My Retrospective

Organizing things

Originally uploaded by owhlibrary

Looking back on Summer Session, I realize how much I will miss you all. This picture only reminds me more. One of my favorite things about this picture is that it was taken on was on the first few days, when we barely knew each other’s names. (Mary, Thalia, Beebie, Me.) Now that it’s almost over, I feel like we’ve gotten so close, it’s so hard to say goodbye.

Dig This! was a great experience for me, both socially and academically. The valuable history information will help me in years to come, when I can raise my hand in American History and say, “Actually, that rock was a prehistoric ax for cutting wood.” But I also made so many new friends I want to keep it touch with.

Three really cool things I learned as part of Dig This! 08: That’s hard. I learned so much while I was here. I feel like my brain has grown twice it’s size. But one of the things I learned is that all throughout time, Geography have influenced many aspects of culture, like agriculture, trade, battle. Another is that Indians have been constantly oppressed in the last few hundred years by Americans, being forced to uproot their families and work as slaves for other people. And third, I learned that even though Jamestown was the first successful colony, Roanoke, the “lost” colony, was established 17 years earlier.

Now three skills I learned. This is slightly easier. First, obviously, I learned how to take Cornell notes. Lots of them. Secondly, I learned the excavation process. It’s a lot more complicated and tiring than you’d think. And finally, I learned how to make annotations to go along with my citations. These are all things I may need to know later.

I’LL MISS YOU ALL!!!!!!! HAVE A GREAT LIFE!!!!!!!! REMEMBER THE AWESOMOSITY!!!!!!!

Historic Salem gets New History: AWESMEOSITY!

My computer was not cooperating with me, so I couldn’t upload a picture AND I lost this blog post I finished yesterday night. Oh well, so this one will be shorter. Today was our trip to historic Salem, and our last field trip.

We started our day driving up to this small park with no signs or anything. Then we stand in a circle around this patch of grass, where Mr. Newhall tells us that it was where the hanging site of the salem witchcraft trials was. Everyone started looking for a plaque, but it wasn’t there. So we took a moment of silence to remember the 20 victims of hysteria.

Then we hopped back into the cars and headed over to the visitor’s center, where we looked around at the models of things you would see in Colonial times. Then we watched a short move on the history of Salem as a whole. Te part about all the trade ships to China was pretty cool, but other than that, I was so tired, I tried SO HARD not to fall asleep.

A short walk later, we were at the Narbonne house, where Ms. Murphy showed us architecture from the 16000’s to the early 1900’s. This was actually pretty cool.We learned about half houses and additions. I thought the Gambrel roof was kind of impractical, though.

Next, LUNCH! And due to another horrible wrap, I decided to buy it this time. So Mr. Newhall showed our class this coffee shop, where I bought a bagel with cream cheese and a green tea bubble tea. The bubble tea was really good. I love tapioca!

Then we got on to the Friendship, and earned Junior Rangers badges. YAY! I won’t go into much detail on the ship, but it looked A LOT like Old Ironsides. I learned a lot about parts of ships.

Finally, we went to Mr. Carr’s house, which was built in the 1700’s. Isn’t that cool? Anyway, Mr. carr is conducting a backyard excavation. He’s already dug a hole 6 feet deep! He told us how he excavated his property, as well as showed us some of the artifacts he has found. He showed us this one cylindrical tube, which he was unsure about. I suggested it was a candle molder, and later, Art agreed with me! ( Art is one of the people that helped us with the homestead dig.) After some delicious cookies from Mrs. Carr. We are done with field trips.

P.S I AM STILL MAD WE ARE NOT GOING TO THE SALEM WITCH MUSEUM!!!!!! It wouldv’e been fun, even if we already knew everything in there…

Rebecca Nurse Homestead (yes, again)

This is the 3rd time we’ve been to the homestead, and frankly, I want to go somewhere else. Let’s dig in Harvard Yard or something, because I am sick of this place. First of all, there is no restaurant for miles. I WANT FOOD I CAN ACTUALLY EAT!!! I’m telling you, this Saturday I will be eating Lucky Charms at lunch. I’m not even kidding.

Oh, I’m also pretty sure that I’m cursed or something, because whenever I work at a pit, they magically don’t find anything. At all. It’s quite sad. In fact one of my classmates, who will remain undisclosed,(ahem, Victoria) said she’s kind of upset that I’m at the same pit because I jinxed it. Wow. People are just so kind. (I’m kidding. I really don’t care)

Well, the day started with a quick tour, so I guess I should describe that. The weather: unpleasant, The Cars: loud (due to me!), and the food: terrible. (unsurprisingly) Well, anywway, we first took pictures in front of the meeting house. I think we were there for 10 minutes, because everyone juat HAD to have a picture. Then we walked to the cemetery, passing the field, and talking about that too. Apparently every household needed at least 180 acres back then. Am I the only one that think that’s a little much? We saw the graves of the Putnams and the Nurses, (but not Rebecca’s) which were amazing. The gravesotnes we were seeing were actually only half on their actually height. The other half was in the ground!

 

Then we ate our (disgusting) lunch. And after that, we started digging. Unfortunately, I had to forfeit my knee/ butt pad. Due to the curse, we didn’t find much. We got a few bricks, red-wear, nails, pieces of pipe, and a piece of glass. Oh, and we also found some prehistoric flakes. They’re basically flat rocks. Not exactly the gold mine we were hoping for. 

 

To end the day, we did a little activity with some of the excavated artifacts. I got a piece of European ceramic, probably a cup, and a piece of a vase. There were some other cool things, like pieces of a ceramic doll. Our day may have been cut short because of the rain…

Trip to Rebecca Nurse Homestead. ( number 2)

The Gold- Wash Ring

Originally uploaded by malinanana

Today, we went to the Rebecca Nurse Homestead for the second time, but this time I ACTUALLY FOUND STUFF!!!!! Or artifacts, if you don’t like calling colonial items “stuff.” The pit we dug last time had NOTHING. But this time, I got switched to the other pit. But I was STILL in the one with less artifacts. *Sigh* Oh well, we still found some pretty awesome things.

The first difference I noticed immediately. It was the soil. Last time, the dirt was really rocky, but this time it was, well, filled with actual dirt. This made it much easier to screen, but we couldn’t go that deep because instead of just pulling rocks up, we were actually scraping dirt. It takes forever. And it’s insanely hot. And we’re in the dirt. Not exactly the most comfortable job ever…

When I first came, I came thinking that every little artifact is important, because last time WE DIDN’T FIND ANYTHING. So I was constantly trying to get little shards of glass and tiny pieces of brick. Then I realized that they weren’t a big deal there. It’s just kind of strange ignoring all there things I would’ve been crazy over n the other pit.

The first thing I found was a pipe stem. I thought it was a stick, so I kept hacking it to get it out until Art said “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait, that’s a pipe stem.” Then comes my intellectually brilliant answer: “Oh… oops.” I am SO genius.

For the next hour, we kept digging, finding more nails, glass, and bricks. The pit next to ours found another pipe stem. But other that that, we were hearing the success stories of the other group. “The other group found a frying pan!” That’s nice, but do they have the awesome skills of awesomeosity? I don’t think so.

Then came our wonderful discovery. We found a ring. We later determined it was not real gold, but it looked just like it. It was beautiful. It was a simple ring with a little diamond-shaped piece as the highlight. That’s what the picture is of. Sorry if it’s a little blurry.

We ended our day finding two metal buttons. Overall, today was a very rewarding dig. I can’t wait to go again!

HARVARD PEABODY!!!! (George, not Robert)

P7160196

Originally uploaded by sameersangal

Today, we went to Harvard University! I think it’s our nations first university, and the first one to educate Native Americans. But that’s not important. Anyway, the place in particular we went was the Peabody Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. Not that impressive from the outside, but super-cool on the inside.

Finished Product.

Finished Product.

Originally uploaded by malinanana

Today (well yesterday, but I want it to seem like today) we went to the Rebecca Nurse Homestead in Danvers. It’s basically this really huge place with a few small buildings in it. It’s supposedly the place where Rebecca Nurse, the oldest victim of the Salem Witch Trials, lived.

So basically, we get there, and we can see some really old buildings to our right, and a blue tent in front of us. We walk over, and Professor Hamilton explain the history of the site. He tells us that it used to be land belonging to Indigenous people, but then given by the crown of England to this Bishop. Kinda rude.

FIELD TRIP!

Field Trip- Pequot Museum

Today was the field trip to the Pequot Museum. YAY!!! Unfortunately, the Pequot just HAD to live in Connecticut, which made for a very long car drive. Seriously, we went to a museum 3 hours away to stay for 3 hours. Why couldn’t they just live in Massachusetts like normal people? I should probably stop talking about the nightmare-ish location of the museum and move on to what’s actually IN the museum.

Well when we first went in the museum we went to the 3^rd floor into this really big room with lots of windows. I forget the name. There were these huge model canoes with a bunch of molds of Indians In them. I think they scared Beebie.

Then we went into the recreated village,, where there were even more molds to creep Beebie out. The audio tour was pretty cool, except the audio thingy was a BRICK. It was impossible to write anything when you needed to hold the telephone from a CENTURY AGO up. Besides the evil device of doom, I liked the audio. My favorite part was the family of Native Americans eating in from of their wampum. I thought the brass jewelry and spoon was interesting. The palisade was also really interesting, especially since they didn’t need it before the Europeans. I learned a lot about Indian / European conflicts.

Then we went to the Powwow. It was great, but it was outside. If I haven’t told everyone yet, the weather in Massachusetts is horrible. It’s so humid ALL THE TIME. It’s not fair. Anyway, the dancer’s costumes were so colorful and decorated; it looked amazing when they moved around, even though most of the dances were pretty simple. All the feathers, bright colors, and beads were really complex. What made it even better was the frybread that Christine ordered. (that I ate most of)

So, I guess the next thing is the Race exhibit. It was really similar to the movie yesterday, so parts of it were really boring. But the 5 things the exhibit is trying to convey are:

1) Race is geographical, not genetic/ biological.

2) Race is tied to superiority.

3) Race can determine your salary, health, and opinions received from others.

4) Skin color does not always determine race.

5) Even though we look different, genetically, we are very similar.

Then we went to the observation tower, which was pretty high, but wasn’t that interesting.

The next place we went was the movie. I think the name is “The Witness.” It’s basically about this man who’s telling the boy a story of when he was little. He talks about events from the arrival of the Europeans to the massacre. I think this movie because it was pretty balanced. A lot of Native American based movies are one-sided, but this one explained the British point of view too. I think this movie was a little graphic, though. Overall, it was a well-spent hour of my life.

Then we went “home.”