It’s a Small World After All

 

In this photo, Cindy and I are listening to her Chinese music, and she is translating for me. I’m trying to pronounce the name of the song (and failing miserably). This photo shows how friendship is a universal language.

 

Coming into the Dig This! program, I really didn’t know what to expect. Everything seemed new to me. I had never gone on a real archaeological dig before, I didn’t know how to identify artifacts. Then I realized that this was new to everyone else, too. We were all there to learn about history and archaeology together. And wow, did we learn a lot…

One of the many things I enjoyed about Dig This! was the field trips. Going to a hsitorical site can give a history lesson a whole new meaning. Our class spent a good amount of time at the Rebecca Nurse Homestead in Danvers, Massachusetts. We actually got to dig at the Homestead and find artifacts. Knowing that the ring you just dug up could have been worn by someone in the 18th century is thrilling. I learned about how archaeologists work at a real dig and how they date artifacts. After several visits to the Rebecca Nurse Homestead, I now know how to dig a test pit, measure levels of soil, screen soil for artifacts, and distinguish worms from 200 year old nails (a good skill to have as an archaeologist).

In class at the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology, there was a lot of note-taking. I really don’t feel comfortable taking notes, it never works for me. This summer, I learned a new note format called Cornell Notes. Although it was frustrating at first, learning to use the Cornell Notes style has helped me a great deal during class, and I think it will help me when I return to my regular school.

Another skill I learned during Dig This! was how to participate more in class. I’m usually pretty quiet in class at school, but there was something about this summer session that made me want to ask more questions and get more involved. The format of our classes was fairly open, and students were encouraged to ask questions. We also did some fun activities that invovlved the entire class, like reenacting the Publo Revolt and learning how to shoot a dart using an atlatl (let me tell you, it’s not easy!). Suddenly, class seemed less like class and more like learning while having fun.

For me, history has always been interesting, but it’s just history. It’s in the past. By the end of Dig This! I knew for sure that history is not way back in the past, gone forever. In fact, it’s still very much alive today. I was amazed to hear that the Lakota still claim the Black Hills as their sacred land, or that my teacher was a descendent of Rebecca Nurse. The events of the past are still effecting the lives of people today, and this course has helped me to realize that.

As I began to dig deeper and deeper into history, studying different points of view, it became clear that history is not simple, black and white stuff. It’s not just Indians versus white settlers, or French versus English. History is much more complex than that. Everyoe has their own point of view, and it’s no different with historical figures. Analyzing major conflicts, such as the Raid on Deerfield or the Pequot War, has shown me that there’s more than two sides to every story.

Some lessons I learned at Phillips were outside of class. I made friends with kids from the other side of the planet. Guess what? They’re not that different from the kids in my neighborhood! Sure, they may eat different food, or even speak another language, but teenagers are teenagers, all around the world. Spending time with such a diverse group of students is living proof that it’s a small world after all.

Dig This! has taken learning to a higher level. When my friends go back home to California, or Lawrence, or Canada, or Shanghai, I think we’ll all remember what an amazing summer it has been, and we won’t ever forget it.

Going to Salem and Discovering Friendship

Today our class crammed ourselves into the “rally wagons” for the last time (sad sigh) to visit Salem. The small city is famous for witchcraft, but, like Mr. Newhall said, it’s not only about the witches; it’s about the history of a city and its people. We visited several different sites, including Gallows Hill, the Narbonne house, the very historic Carr house (backyard archaeology at its best!) and a “multi-media, surround sound, presentation” about the history of Essex County. My favorite part of the trip was when we went aboard the Friendship.

The ship we went on was actually a replica of the original, which was captured by the British in the War of 1812. I love old ships, so this was a variation of heaven for me. It was so beautiful, standing on deck with the wind blowing and those tall masts, the huge sails… Anyways, this was definitely the best part of the trip. Below deck was simply amazing. I don’t know how a person could live down there for months at sea (I mean, seriously, major personal space issues!). Seeing the captain’s quarters was also interesting, with the old maps and navigational equipment. We were all awarded honorary “Junior Ranger, Ship’s Mate” badges for learning about the Friendship, thanks to Art and John for their extensive maritime knowledge.

Going on all of these field trips has taught me that history isn’t just the study of dead people and memorizing dates.

It’s how we shape our future.

A Last Visit to the Rebecca Nurse Homestead

During our last visit to the Rebecca Nurse Homestead, we did what we do best: digging (after all, it’s in the name of our course). This time, however, we left the pits we had been working on and dug five new test pits. It was some speedy digging as we anxiously dug up artifacts. In the test pit I was working at, the most important finds were a gold wash cuff link and a piece of blue and white ceramic.

We learned more about the history of the homestead by taking a tour of the house. The rooms were set up to look like they would have in the 17th century. I’m glad I wasn’t around then because girls had so many chores! (spinning, cooking, cleaning…) We also went to the gift shop. Doesn’t sound very interesting, right? Wrong. The gift shop is made to look like a barn from the 1600’s and is actually built from the original beams of the Endicott house. Not far from the gift shop was the meeting house, historical in its own way. It was built in the 80’s for the movie Three Sovereigns for Sarah, which we watched earlier as a class. The meeting house looks like the one where the Salem witch trials took place. Inside the meeting house, we watched a short slide show about the witch trials and the making of the movie.

As I climbed out of the “rally wagon” and walked toward the famous house that had become so familiar to me, I realized just how quickly Summer Session has gone by. Was it really only three weeks ago that 13 students from around the world came together as a class? I guess I’ve sort of come to like the noisy rides to various field trips, with energetic conversations, iPod listeners, and frantic efforts to finish homework. These people who only three weeks ago were complete strangers are now my friends, and I will never forget them.

Back at the Homestead

Things have changed a lot at the Rebecca Nurse Homestead since it was granted to Townsend Bishop in 1636. Before the arrival of the English, the 300 acres belonged to the Naumkeg, an Algonquian Native American tribe who may have set up a a small village there. The property was purchased and repaired by Governor John Endicott in 1648. Eventually, Francis Nurse purchased the land for himself, his wife Rebecca, and their eight children. The original Nurse house, after some restoration, still stands today. A man and a really cute golden retriever puppy named Stella currently live there.

 Seeing Rebecca Nurse’s actual home made everything I have learned about the Salem Witch Trials much more real. Rebecca Nurse was accused of witchcraft, found guilty, and hanged, along with her sister Mary, in 1692. Her remains are said to have been buried near the house, outside the front door. That’s where I was digging on Saturday, creepy. Although Rebecca wasn’t dug up, we did visit the Nurse and Putnam family cemetery. There, along with the graves of her descendants, stands a memorial to Rebecca Nurse.

In the 1600’s, the average amount of land needed for a farmer to be successful was about 180 acres. There were once many crops and livestock at the homestead, but now there is alfalfa, hopps, milkweed, fragmites, and a small garden (and livestock if we count Stella). In our past visits to the homestead, I had never realized just how large the land really is. After all that walking, I think I have a better idea of 300 acres.

Near the end of the trip, we got a chance to do some more digging. I was working at a pit closer to the bank, where I had never been before. At first, it seemed like the pit was going to be less exciting than the two in front of the house, but it was most definitely not boring. It didn’t take much digging before we were unearthing artifacts rapidly. We found glass bottles, plates, pipes, paper, pig bones, a teacup, and (much to my horror) a cat skull. Such a rich deposit of artifacts could be explained by tha fact that when the Putnam family acquired the land, Orin Putnam disposed of trash from the house’s previous occupants in this area. Once again, I found myself looking thropugh dead people’s trash. Extraordinarrally interesting, historically significant, trash.

Rebecca Nurse Homestead: Round 2

Despite the almost unbearable heat, the second trip to RNH was fun. This week we dug deeper, so more artifacts were found. In the pit I was digging at, we unearthed a gold wash ring, pipe stems, buttons, a clay marble, and many other artifacts. We also dug up a lot of worms. The group was more experienced the second time around, and we were even able to identify a couple artifacts on our own.

Now that I have been able to experience  several aspects of archaeology, including lab work, screening, and actual digging, I think I enjoy screening the most. Screening is interesting because when all of the dirt is brushed away, the artifacts become more visible. An archaeologist must be able to distinguish between a rock and a piece of brick, which can be difficult.

The group spent most of the time digging, of course,  which resulted in some good conversations. While we were identifying artifacts, we were also learning history. Learning this way is much more engaging than reading a textbook.  We also rocked out, much to Art’s horror. The second trip was definetly just, if not more, exciting than the first. Get prepared for round 3!

Park the car (or 300 year old artifact) in Harvard Yard

They say that the best way to learn history is to go there. I thought about that as I stood in front of Massachusetts Hall, which housed American soldiers during the Revolutionary War. We were at Harvard, where there are graduate classes going back to the 17^th century. There is so much history there, it’s no wonder archeology students were digging in Harvard Yard. The purpose of this dig is to find the location of Harvard Indian College, established in 1665 for the “education and Christianization of American Indians.” The dig is a partnership between the school and the Harvard Peabody Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology. The museum has quite a history as well; founded in 1866, it is the oldest anthropology museum in North America.

Digging at the Rebecca Nurse Homestead

The Rebecca Nurse Homestead is a great place for archaeology students to practice their fieldwork skills, and that’s exactly what the “Dig This!” class did. We used all of our knowledge from class to actually dig up history. The main question for this dig involved Townsend Bishop, an early colonist from the 17^th century. Bishop was one of the first men to get a land grant from King James. Bishop’s land was 300 acres in present day Danvers, Massachusetts. Archaeologists hope that by digging at the Rebecca Nurse Homestead, they will be able to determine whether or not Bishop lived there.

Following a brief history lesson about the site, we began digging. Some students were digging in a test pit, another group at the foundation of an outbuilding, likely a chicken coop. My group dug just outside the front door of the original house. This location was chosen because the residents of the house would have swept their garbage out the front door, and people’s trash is very interesting to archaeologists. Digging, as I soon learned, is tedious work. Each layer of soil is carefully scraped off using a spade in ten centimeter sections. After the soil has been dug up, it must be sifted through using a screen. The screen has to be well shaken until all soil has been removed, leaving only rocks and, hopefully, artifacts behind. Artifacts, especially prehistoric ones, are difficult to distinguish from plain rock. What looks like brick could just be a mineral, and tree roots can sometimes look like bones.

The many layers of soil help archaeologists to date artifacts. Where my group was digging, there were about three main layers. The uppermost layer was soft soil that became darker as we dug further down. Most of the artifacts found in this layer were nails and pieces of brick, because older artifacts are found in deeper layers. The next layer was part of the original foundation of the house, which was mainly stone. At the bottom was an orange tinted soil that dated back to prehistoric times, when Native Americans would have inhabited the land.

The dig was pretty successful, seeing we only dug about twenty centimeters down. Among the artifacts students uncovered were: a pocket watch chain, an Indian head penny, many nails, and a button. Our goal is to determine what happened at this site based on the artifacts. Today was just the beginning of our investigation. Who knows what we’ll find by the end of Summer Session?

Mashantucket Pequot Museum

Our class visit to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum was an amazing experience, well worth the three hour drive. Our first stop was a recreation of an early Pequot village. Using audio guides, we made our way through the village taking notes. The “villagers” (plastic molds) went about what would have been daily tasks, from harvesting corn to weaving baskets. A couple built a wigwam, a young boy sprang a trap for a turkey, and women carefully sculpted clay pots. This exhibit was a great way to learn about the Pequot as if you were really there back in the sixteenth century.