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Experimental archaeology: Making cordage

In Intrigue of the Past, page 2.8

Students will make cordage and use an activity sheet to experience a technique and skill that ancient Native Americans in North Carolina needed for everyday life. They will also compute the amount of time and materials that might have been required to make cordage and construct a scientific inquiry to study the contents of an archaeological site.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8–12 Visual Arts Education and Social Studies)

Intrigue of the Past

Lesson plans and essays for teachers and students explore North Carolina's past before European contact. Designed for grades four through eight, the web edition of this book covers fundamental concepts, processes, and issues of archaeology, and describes the peoples and cultures of the Paleoindian, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods.

Format: book (multiple pages)

Mending pottery

In Intrigue of the Past, page 2.9

Students will mend broken pottery to learn what archaeologists learn by mending pottery.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4–5 Visual Arts Education and Social Studies)

Pottery traditions

In Intrigue of the Past, page 4.5

Students will learn how Indian people of North Carolina made and used coiled pottery, summarize why archaeologists study pottery, and make and decorate a replica of a North Carolina coiled pot.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 and 8 Visual Arts Education and Social Studies)

Archaeobotany

In Intrigue of the Past, page 2.6

Students will use pictures of seeds, an activity sheet, and a graph to identify seven seeds and the conditions in which they grow. They will also infer ancient plant use by interpreting archaeobotanical samples and determine changing plant use by Native North Carolinians by interpreting a graph of seed frequency over time.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4–5 and 8 Science and Social Studies)

The pottery makers

In Intrigue of the Past, page 3.4

Archaeologists do a bit of shrugging when asked about the Woodland—that time and lifeway tucked between 1000 BC and AD 1000. Some things they readily understand, but others leave them wondering.

The forest people

In Intrigue of the Past, page 3.3

Paleoindian culture died out across North America by 8000 BC. Archaeologists say this was bound to happen. The Ice Age had ended, the megafauna were extinct, and the boreal forests faded as deciduous ones spread across the East in the warmer climate. Faced with significant environmental changes, the Native Americans adapted. Archaeologists call their way of life and the time in which they lived Archaic.

Resources on the web

NativeTech

"An internet resource for indigenous ethno-technology focusing on the arts of Eastern Woodland Indian Peoples, providing historical & contemporary background with instructional how-to's & references." (Learn more)

Format: website/general

Provided by: NativeTech