Youngsters dig history at Fort Frederica archaeology camp
Jul. 2—Parker Cason sat casually in a patch of bare dirt Thursday morning, writing neatly into a notebook braced in his lap with grubby hands.
Beside him a Ziplock bag contained chunks and chips and slivers that may appear as mere dustpan fodder to the untrained eye. But after a week of archaeology camp at Fort Frederica on St. Simons Island, Parker's 10-year-old eyes knew better.
"This is everything we've found in our unit so far," explained Parker, a fifth-grader at Oglethorpe Point Elementary. "Pretty much everything has been ceramics."
Nearby, Emmalise Chapman's digging trowel uncovered something a little more exciting.
"I found an animal bone," said the St. Francis Xavier Catholic School fourth-grader, running over to camp director Ellen Provenzano with her prize.
"That's a big old hunky bone," Provenzano observed, looking at the jointed section.
Just like the ceramic dish fragments, pipe stems, buckles and other items dug up by these happy campers, the deer bone was a genuine artifact.
All the items in this semi-staged kids' dig were previously exhumed by grownup archaeologists on the grounds of the 280-year-old British fort and Colonial settlement, said Provenzano. The jointed bone from a deer haunch had a sharp edge, possibly butchered for a stew served in a ceramic bowl a long, long time ago.
Archaeology campers at Fort Frederica National Monument received history lessons during the week to help them reach such logical conclusions once the digging began. The "dig" takes place in a carefully tended and canopied site, under which actual artifacts are buried for the youngsters to discover.
In addition to Provenzano, six teenage archaeology interns from Glynn Academy helped supervise the activities of nearly 20 third- through fifth-grade students from across the county.
"It gives them an appreciation of their history because we're making history a hands-on experience," said Provenzano, Fort Frederica's archaeology education coordinator and a retired teacher at Risley Middle School. "We talk to them about a lot of the history before they even dig. Then they can make the connection.
"This is not just stuff. These are things that people used. This is a bottle that somebody used, or this was part of a bowl that somebody ate soup from. It really makes them more excited about history and its relevance."
The history lessons, lab work and "cross-mending" of excavated pieces are among the other activities that occupied the mornings of the elementary-age campers each day. The campers also toured the site of an actual excavation nearby, where Fort Frederica staff and the interns are recovering the tabby remains of a Colonial-era resident.
Funded and sponsored by the Friends of Fort Frederica, this year's summer camp was the first since a two-year hiatus prompted by COVID-19 concerns. Prior to that, the camp had operated annually since 1996, Provenzano said.
"You get to dig and it tells you about the past," said Emmalise, who also uncovered a pipe stem. "And then you find some more."
Parker continued entering notes about his unit, one of three areas roped out in 6-foot-by-6-foot squares, just like the grownup archaeologists do it.
"It's really fun to see what you can find," said Parker, the grandson of Brunswick City Commissioner Johnny Cason. "There's really cool things right under your feet that you didn't know were there. You didn't know about it and now you do."
