By Staff
Children ages seven and up are invited to participate in We Can Dig It: Archaeology for Kids, which will be held at the library on Saturday, April 21 at 1 p.m.
Register by calling the children's department at (269) 683-8545 x 4. Registration is required and participation is limited.
Children will make time capsules and sift through sand to find artifacts.
Participants will learn to dig systematically by "excavating" items encased in Jello. They will use brushes and other archaeological tools to dig out chocolate chips from cookies.
The event will also include a book sale and a prize drawing.
The event is part of the Fort Saint Joseph Archaeological Project, a partnership between Western Michigan University, the City of Niles, the Fort St. Joseph Museum and Support the Fort.
Erin Claussen, an intern in the Archaeology Department at WMU, will lead the program. Claussen has participated in digs at the Fort Saint Joseph site in the past.
The following children's books tell true stories of archaeological digs and explore some of the important ways that archaeology helps us understand history.
Bodies From the Ash by James M. Deem
Deem retells the story of this devastating eruption of Pompeii in A.D. 79, combining a lively text with photographs of the bones and artifacts that have been unearthed through the years.
Secrets of a Civil War Submarine: Solving the Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley by Sally M. Walker
This is an account of the Hunley from its inception to the modern archaeological quest to exhume her from the water.
Freedom Roads: Searching for the Underground Railroad by Joyce Hansen
The authors show how archaeologists and historians sift through corn cobs and root cellars, study songs and quilts, and use the latest technology to reconstruct the heroic journeys that made up the Underground Railroad.
Who Came First: New Clues to Prehistoric Americans by Patricia Lauber
Presents recent archaeological findings about the first people to settle the Americas, how they got here, and from what continent they came.
The Emperor's Silent Army: Terracotta Warriors of Ancient China by Jane O'Connor
Describes the archaeological discovery of thousands of life-sized terracotta warrior statues in northern China in 1974, and discusses the emperor who had them created and placed near his tomb.
Discovering the Inca Ice Maiden: My Adventures on Ampato by Johan Reinhard
Provides a first-person account of the 1995 discovery of the over 500-year-old Peruvian ice mummy on Mount Ampato and a description of the subsequent retrieval and scientific study.
Stones, Bones, and Petroglyphs: Digging Into Southwest Archaeology by Susan E. Goodman
Follows a troop of children from Missouri on a field trip to learn about the ancient people of the Southwestern desert and to help excavate a village site.