It’s summer, so you would expect things to be quiet at Baker-Butler School in Northern Albemarle County. Instead, something surprising is underway – construction of a modern-day dig site where kids will learn how archaeologists uncover the past. Sandy Hausman has that story.
When public school students get to the fifth grade in Virginia, they study ancient civilizations, and that gave UVA student Evan Howell an idea. Why not build an earthen pyramid filled with artifacts from our time. He made a model and shared the idea with Professor William Bennett, who teaches art. Then, Howell graduated, leaving Bennett to carry on.
And this summer, he’s doing just that behind Baker-Butler School. At the center of the pyramid is an 8-foot-tall monument of stainless steel and stone, but scattered throughout are 600 adobe bricks that contain clay artifacts made by the fifth graders. They were told to make something of value to them and many settled on food.
"There were a lot of kids who were making tacos, a lot of kids making hotdogs," Bennett says.
This fall college students and kids from the elementary school will begin a dig.
"Every year, for the next 30 years, archaeology students at UVA will come out for a number of days in the fall and excavate 1/30th of the mound," Bennett explains. "The mound will get smaller, the sculpture underneath will be revealed, and the artifacts will be discovered, and we’re making an attempt to return them to their makers."
With funding from the Archaeology Institute of America, the UVA team has also built an amphitheater with room for 60 students, and will supply them with kid-sized hard hats.