CHAPTER 5: The 13 English Colonies "Diggin' in the Dirt"

Introduction
Students read about the challenges Jamestown settlers faced, such as food shortages, harsh climate, disease, and their own inexperience with the wilderness. In this lesson, students will learn how archaeologists make sense of what they find and how they interpret their findings.

Lesson Description
Students will use information from the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities Web site to excavate a grave at Jamestown. Students will read about the processes used to uncover and preserve artifacts. They will view a map of the excavation site, photos of the site, and artifacts found there. They will see a step-by-step reconstruction of a skeleton's face. They will answer questions about what they read and saw.

Instructional Objectives
1. Students will learn about the important work of archaeologists.
2. Students will consider the importance of artifacts and what can be learned from them.

Student Web Activity Answers
1. white male, five feet, five inches tall, approximately 18-20 years old; died of gunshot wound to the leg and resulting loss of blood
2. Native American ceramics and a stone point or arrowhead
3. They used equipment to move a 1000-pound block of dirt beneath the grave to keep the skeleton intact.
4. Answers will vary: in crime labs to determine the identities of unknown victims; by anthropologists and archaeologists to learn about people and cultures from long ago

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