Dig It

The kids favorite York attraction was Dig.  It's an educational exhibit that just goes above and beyond the call of duty to make learning about archaeology fun.

Okay, yes, I'll agree that they're working with a stacked deck anyway. York has Roman, Viking, Medieval and Victorian sites littering the streets like cigarette butts. You can pick your favorite type of artifact or ancient behavior and yap on endlessly about it to kids. No wonder they love this town.

Dig starts with a 15-minute demonstration/lecture on archaeology and its methods. They show the kids a mock cross-section of a modern trash can and have them do the detective work to figure out things about the family. Yogurt lid expiration shows season, balloon and birthday card show a boy lives there, cat food shows pets live there, etc..

Then the kids pick a plastic trowel and choose from one of four simulated dig sites: Victorian, Medieval, Viking or Roman.  Since the girls and I were alone, they got to dig in each site.  The "dirt" is shredded plastic from tires.  It leaves a Utah-esque red dust on your clothes.

I'm pretty sure I had a pink tush for the rest of the day the first time we went.  On the second trip, I skipped being The Helpful Mom" and just took photos and shouted encouragements from ringside.

The kids scrape off the plastic and expose actual artifacts that are glued to the floor.  Everything except the human bone is authentic, we're told.  As they uncover something, the guide gives them a little spiel.  "Helena, you've just found some antler.  They'd have used it for drinking vessels or heated it up and dried it flat to make windows, in later times."

  

After excavating four sites, the kids went to sorting.  They were told to either sort a bin of commingled artifacts by type (antler, bone, charcoal, wood, pottery, mortar, metal, etc.) or sort bones by animal.  As they did this, the guides let loose with their best "what the kids will remember" stories. 

Winners include:

• Stale urine is a great lice cure.
• Washing hands prevents belly worms.
• Fossilized "poo" tells us so much about people.
• "Norman" the Norman horse skull shows evidence of a healed infection from a bit he used--healed after treatment with a red-hot poker.
• Viking kids drank beer starting at age 3 (not news, but still raises giggles from the girls).

 

After an hour, the guide asks for final questions and then lets us loose on the do-it-yourself exhibits.

 

 Helena loved drawing costumes on the ancient figures.

 

 I made this mosaic.

 

Olivia thought it'd be cute to look exhausted by her efforts to put this puzzle together.

 

I love this shot of Helena using a microscope.  My little scientist!