Campers sift through both soil and history

The Baltimore Sun

Benjamin Berger plunged a trowel into a box of black soil. He uncovered pennies, oyster shells and pieces of ceramic.

Cristol Wagner sifted dirt through a screen searching for small artifacts that Benjamin might have missed.

And Hailey Fisher recorded their archaeological findings.

"It's so cool to dig and find stuff that gives us clues about the way people lived hundreds of years ago," said Benjamin, a 10-year-old Havre de Grace resident. "It's neat to think that a penny can tell me something about history."

The findings occurred during a simulated excavation that took place behind the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum during the Archaeology Camp by the Bay last week. During the weeklong camp, youngsters ages 8 to 12 dug for historical items, studied history, created dioramas, and spent a night camped out in the museum.

"The camp is a combination of my three loves - archaeology, museum studies and camping," said camp founder Brenda Guldenzopf, executive director at the Maritime Museum since 2001.

The culmination of the camp will take place July 22, during the 25th annual Maritime Heritage Festival, which is sponsored by the museum. During the event, the campers will present a diorama to the crew of the Jamestown shallop, the 28-foot reproduction of John Smith's boat that is retracing his 1608 expedition on a 121-day voyage along the Chesapeake Bay. The trip commemorates the 400th birthday of Jamestown, and Havre de Grace is one of several stops on the journey.

"Since the shallop was coming, I thought it was a great opportunity to expose the kids to life 400 years ago," Guldenzopf said.

Gap in knowledge

Guldenzopf initiated the camp about four years ago after she noticed a gap in children's knowledge about pre-17th century history, she said.

"Young children seem to be learning history that dates back 200 to 300 years in school, and we have history that goes back 10,000 or 12,000 years," she said.

To give children an opportunity to experience earlier history, Guldenzopf changed the methodology of the camp. In the past, the campers conducted excavations in cellars, fields and gardens. But there was no guarantee they would find anything. This year, Guldenzopf created simulated excavation sites to better control the findings and to help the children tie concepts together.

And the campers reported that finding items from the old days was not only educational, but fun too.

"I got to see how pieces of stuff that looks like junk can tell a story about somebody's life a long time ago," said Hailey Fisher, 8, of Bel Air. "I got to experience what archaeologists really do."

The three dig sites were created in wooden boxes layered with sand and dirt. The top layer included things like pennies and oyster shells that are from the past 50 years, and the bottom layer includes items used between 1607 and 1608, such as stone tools and prehistoric ceramics, she said.

Familiar territory

For some of the campers, digging was not an unfamiliar activity.

"When I am bored at home, I just dig and dig. I find bottle caps and coins," said Noelle Correll, a 9-year-old Bel Air resident. "When I heard they did digging here, I had to come and do it, too."

Others plan to undertake more excavations in the future.

"I wanted to come out here and learn to dig, so I can help my dad find stuff," said Cristol Wagner, 9, of Bel Air. "After digging today, I want to do it even more. It's neat to see what you can find."

The camp leaders said they want the children to learn that archaeology is about more than just digging.

"We want the children to see that archaeology is a way to connect to the past using the sources that are available to us today," said Anne Persson, the museum's archaeologist. "And it's also about storytelling, and how the past tells us about the present."

When the temperatures soared above 90 degrees during the week, the campers worked indoors on projects including a history lesson on the Concord Point Lighthouse and John O'Neill, the first lighthouse keeper.

"There are moments in Havre de Grace history that none of the young children seem to know," Guldenzopf said. Many people - adults included - don't realize that the Concord Point Lighthouse is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse in Maryland, she said.

Kids' activities

The children created a diorama depicting a scene from the 1800s after the Concord Place Lighthouse was built, and all the children pitched in and constructed one large diorama (30-by-40 inches) that depicted life in the early 1600s before John Smith came to America.

And on Thursday night the campers spent the night at the museum, where they made crafts and learned to cook meals that were first made in the 1600s and 1800s, Guldenkopf said.

"We bring in a hot plate and a barbecue, and make things like succotash and ribs and maybe some seafood," she said. "We want the kids to know firsthand what life was like 400 years ago."

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