Junior Archaeologist Assignment
Alright friends, archaeologists Dana and Alethia want you to find bones in the food you eat at home. Ask your mom/dad to make you a meal (or even better, help them make a meal!) that has food with bones. As you are eating see if you can feel the bone? Can you see the bone as you eat? What part of the animal's body does the bone support? Can you find the same bone on your body? Send a picture of your bones to me at nmoos@cps.edu and I will pass them on to Dana and Alethia so they can take a close look at them for you.
Question of the Day
What other sorts of bones do you think we will find in Ashkelon? Post your thoughts in the comments section.
Is there a part of the dig you want me to explore? Do you want me to make a video about something in Ashkelon for you? Do you want me to ask an archaeologist a question for you? Remember to post your questions in the comments section! I love making videos for you all!
Update
on 2012-06-26 13:45 by Nichole Moos
Hi Henry and Annabel!
Thanks for watching the bone video and for thinking about the bones in your food. Henry, yes we will make a video of chicken bones if we find any, and I bet I can get one of the bone archaeolgists to make a bone video for you of all the different bones we find. Did you know that we have the bones of over 1500 dogs at Ashkelon!?
Annabel, I will let Robyn and Jon know that you want a video on more Roman stuff. Robyn is the Roman pottery expert, and I know they would both love to make you a video.
Update
on 2012-06-29 09:25 by Nichole Moos
Hi Nathan!
My name is Alethia. I am the bone expert here at Ashkelon. Ms. Nichole showed me your bone picture. Wow, what a great find! I have to look at one of my bone books to decide what type of bone it is. I will have Ms. Nichole e-mail you when I do. Thanks for the great question on storing bones. Keeping bones safely is a tricky task. The bones need to be totally dry so they don't grow mold. If you want to keep the bone, I suggest leaving it in the sun but be careful another animal doesn't come steal it. When the bone is totally dry you will be able to see that it is white and feels really dry. After that the bone can be played with. Remember, don't put the bone in your mouth because you can get sick!
Bone is 80% mineral (like calcium) and 20% living material. The inside of the bone has lots of nutrients when it is alive. When the bone is dead you will see lots of lines and cracks. That is because the living stuff in the bone dries out and leaves the mineral parts of the bone.
I will work on a seashore video. I went to the seashore last weekend and found sea glass!! I will make sure to show it to you when I get back. Aaron and I collected sea glass too!
Hi Smart Class!
You are right on with the sorts of bones we are finding. The only ones we have not found are dinosaur, bear, ducks, and deer bones. We find LOTS of donkey, sheep, pig, and goat bones, though!