The children from Maple excavated the cookies with the toothpicks, by carefully chipping away at the sediment (cookie) to slowly reveal any hidden artefacts (chocolate chips). Like archaeologists, the children were careful not to damage the artefacts while excavating! 

What does this activity teach us about archaeology?

Archaeological excavations are a destructive process. When archaeologists have finished with a site, they have largely taken it apart piece by piece to discover its secrets. Unfortunately, this means a site, once excavated, can’t be excavated again. To fix this problem, archaeologists take lots of notes, drawings, photographs, and soil samples, and they write detailed reports so archaeologists in the future can come back to their excavations and learn even more. The Maple class did some awesome drawings before their excavations could begin. We also learnt that history can be delicious!