Four youngsters have been learning everything from how “scary” American Girl dolls are to what life was like in the 1700s at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum’s annual Archeology Camp.
The camp was the week of June 9 through 13 for children ages 9 through 11.
JPPM Archeology and Education Specialist Katie Dinnel explained the purpose of the camp is “to introduce children to what archeology is through working with professionals here on site.”
Dinnel said through the camp, “we can show that there are a lot of jobs in archeology; a lot of people think archeology is just dirt.”
She said the day starts at 9 a.m. with journal writing and a discussion of what the group will be learning that day.
Then the group goes to a site on JPPM’s campus to help screen dirt excavations for artifacts.
“It helps with distribution of where stuff is,” Dinnel explained. “ ... We’re trying to teach them the importance that we know where we found stuff — it’s location and it’s association.”
Nine-year-old Lucienne Stahlbaum of Huntingtown said she liked working with a large magnet the camp provided to pick up artifacts from the dirt.
“I don’t like sharing the magnet; I like it too much,” Lucienne said, adding that she especially liked finding metal and iron.
After the group leaves the excavation site, they have lunch and visit the the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory, or MAC Lab, at JPPM, where Dinnel said they recently learned how the lab’s X-ray machine worked through a demonstration with their own toys.
“American Girl dolls are very scary looking,” Dinnel laughed of the doll under the X-ray machine.
“You could see the weights that make the eyes bob up and down,” said Courtney Sheldon, 11, of Prince Frederick.
Dinnel said the group also has worked in JPPM’s artifact collections, which she said have been brought to JPPM by both the state and federal government.
She said the children have been learning how to clean and conserve artifacts “without hurting an item.”
“There are different techniques for different items,” Dinnel said, adding that the campers have been partaking in some “experimental archeology where we figure out how people used to do stuff” like making their own beads out of clay.
She said the day ends with some recreation.
“We go down to the beach and play around in the sand,” Dinnel said.
She said this year’s turnout of four campers was somewhat unusual as the program usually has about 12 to 14 kids.
“We don’t know if it’s the economy or if archeology just isn’t ringing the bell this year,” Dinnel said of the camp, which was $135 for the week.
Atlanta resident Annabeth Bradley, 10, attended the camp while visiting her grandfather for the week.
She said she got the idea to attend from her brother.
“He seemed to love it and I also did Colonial Camp here and I loved the archeology part of it,” Annabeth said.
She said her favorite discovery of the week was “a little piece of Chinese porcelain.”
“It was a really small piece, but I thought it was really awesome,” she said.
Eleven-year-old Massey Link of Port Republic said he liked exploring an area on JPPM that once contained a plantation from the 1700s.
“I know a lot about history, but I don’t know a lot about this part so I thought I could know more,” he said. “There’s a lot of things that have been buried that people didn’t mean to bury.”
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