PERSONAL HISTORY
-    Where did you grow up? Was it the country? City? Or suburb? What kind of structure did you live in?
-    Did you move to other places during your childhood?
-    When is your birthday? Where were you born?
-    What are your parents’ names? Where were they born?
-    Do you have siblings? What are their names? Were you the oldest? youngest? middle? only child?
-    Where do you live now?
-    Are you a morning person or a night person?
-    Where and when did you get married?
-    Do you have a hobby? If so, what?
-    How old were you when you read your first book?
-    What was your best friend’s name when you were my age? Are you still friends? Why were you friends?
-    When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? Did you fulfill your childhood dream?
-    Did you play an instrument? Do you still play an instrument?
-    Do you like art?
-    Did you go to sleepaway camp? Where was it? What was the name? At what age did you go?
-    Where did you go to high school? college? What classes did you take?
-    What were your jobs? For how long? Did you like them? Why did you choose your job? Which did you like best?
-    What was your first job?
-    How old were you when you first left home?
-    What is your dream job? Why?
-    Do you still work? Or are you retired?
-    What was your favorite thing to do when you were a kid? Why?
-    What is your favorite thing to do as a grownup? Why?
-    What did you (do you) do on rainy days?
-    Do you like cartoons?
-    What do you like most about life?
-    What was the most common invention when you were little? What has changed since then?
-    What big events happened in your life?
-    What was it like during WWII?
-    When and where were your children born? How many? What are their names?
-    Did you like to play any sports when you were growing up? If so, what/which sports? What sports do you play now?
-    Do you know any other languages? What are they?
-    What book are you reading now?
-    How many grandchildren do you have? What are their ages?
-    What do you like doing with your children? With your grandchildren?
-    How did you spend summer vacations? How do you spend them now?

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
-    What type of school did you go to? Where was it? How long was the school day? How many kids were in a class?
-    How did you get to school?
-    Was your classroom similar to mine? Why or why not?
-    Were there bullies at your school? Were you ever bullied at school?
-    What was your third grade teacher’s name? Was she/he nice?
-    What was your favorite teacher? Why?
-    What is your favorite memory of 3rd grade? Your worst memory?
-    Did you like to go to school? Why or why not?
-    Did you like to read? What books? What authors? Do you read now?
-    What was your favorite subject in school?
-    What was your favorite activity in school?
-    What was your favorite part of school?
-    What type of student were you?
-    What were you best at in school? What were you worst at?
-    Do you continue a friendship with anyone from grade school?
-    What was your favorite school year?
-    Did you have grandparents day at your school? What is your favorite grandparents day activity at Dalton?

NEW YORK
-    What is your favorite place in New York? Why?
-    Where is the place in New York that you dislike the most?
-    What was New York City like when you were a child?

PETS
-    Do you have a pet? If so, what? What was it’s name?
-    Did you have any pets when you were younger?
-    What is your dream pet?

TRAVEL
-    Where have you traveled?
-    What is your favorite place to travel?
-    What is your favorite continent? How many have you been to?
-    Where did you travel with my mom/my dad?

FAVORITES
-    What was your favorite thing to do when you were little?
-    What was your favorite food growing up? What is it now?
-    What was your favorite movie growing up? What is it now?
-    What was your favorite book when you were my age? What is your favorite book now?
-    What was your favorite color? What is your favorite color? Least favorite?
-    What was your favorite music? What is your favorite music? Least favorite?
-    What is your favorite store?
-    What is your favorite animal?
-    What is your favorite type of flower?
-    What is your favorite type of dessert?
-    Who was your favorite president? Why? Who is your least favorite president?
-    Who is your favorite artist?
-    Who is your favorite musician?
-    What was your favorite toy growing up?

3rd Grade Excavation: Roles and Responsibilities

Washer: When an artifact is found, the washers dry brush if the artifact is metal, paper, leather or bone; or wash the artifact if it would not rust, like pottery or gold. The washer’s job is to make sure the artifact is clean and there is not dirt all over it.

Excavator: When you are an excavator, your job is to dig up the artifacts from one square (quadrant) at a time, and you also have to get the dirt onto a plate and hand it to the screener. The tools you use to excavate are a trowel and a brush. When you are using the trowel you have to use the side to dig smoothly. Once you find an artifact, you brush it off so you can see it clearly.

Recorder: After an artifact is washed, it is brought to the recorder. The recorder stamps a card and writes what level the artifact was found in, what square it was in, and a description of what the artifact looks like.

Mapper/Logger: When an excavator finds an artifact, the mapper sketches the artifact on a sheet of paper that divides squares A, B, C, and D. They draw the picture in the area of the square that the artifact was found in. The logger writes down a description of the artifact that was found, and the name of the square.

Screener: The screener takes the plate from the excavator and puts it in the screen and shakes it into the giant wooden box and checks that nothing small was missed by the excavators. As you dig deeper the dirt is easier to screen, and falls more quickly through the screen. You need to be careful to hold the screen over the big box. Be sure to close your eyes until the dust settles!

Our Memories …

“The first artifact we found in our archaeological dig was very exciting for me.” (LB)

“When we found the firearm, it was lying on the side of the box.” (LCR)

“When we found the huge axe that covered A and C it was cool because it was really big.” (DT)

“When we found the big swords it was cool because they were big and one was in a sheath and they were also still very, very dangerous.” (BR)

“When we found a box, and when we opened it there were a lot of spices in it and it was cool because you could still use the spices and they smelled. There was cinnamon, and it smelled like cinnamon.” (ZP)

“Going down to archaeology for the first time was really fun because it seemed really different and we’d never done it before so it was cool to start.” (CM)

“When we found the only club it was heavy to hold and it was scary to hold.” (OF)

“My favorite memory from archaeology was when we found the first artifact because I never thought that we would find something so quickly just like that.” (LA)

“I liked when we found that big helmet.” (MR)

“When we found something that looked like a folder and we opened it up and there was a small painting inside. It was really cool because it was the first time we had ever found anything on paper.” (MG)

“My favorite memory from archaeology was when we were getting our smocks on, Neil was telling us that the dirt was getting less and it could fall down more easily, and if you held it over yourself it would fall on your shoes. I felt like a real archaeologist.” (OGP)

“My favorite memory of archaeology was when we finished digging all the dirt out of the box and we were excited that we found all the artifacts.” (EA)

“My favorite memory from archaeology was washing the first and only crystal we found. It was a really cool crystal and it was so shiny.” (NC)

“My favorite archaeological experience is when we didn’t even start digging, and we saw a movie about how to be an archaeologist and I felt really excited that we were going to do this project. I felt like it was going to be really fun.” (FB)

“I remember washing a dagger and it was really fun, but scary. I sort of felt like I was in an imaginary world but I also felt like I might have nightmares. I didn’t.” (RG)

“My favorite part of excavating, was the looks on House 43 students’ faces each time an artifact was uncovered, and how they worked together to get the jobs done.” (JS)

“My favorite part of excavating (or possibly least favorite) was listening to the shouts of utter and complete joy that came from House 43 students as they explained to each other what was uncovered in the last session.” (TF)

We think the first level of our site is a merchant’s house or antique store because we found many things that are precious like the jewels, money, and the pottery. There are a lot of different objects here. A merchant is a person who sells stuff. He is like a shopkeeper who travels, like Marco Polo’s father and Uncle. He trades his items for other things. We found Mah Jong tiles and they could be in the house as a game to play or they could be to sell. The box might be a merchant’s wallet for carrying money. The merchant might sell decorations for the house because we found a small dragon statue. We also found a lion statue. We heard that if you pet a lion paw, it gives you good luck. So, he might have it in his house for good luck or maybe to sell for decoration for good luck for the people. Maybe he had lots of good luck charms because merchants need lots of good luck to have good travels and trade. The turtles might have been used for holding chopsticks. We heard that it was not polite to put chopsticks on the table, so the turtle was flat to hold the chopsticks. So maybe the merchants sold the turtles with the chopsticks we found. Another reason it could be a merchant’s house is that we found a lot of coins, but we did not find a lot of money. We don’t know that the person was rich or famous. There are teapots so maybe he sold tea or something that needed to be oiled. If it is a merchant, the merchant painted because there is ink and a paintbrush. Maybe he was an artist.

We also think this might not be a merchant’s house because it seems like a collectors house because collectors collect all sorts of artifacts.  At a merchant’s house there might be lots of the same thing or have items of one theme, but at this house there were lots of different things. Maybe he was artist because of the paintbrush and ink. He or she might have used the flute. Many times instruments inspire artists. It is quite common for an artist to have lots of inspirations and quite a few things for his art. There are a lot of things that he might have used because they look to be in pretty good condition like the round silver bell. Maybe he is a musician because we found a flute.

Level one might also have been a restaurant or a kitchen, a dining room or living room in a house because we found plates, teapots, bowls, chopsticks, vases and decorations. The bicycle could have been used for delivery if it was a restaurant. The flute and games could have been entertainment in the restaurant.

We looked at the coins. There were coins from 1968, 1973, 1975, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1992, 1958, 1967, and 1994.  We know that level one is most recent, but we don’t know how recent level one is. We know that the site is, at its oldest, 15 years old because we found a coin from 1994.

We spent a lot of time calling the merchant a man, but it could have been a woman. We found perfume bottles, some earrings, a necklace, and a purse. Maybe a man and a woman lived here. Perhaps there was even a family. The merchant, or whomever, would have used a bike to travel. We know this because we found bike pedals, bike brakes and reflectors. When we watched a video about Kashgar, there were a lot people who travel with their things on bicycles.

Today, the children uncovered….

- A knife or dagger that looked like it had an ivory holder (or scabbard) and handle. Both were off-white in color and were engraved.

- A teapot that was broken in to two pieces. It was an orangey, brown color, like clay without any decoration. It looked pumpkin-shaped.

- An inkpad in a holder that looked like it was made out of china. Inside there was red ink that still worked! There was a print of the stamp indented on the pad. It was of a wormy dragon in the shape of an “S.”

- A coin made of copper. It is a pence, perhaps from London?

- Goblets or cup holders — at least 4 of them. They were decorated with thumb-like indents in them all over. They looked like a golden color. There was no handle.

- Many broken pieces of plates with designs that were light with brigh colors.

- Jade chopsticks. They were green.

- A blueish, green statue. It is an animal figure – unknown. It might be a lion or it might be a dragon or maybe a lion and a dragon mixed.

- A sharp knife in a case made out of camel bone? The case is a beige color with carved dragons on it.

- A bike pedal with an orange reflector.

- Two statues of people dressed in robes. One had a little hair. The other was bald.

- Mah Jong tiles, which are red on the one side and white on the other. There is Chinese writing on the white side of each tile.

- Golden dragon pin. The dragon is curly, sort of like a snake. The pin looks like real gold. The pin was open when we found it.

- Gold cup holders with cracked pieces of blue and white plates (porcelain?) inside. You could see fingerprints in the decorations, so we think they might have been hand-made.

- A dragon with a broken tail. The dragon was green with fangs and had an open mouth. There were scales on the top. The colors are green and white. The dragon was on all four legs — “It was rather cute!”

- Two turtles. One was white and one was green (jade?). They were different, but both were small. They were carved. We think they might be chopstick rests.

- A bag of coins. The bag is red with golden swirls on it. The coins are silver. There are a lot of Turkish coins. One coin had four holes on the edges.