History Under Ground

In “History Under Ground” students follow the steps of an archaeologist to look for clues about the way people in Virginia lived by looking at the things they used and left behind. Students piece the clues together to solve the history puzzle, following the scientific process from excavation (uncovering a site, reading the soil, identifying features) and recording a site, to recovering and analyzing the artifacts and reading historic records to find references that apply from similar cultures.

The first clue to identifying an archaeological site is to look for color and consistency changes in the dirt itself. In “History Under Ground,” students see that the archaeologist is able to identify the home of a Native American family who lived there 500 years ago. The excavation process reveals the impressions of rotted wooden posts in a familiar pattern.  

Archaeologists just get one chance to excavate a site. Once the ground is disturbed, the integrity of the site is gone, so careful excavation techniques and recording are necessary. Sites are excavated stratigraphically one layer at a time, and as the archaeologist goes deeper, the older layers are revealed.

Artifacts from each strata are the key to dating the layers of the site. They provide the clues about who lived there and when. They help tell the story of what the inhabitants ate, what they wore, how long they lived, and what their environment was like.

Each layer of a site must be looked at as a whole. The relationship and placement of the artifacts and the soil color and texture are key to telling us what the inhabitants were doing there. Archaeologists organize a site into equal-sized squares called a grid. As they carefully remove the soil from across the site, they map the location of the artifacts, and the soil changes that may indicate postholes, or trashpits, for example. These findings help to identify the site and the time period. After mapping and making notes about the artifacts, the archaeologists take them back to the lab for processing. In the lab they are washed, stabilized, identified, and dated.

Jordan’s Journey is a good example of a site rich in strata, artifacts, and soil changes. Any good place to live is used by many different groups of people through time. This point of land near Hopewell, overlooking the James River, is a rich environmental area, offering fertile, well-drained soil, scenic views, transportation by boat, fresh water, and fish and shellfish. Most recently it was a small local airport, but it was also an ideal area for earlier settlements and the archaeologists were called in to check it out before a new housing development was begun. They found an astonishing record of history by looking under the ground. In one area, they found the patterns of Native American house posts left in the soil, and in another area, evidence of an early English settlement complete with fence lines, house patterns, and armor and tools that the settlers brought with them. It is places like Jordan’s Journey that have archaeology underfoot. Important sites could be underground in your own neighborhood, too.

 

History in Our House        History All Around Us

History Under Water      History Under Ground

History in the Lab               Education Main Page

Students explore layers of soil at the gallery's recreated archaeological site as they follow scientific steps for unearthing artifacts and clues to the past.






Archaeologists organize a site into equal-sized squares called a grid.






Artifacts recovered from the Jordan's Journey site reveal to visitors the tools and other necessities of the English settlers who inhabited the site hundreds of years ago.