontologist knows and
they have to know about the geology of where the people lived to understand how
they lived. It is a little confusing, but the key idea is that
archeologists study people.
Before we explore more about what archeologists do, we need to
understand the difference in the words historic and prehistoric. Something
is historic if it happened after European explorers came to Texas and began
writing down the events. Prehistoric, then, is anything before written
Now, let's look at the places archeologists study, or sites.
Finding a "site" where people lived is just a matter of looking for it.
It might be the remains of an old log cabin built in the 1800s somewhere in East
Texas or an adobe house in West Texas. It might be a dugout built in West
Texas by early settlers. In South Texas it might be a mission that was
built by the Spanish in the 1700s. These are all historic sites.
Prehistoric peoples lived all over the state of Texas but in Central Texas they
sometimes lived in rock overhangs called rock shelters.
also lived in campsites that were not protected from the weather very well.
They had to have some type of shelter in these open campsites, but it was likely
simple since they frequently moved. Why did all these people choose to
live where they did? The major factor was water and then food. Many
historic sites were built on top of prehistoric sites because people have always
had to have food and water. Many places that were chosen to live a
thousand years ago were almost the same 200 years ago.
we find a site we need to gather up all our friends to help. Everyone who
does archeology needs to like to camp. Archeologists camp out a lot.
Of course we have to have a professional archeologist to make sure we are doing
things right. The way things were left at the site when the people who
created the site moved away are clues to who the people were, what they were
doing and why they lived there. Finding these clues is like being a
detective, and it is important that we not move them until we have them properly
documented. After all, if someone took the murder weapon away from a
murder scene without telling the detective, the detective might not know who was
guilty. We don't want to take clues from archeological sites without the
help of an archeologist because he might not be able to answer our three
questions (who the people were, what they were doing and why they lived there).
We will ask Dr. Indiana Jones to be our archeologist.
Next we have to get all the tools we need to work. We will
need shovels, buckets, trowels, whiskbrooms, string, screens, and tape measures.
These are sort of the basics. Dr. Jones will bring his expensive survey
equipment to help make a map of the site. Today, archeologists use
instruments called Total Data Stations.
might also use transits. Besides our equipment, the most important items
we need are pencil and paper.
Remember about clues? If you watch mysteries on TV, you
know that even moving clues can be a problem. When we dig, we find
things called artifacts.
are items left there by the people who lived there. They are also clues to
the three questions. When we find an artifact we have to write down (map)
where we found it. The archeologist will bring a camera so a picture of
where it is found can be taken.
You don't dig with shovels very much. If there is dirt
that doesn't have artifacts in it you can use a shovel, but you have to be
archeologists use trowels (pointed tools used by bricklayers) and dig very
carefully so they do not miss any clues.
Now we are ready to start digging (excavating). We have to
keep records of where each artifact was found (clues, remember). To be
able to map the position of an artifact Dr. Jones wants us to dig in squares that
are located on a big map of the site he created with a total data station or
transit. This lets the archeologist create a map of everything the people
left at the site. And, as you dig, it is really exciting to find something
that was made two or three thousand years ago, or think about the people living
We have to dig carefully so all the artifacts we fine can be
mapped and photographed. So, as we dig, we put all our dirt into buckets
and take them to a screen. This is because we can't find all of the
artifacts as we dig. Some are too small and some we just miss. To be
sure we don't throw away an important clue we take the dirt to a screen. A
screen has wire squares that allow the dirt to go through but keeps the
artifacts. It also keeps rocks and sticks and grass and all sorts of junk
that has to be thrown out. Sometimes water from a hose is run over the
dirt to help get it through the screen. All the kids like to water screen.
You get wet and muddy! You can't keep clean digging in the dirt!
we are finally getting to the exciting part: finding the buried treasure—the
artifacts that give us the clues to the people that lived on that spot so long
When I work at a dig, I wonder what type of artifacts might be found?
Prehistoric people made tools out of wood, rock and bone. Unless you are
in a really dry area of Texas like West Texas or along the Rio Grande in large
rock shelters, wood is usually not found. In a lot of sites the bone has
rotted also. So the largest number of artifacts is made of stone. The
Indians really liked to use a rock called flint to make their tools. As we
dig and screen the dirt we begin to find flint chips.
are what the Indians left after making a tool. We also might find some
arrowheads, tools used for scraping or drilling or tools used for cutting.
Dr. Jones tells us that some of the tools we call arrowheads are actually spear
points. Indians have lived in North America for at least 12,000 years but
they did not start using a bow and arrow until about 1,500 years ago. Wow!
He also told us they did not have horses! I never thought about horses not
being here. The Spaniards brought horses to Texas after A.D. 1500 (the
beginning of the historic time period in Texas). Sometimes, we find pieces
of big bone from bison (buffalo). The prehistoric Indians used almost
every part of the bison for food, clothes, shelter or tools but with no horses
they had to hunt and kill them on foot. I don't think that would have been
have started digging a lot of squares. You have to dig (excavate) a lot of
area to find enough clues. Some of the kids are finding different things
in different parts of the excavation.
of the boys found almost a complete pottery vessel!! Others have found
rocks used for campfires called hearths with bones around it; some found large
piles of flint; and others are getting strange colors in the dirt. Most
dirt is the same color maybe a dark brown, a light brown or a red. But, when you
get dark brown making shapes in light brown dirt the archeologist tells us that
is another type of clue. If it is a large circle it might be a pit or, if
it is small, it might be where a post was put into the ground. If you find
a lot of posts that make a line or square or circle, it might be all that is
left from the house where they lived.
These clues are called features. Features help understand what activities
the people were doing at the site like cooking, making tools, sleeping.
Hey, I just thought about something!! We have found some tools used for
scraping and some bones from bison. I think they used the scrapers to
clean the bison hides before they made them into clothes or used them for
covers. We also found some deer bones next to the fire pit. They must have
been eating deer also. Now I see how archeologists use clues to learn how
the people lived.
do we know when to stop digging? Dr. Jones tells us we don't want to dig
the whole site. Digging destroys that part of the site, and we want to
leave part of it there for future archeologists to study. He has selected
different areas of the site to excavate what he hopes will give him the clues he
needs to answer our three questions. Sometimes he says it is just a guess.
But HOW DEEP? We have do dig deep until we are not finding artifacts.
The archeologist calls soil where there are no artifacts sterile soil. He
tells all of us that the land has changed a lot in 12,000 years, and most of the
sites that were lived on that long ago are buried really deep. Most sites
where people lived have several layers of artifacts, and the layers are all
different ages. We might have to dig deep to get deeper than the
artifacts. I wanted to know how the artifacts got buried. Dr. Jones
told us that a lot of sites are along rivers and streams so the Indians would
have plenty of water. After the sites were no longer used, the rivers and
streams flooded and washed dirt onto the site covering the artifacts and
features. Other sites are at the bottom of hills. Over a thousand
years the soil washed down the hill and covered those sites.
While we were digging, all of the materials that might help us
understand the people who lived on our site were put into bags and the number of
the square where we were digging was put on the bag.
before we put the artifacts into a bag we have to draw and photograph all of the
features. At the end of the day all of the bags are taken to a special
place called a lab to be washed and numbered. Can you believe that numbers
are given to all the artifacts? The numbers create a catalogue of all the
artifacts and where they came from so the archeologist can study them.
Dr. Jones told us that the excavation and the studying are not
the longest parts. Once all of this is finished, Dr. Jones has to write
down all the information so other archeologists can study it and compare it to
what they are finding. Sometimes we have to experiment to find out what
the artifacts were used for by ancient Texans.
takes a long time to excavate a site and study all of the material that was
discovered. That must be why you have to have a college degree to become an
archeologist. You have to know about all sorts of things. You have
to know about history, geology, math, and, of course, archeology. Being a
scientist like an archeologist takes a lot of work and study, but it is also a
great job if you like to solve mysteries and find neat things which were left by
people who lived in Texas thousands of years ago.
I hope you have enjoyed our archeological excavation. You
can go on a real excavation yourself if you come to the
summer field school of the Texas Archeological
Society. There are lots of kids that come every summer. I hope to see you
there next summer.