Our final trip!

Takinga tour of Salem was our final trip. It was awesome! First we visited the visitor center where we watch a movie about salem history. Every one seemed to enjoy the sideshow. After taht we went to the friendship bout, There we tooka look at how English men sailed. It wasn’t very comfortable. Our final stop was when we wen t to Mr.Carrs house, there he gave us background on hes own dig in his backyard! He found cool stuff like plates, dolls, and whole pipes! To top it alll off, Mrs.Carr served us cookies and beverages!

Another great field trip to Rebecca Nurse Homestead!!!

Dig this 08 went on the third trip to Rebecca Nurse homestead. We first watched the movie so we had alot of background. We had the chance to look around the homestead.We past by the cemetery which the closest were buried. The tombs are more than 100 years old. I learned that the site was once 300 hundred acres big and now its only 100 due to the constructions. We weren’t supposed to dig but i guess things got mixed up so we ended up digging. This time we changed it up a little, We were in different sections. The section I was in found many artifacts like bottles, pipes, and a broken tea cup! We are going back on saturday, I hope to learn or about the Homestead which Rebecca Nurse once layed feet on.

Trip to Harvard Peabody Museam!!!!

Today was a an awesome day we took a trip to Harvard Peabody Museum. First thing we did was a small activity, we learned a little about measuring the stuff given to us . We had pipes and old pottery found at Harvard square. Second we stoped to learn about Lewis and  Clark. Something that I learned was that they were not like other english men, they found Natives interesting and fascinating! Third we took a small tour of the differnt kind of Natives. The last floor was based on south America and how It was like the others. South americans had many believes. Something they believed in was ”Dias De los muertos”. It was basically honoring the dead and what great they did when they were alive. Finally we arrived at the gift shop, where some of us took some memories home to keep in mind the Harvard Peabody museum!!!!

My trip to Rebecca’s nurse homestead!!!!

My trip was amazing. As soon as We got there we started digging. Lucky for my group we had a chane to dig in back, they through the majority of trash there. My group got a little far, were in gravel area. Rebecca was accused of being bewitched. In ancient times that wasnt very good. We are going back there and We really want to find something interesting!!!!!!

The wonderful treasury-The Harvard Peabody Museum

July 16th 2008
The Harvard Peabody Museum
I have a fantastic time in the Harvard Peabody Museum. It was a really grand and nice building. Also, it was the oldest museum in North America. I was really excited to explore the treasure in this wonderful museum.
We have a group activity in a secret room. I have learned how to use information and tools to help me dating a particular artifact. I also realized that information is really important to an archeologist. For example, if I didn’t know the characteristics of each period bottle. I won’t be able to date them easily.
After, we went to the Harvard yard. Teacher told me that most of the artifacts were related to foods, such as bowls and animals bones. In contrast, there were not so many things about Academic. The only thing they found was lab pencil. I think it was really interesting, because Harvard was a well-known great college. How come it has such a different life style in 17th century?
As soon as we finished lunch, we went back to the Harvard Peabody Museum. There were so much amazing and cool materials inside. Through the tour in the Museum, I have learned more about the Fur trade. For example, Indians used animals’ hides to trade for metal tools, firearms, clothing, tobacco and glass beads. In addition, traders recognized the business of hide trading, so traders created a market for buffalo hides.
There were also lots of cute and valuable artifacts, which I like, in the museum. For example, the Ceramic Owl (Zuni), founded 70 years earlier (1953-1959). It was made for tourist trade; also represent the highest point in the development of such owl to trade. The second one was the Saliko Mana, Salako Maiden. It was founded in 1892 by Thomas V. Keam prior. This doll was wearing a wool dress with a sash. Its shawl was made of white cotton with wool at the end.
We also went to learn about the Latin American. The Main Group, Copan in 8th century. They built large plaza with enormous stone monuments. They also built up zone, Acropolis, included numerous buildings with very complicated sculpt in the front of the buildings. Also, the Altar Q was the new monument of the last great ruler of Copan.
Lastly, we went to a nature museum. Although it was not our main purpose of visiting the Harvard Peabody Museum, but I really have lots of fun there. The ancient animals bones and those amazing creatures were my favorite. I really like to explore and learn more about them, but reluctantly, time was not available. Even though I just browsed through quickly, those mysterious creatures were still in my mind, I hope I will have chance to visit them again.
Gift shop was our last stop. I have bought some souvenirs and post card for my families. I really enjoyed the time in Harvard Peabody museum, next time if my parents came to visit me; I am going to bring them to this amazing treasury.

JOURNEY TO SALEM!

The many events that happened on our last field trip to the Salem Town are just too many to describe. Therefore, I will only describe our visit to Mr. Newhall’s friend, Mr. John Carr, who has done background archaeology in his very own back yard and had excavated (in a very deep pit) at least 10 000 artifacts. And he told us that everything he found was done by hand. He didn’t have trowels, or screens or hand sifts. Instead, he used a shovel to dig, and his hands to dig, and his hands to sift through the dirt and find artifacts. I thought that Mr. Carr would have had to thoroughly sift through the dirt many times to be sure there were no artifacts since he did not have or use a screen. I thought that it would have been a lot difficult. But despite all that, I was amazed how Mr. Carr and his wife, Mrs. Carr found all these artifacts, and added on to the history of Salem.

Our Third Trip to the Rebecca Nurse Homestead

During our third trip to the Rebecca Nurse Homestead we dug up and learned many more things. During this trip we not only dug up artifacts but we also took a tour of the land. We got to see the cemetery, which had relatives of the nurse family and a monument to commemorate Rebecca Nurse herself. We also got a chance to look at many other sites such as the building built for the movie Three Sovereigns for Sarah and a fresh water lake. Not only was the tour fun but we also learned interesting facts from it. Some facts include that the original road that lead to the land was actually several feet away from where it is now and that many people believe that Rebecca Nurse is probably buried near and out side a door of the house because she was so important. In addition to the tour we also got to dig. But this time my group was moved to another spot. This time our spot was one on a slant and it wasn’t the most comfortable spot. But within this dig were many artifacts. We found many nails, lots of glass, one complete bottle, one broken bottle, two iron rods sticking out of the sides of the dig, half a teacup or creamer that had a complete handle, one pipe stem, one pipe end, and a couple animal bones. There were only two setbacks to this particular dig spot and those would be the large amount of rocks and the awkward position you had to dig in. But these setbacks were nothing compared to the amazing artifacts we recovered. This trip was a little different than the others but it was definitely one of the best.

Third visit to Rebecca Nurse Homestead

Today’s trip to the Rebbecca Nurse Homestead for the third time was not as exciting as compared to previous ones. I felt that way because we weren’t as digging as much and finding as much as we hoped to find. I really wanted to stay digging in the hole I was before, but I had to change to a pit where there were mosquitoes, muddy soil, and especially the smell of the soil was foul. I guessed it was because we were digging where people from the 17th century have been throwing trashes out. It was very disgusting. To be honest, at first I didn’t even want to dig…. And I still regret digging in that hole! My best shorts got all dirty… I didn’t know we’d be digging today, especially in a garbage dump.. Well, put that aside. In the previous hole my team and diligently dug up, the new team found prehistoric flakes, and I was really amazed at the fact that it was PREHISTORIC!! But I didn’t think anyone but I thought it was interesting. I wanted to dig there, but the new kids were complaining it was boring because they didn’t find anything, and were jealous of us finding trash from the 18th century. I really did not get how that worked…. Anyway, before all that, we had a tour around the Rebbecca Nurse Homestead. Unfortunately for me, I forgot to bring my camera, so I couldn’t take any pictures. I saw the graveyard or cemetery (I can’t remember) of the Nurse family and the Putnam family right beside each other. I also learned a lot of different things about graves, as well. The trip was pretty ok……. (I am just going to end like this….)

Salem MA, what we saw and how we liked it

Wow, I cannot imagine sleeping in one of those bunk beds, they had on old ships! That is exactly what they did on the Friendship. The beds were so cramped, and so hard it must have been impossible to get a good night’s sleep. I learned a lot when we got on the Friendship model, I learned the parts of the ship, and I learned that the ship was captured by the British.

I can’t believe that children now play, where accused witches were once hung. Yes, they did build a playground on top of the infamous hanging tree. Why wouldn’t the town of Salem acknowledge this historic site? i think it is because, the witch trials were an awful thing, even though some people think of the hysteria as sort of a benefactor to Salem.

I also like visiting Mr. and Mrs. Carr. The amount of artifacts they found was about 10,000. Wow, that is a lot. The Carr’s have bottles, shells, and many other artifacts in their house. After we looked at the artifacts, we ate the delicious cookies that Mrs. Carr made from scratch and we asked questions. This final field trip, was probably the best one we went on (even though the others were fun too)!!

-Christine Farzan

Salem Trip

The thing that fascinates me the most about the whole field trip is that the hanging site for the witch trials turned into a littered playground. I would usually assume that such historically important setting would be preserved and kept tidy, but I guess I assumed wrong.

On our way to our destination, there was a museum that caught my eye. It was the Salem Witch Museum. As soon as I saw this museum there was an urge deep within me to go and see what was inside this museum. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go.

We stopped by at a Seventeenth Century Hours called the Narbonne House. In that house we learned about how roofs and the house itself changed over time. While we were learning about that, our whole group was in one of the newest edition to the Narbonne House. We then slowly moved toward a room filled with artifacts found at the excavation held years back.

After the lovely lunch, we went into a store called “West India Store.” We spent about 10-20 minutes in there just shopping for souvenirs. Before we went to this store, we actually went on the Friendship. It was a replica, but it was still something that was very awesome. We all completed the training to become junior rangers and I am proud to announce that now I am a true junior ranger. WOOHOO!

Before we left Salem, we stopped by Mr. Carr’s house to see how his excavation in his backyard went. He found about 10,000 artifacts, which I found quite astonishing. He explained to us how he sifted through the dirt with his bare hands. We then viewed his collection of artifacts that were beyond plentiful and enjoyed homemade cookies and lemonade which I thought was delicious!