Ten-year-old Emma Bond's eyes glittered with excitement as she held a tiny blue and white shard of pottery in her hands Wednesday at an archaeological dig held at Thomas J. Rusk Elementary School.
"Is this something?" she asked George Avery, cultural heritage resource coordinator in the SFA Department of Sociology who supervised the excavation.
Christy Wooten/The Daily Sentinel |
Juan Acosta, left, and Chareon Daniels look at a piece of pottery found while sifting through dirt removed from the excavation area on Thomas J. Rusk Elementary School campus Wednesday. Fourth and fifth grade students assisted with the project which is being done before the slab for a new basketball court is poured.
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Christy Wooten/The Daily Sentinel |
Fourth grader Tye Ikner sorts through dirt from a hole on the Tomas J. Rusk Elementary School campus Wednesday morning during an archaeological dig. The excavation is on the site where a new basketball court will be built.
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Avery informed Emma that the broken piece of pottery she held dated back to the early 1800s, and a wide smile crossed Emma's face.
"This is the oldest thing we've found so far today," Avery said.
Emma was one of the many fourth- and fifth grade TJR students who had the opportunity to participate in the excavation, which was being done in preparation of the construction of a new basketball court on campus.
Sheila Balash, TJR fourth-grade teacher, said the students were excited and interested in being apart of the excavation.
"They've studied soil and fossils, so they have a greater appreciation for it," Balash said. "They seem to be very into it."
Although the students did not get to dig the dirt up themselves, they did get to "screen" the dirt, Avery said.
"They're screening to get a little sense of what archaeologists do," Avery said. "They are screening the dirt to see if we can recover any artifacts."
Some students found pieces of glass while others found pieces of brick, he said.
Fourth-grade-student Marshall Brister found a coin dating back to 1976.
"I started rubbing the dirt around in my hands and found the coin," Marshall said. "I feel glad that I found it."
Each class had an hour to participate in the activity, and students anxiously searched for artifacts throughout the day.
Emma said finding the rim of pottery was the highlight of her day.
"I picked up the dirt and saw something blue in my hand, but I thought it was a piece of dirt at first," she said. "I was amazed. I didn't think I'd find anything."
