Hands-on Program Teaches Students to Think Like Archeologists

PETIT JEAN MOUNTAIN, Ark. (March 24, 2009) — Gifted and talented students from two local schools participated in an exercise at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute that gave them the opportunity to explore past cultures – without disturbing an actual archeological site.

Gifted and talented classes from Perryville Elementary and Bigelow East End Elementary and Middle School participated in “Project Dig,” a curriculum designed by Jerry Lipetzky of Interact and orchestrated by Julie Hall and Skip Stewart-Abernathy of the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute.

During the program, both schools invented their own cultures and brought them to life by creating artifacts from oven-baked clay. These artifacts represented various core values and principles they chose for that culture, including marriage ceremonies, the structures they built as houses, and how the members of the cultures obtained food.

Each group then brought their culture’s artifacts to the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain, where they were broken and buried in a disked area near the Teaching Barn at the Heritage Farmstead. Guided by staff members from the Arkansas Archeological Survey Station at the Rockefeller Institute, each group excavated the other group’s artifacts using the proper techniques and forms. The students returned to their schools with their findings and spent the next six weeks reassembling the artifacts, and from them, reconstructing the culture.

The concluding event was a formal research symposium held at the Rockefeller Institute’s Rock Theater. Representatives of “Perryville University” and “East End University” presented their conclusions regarding the cultures they excavated. The students from Bigelow East End interpreted their findings of Perryville’s Sesroh Culture, and the Perryville students explained the evidence they found of East End’s Imanustils Culture.

The Rockefeller Institute thanks Naaman Judy of Perryville and Debbie Jones of East End for giving their students the opportunity to participate in the first Project Dig. It is anticipated that a new Project Dig will be undertaken in the fall of 2009. For more information about this program, contact Skip Stewart-Abernathy, WRI Station Archeologist, at (501) 727-6250 or send an e-mail.

Click here to view a slideshow from Project Dig 2008. Click here for more information about other archeology programming at the Rockefeller Institute.

The Winthrop Rockefeller Institute is a unique educational center with conference and lodging facilities. Committed to acting as a catalyst, its vision involves combining the legacy and ideas of Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller with the resources and expertise of the University of Arkansas System. Its mission is to develop diverse programs that nurture ideas, policies and activities to make life better in Arkansas.

The Rockefeller Institute accomplishes its mission by offering a variety of workshops, seminars, public lectures, conferences and special events. Program areas include archeology, the arts, culinary arts, public affairs, language instruction, the environment, heritage, and health and wellness.

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