01x04 - Digging Archaeology

[bunniefuu]

[girls] ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S

[Izzie] ♪ We need you.

[girls] ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S

[Izzie] ♪ Come on!

♪ When I need help, and I've got a question ♪

♪ there's a place I go for inspiration ♪

♪ Gotta get to the Web, check the girls' investigation ♪

♪ What girls?

[Izzie] ♪ SciGirls!

Whoo!

[girls] ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S

[Izzie] ♪ I need you!

[girls] ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S

[Izzie] ♪ Come on!

♪ You've gotta log on, post,

♪ upload, pitch in! Yeah!

♪ Wanna get inside a world that's fascinating? ♪

♪ The time is right 'cause SciGirls are waiting, ♪

[girls] ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S

[Izzie] ♪ We need you!

[girls] ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S

[Izzie] ♪ SciGirls!!

[electronic dance music plays]

Izzie.

Uh? Jake?

Hey Jake, what's up?

I need your help!

Did you throw your back out playing Garage Band again?!

♪ Na-na na-na na-na na-na! [dull thud]

No, it's not that.

I lost my lucky socks, and my science test is tomorrow.

Okay, where was the last place you saw them?

In my locker.

Finding them in your locker should be easy.

Have you seen my locker lately?

Whoa. Start diggin'!

But Iz, my locker, it's a work of art.

I know exactly where everything is at all times.

Yeah, right.

So how do I find my socks

without disturbing-- this?

Ah, well, this one might even stump the SciGirls,

but I'll see if they can help.

Thanks Iz, you're the best!

[laughs] I really am!

Well, see ya Jake.

[clicking of the keys]

♪ ♪

Hey SciGirls,

have I got a doozie for you!

I gotta fix this.

♪ ♪

Hey, they need to find something

and keep track of where it came from.

It might not be lucky socks,

but it might just work!

♪ ♪

I think I'm feeling pretty nervous

and excited about archaeology camp.

I like geology because

you can look back in the past

and find out things that you probably didn't know.

It's like a piece of history in your hands.

I can't wait to start digging

and trying to find these artifacts.

Maybe finding a cool discovery

is what I'm hoping.

[Gates] I think I'll be fine with camping

without water and electricity

and all that stuff because it's outdoors-- doesn't scare me.

I love camping a lot, this is my thing.

[Gates] I love learning new things, and I can't wait

to have a new experience that I've never had before.

Hi. Hi.

My name is Gates. What's yours?II'm Jazzy.

Have you ever been to an archaeology camp like this before?

No, actually I haven't. Have you?

No, but I think it will be a great experience.

Oh, I play volleyball too.

I play guitar.

So do I.Oh, sweet!

We have a lot in common.

Jazzy and I will make a great team

because I love math, and she loves English.

And she likes science, and I like science.

I think we're going to get along great.

[Gates] I'm so excited. [Jazzy] I know, so am I!

Renee came and met us at the museum.

I started studying archaeology very young.

My mom said when I was

was the first time I said "archaeology,"

and I couldn't actually say the word right.

But by the time I was Jazzy and Gates' age, I was already

going out and looking at archaeological sites.

Every summer, we do a field camp with students,

so they can get the training in archaeological fieldwork

that they need if they want to go into this for a profession.

Next stop Range Creek!

[Izzie] Whoo-hoo!

♪ ♪

[Jazzy] Nice.

[SciGirls laugh]

See, this is like a picture of yourself.

We were filming each other on the bumpy road.

She was filming me, and when I turned the camera

she's like, "Don't look at me!"

This is Renee. Say hi, Renee.

[Renee] Hi Renee! [laughs]

[Jazzy] Gates. [Izzie] Smile!

[Gates laughs] Jazzy.

What's the coolest thing you've found at Range Creek?

Have you found any weapons or toys?

Who was the past owner?

We asked so many questions with Renee.

We spent the entire time talking.

How 'bout what kind of bugs are out there?

The one thing I know I won't like about camp

is all the scorpions and bugs and spiders.

Last night, the mosquitoes were pretty bad.

We do have scorpions on site. They're all over.

I saw a cougar this morning, and he was pretty big.

So I've seen bears.

I saw last week at , pounds-- that's pretty big.

Anything big, scary that will eat you

is basically found up there. [chuckles]

[Jazzy] I thought Renee was really cool because she answered

all of our questions, and she just has this energy.

[Gates] I'm so excited!

We're almost there. We're only a mile away,

but it seems to take a lot longer.

It's beautiful.

♪ ♪

We are here, Gates!

Let's document this.

These are the archaeologists.

Students come in anywhere from weeks to weeks and they get

formal training in excavation and survey techniques.

Welcome to Range Creek.

[Izzie] Wow, look at that view!

We are in Range Creek Canyon, Utah.

This site, we think it's probably Fremont.

[Gates] This week at archaeology camp

we're trying to find out more about the Fremont people,

especially their diet and how they ate.

[Jazzy] We care about the Fremont people

because they're native to this surrounding area,

and we just want to know, who were these people?

What was their life about?

How did they live, where did they go?

We just have so many questions

that we desperately want to answer.

[Jazzy] We're going to be investigating wall art, granaries

where the Fremonts stored their food,

and excavating a site and digging,

and then we're going to present it to Renee.

Hi, I'm Jazzy, I like to like, run.

I'm on the cross-country team, I like to longboard.

I just like all these sports.

I'm Native American.

I go to these pow-wows, which is just dancing competitions.

At pow-wows, you don't really take lessons.

You just watch and learn.

[drum beats; people sing in Native American language]

This is my cat. His name is Captain Jeeves.

Ouch! [laughs]

♪ ♪

[Gates] We went to go look at some wall art.

[Jazzy] I found a feather, and I put it in my hair just to get

in touch with our culture that we're learning about.

[Renee] Pictograph... [Izzie] Pictograph.

[Renee] They're painted on the rock.

[Gates] How can you tell if they're pecked or painted?

[Jazzy] There's types of classifications,

a pictograph and a petroglyph.

A pictograph is painting on the wall, and a petroglyph...

is pecked into the wall.

Yeah, like etched.

[Renee] This is some of the oldest

rock art in the canyon and in all of North America.

When you're looking for evidence

of what prehistoric people ate, in the rock art

sometimes we have clues to the animals that they hunted,

they'll actually make pictures of those,

and it's your job as the archaeologist

to try and interpret what this panel means.

It could be like a canoe or maybe a w*apon.

Kind of looks like a goat person.

[Gates] Do you have any idea what they could've got the white from?

[Jazzy] They probably grounded up some kind of dirt or something light.

[Gates] I would draw it out really quickly, then I'd notice

more detail to it, and then finally I'd get the shape of it,

hopefully get some ideas

of what it could be.

There's something right there.

Ooh, ooh, I think maybe theyjust discovered something!

There's something right here.

A female body and a head and wings.

Renee, look at this.

[Renee] Oh, you guys just found another figure!

That's a white anthropomorph.

Wow! That's terrific!

I haven't seen that figure before on this panel.

That's just wonderful, that's what we're hoping for

every single day out here.

Renee just freaked out. She's like, oh my gosh!

I love it when someone makes a new discovery.

To find that was really amazing because you feel

really important that you actually found something.

[Renee] It's really nice to have fresh pairs of eyes out here.

[Jazzy] Then the next one is the basket weaver.

[Gates] This one's different from the one before

because it's etched in instead of just painted on.

[Renee] The figure on the left dates probably to around AD ,

and then the figure on the right

probably dates to about years ago.

[Gates] You can tell by the color.

[Renee] That's absolutely true.

[Jazzy] We found one that was hundreds of years old.

♪ ♪

[Gates] The last one we have is the Fremont panel.

These are petroglyphs, which means

they're pecked into the stone.

[Jazzy] There's just something different about it in the detail.

I don't know if it was just because of their culture,

or just because it was so well-preserved.

[Gates] I'm seeing like, different warriors.

Necklace thing.

I thought it was really neat that it was

the most detailed out of all of that wall art that we saw.

[Gates] Like the clothing and what they wore.

[Jazzy] They had necklaces on, and they had headdresses on,

and they had really cool belts.

[Renee] And other people have said he might actually be a shaman.

[Jazzy] And that could be like his flow of knowledge,

like his inspiration from the gods.

[Renee] That's neat. That's an interpretation

I haven't heard. That's an interesting one.

[Gates] I thought the big circle

kind of reminded me of the phases of the moon,

and I know how lots of nature is

just really sacred to these people.

The moon kind of had like a ray going down into someone's head,

and I kind of thought it was like the medicine man

and that's how he got his inspiration,

from the moon and celestial bodies.

♪ ♪

[Jazzy] Which one was your favorite?

Definitely that last one that was the Fremont Indians.

The artwork didn't show any of what they ate.

[Jazzy] We're not seeing too much besides the deer.

They could be hunting that deer,

but then again that's only a couple hundred years old.

[Gates] I think it's kind of inconclusive.

[Jazzy] We are headed back to camp now.

[woman] That was fun.

Did you think it was fun?

[SciGirls] Yeah. Yeah. [woman] Did you like it?

[SciGirls] Yeah, pretty fun. What do you guys think?

It was fun. You guys did good.

[Jazzy] You think we did good, Gates? [Gates] I think we did very good.

No!

[acoustic guitars play softly]

♪ ♪

[Gates] Before we went to bed,

we played our guitars next to the fire,

and we played some songs, and then we went to bed.

♪ ♪

[Gates] Today we're excavating a site.

[Jazzy] We're going to try digging for some clues

or artifacts that we might be able to find.

This is what we think

might be a Fremont dwelling,

but we're not sure, and part of that investigation is

going to be the excavation you're going to do today.

Each of these stakes and chaining pins

marks a one-by-one meter unit,

and so we keep track of where all the artifacts come from

within one meter until we get down on--

in that very end, we think that's a floor.

[Gates] I'm really excited because yesterday

I really wasn't expecting to find anything.

There's even more things to be found here

because nobody's ever looked at it.

[Renee] In this part of the floor we have flagstones.

This part, there was a hearth filled with ash, charcoal,

and b*rned bone with pottery along this edge.

Your grid unit is right next to that.

[Gates] What are some of the things you've already found?

[man] When we were excavating this little quadrant right here,

we found a small piece of bone about that big,

and we also found pieces of ceramic shards,

and there should be a whole bunch more in there

since we haven't gotten very far.

Keep it flat to the thing.

You're just going to scoop

because it comes up pretty good.

Hm! Scooping-- I can do that!

So if you guys want to start.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[Gates] I found a rock, a big rock.

[Jazzy] What is that?

[Gates] Just hold that.

[Renee] Whoa, what did you get?

It looks like a ceramic.

It looks like a big ceramic.

Oh my gosh, it is a big ceramic.

[Gates] It's really smooth.

[Renee] That looks like

a piece of Fremont grayware to store food in.

[Gates] Still is going back. [Renee] Wow, that's fantastic!

That's part of a -year-old pot!

I thought it was nothing until I started digging.

[Jazzy] I think we might've found the end of it. There it is.

I thought it would have been really small,

but it ended up being pretty big.

Well, if they can find that, I'm sure I can find Jake's socks.

[Renee] So we can document it before we take it out of the ground.

That is a beautiful job you've done excavating that.

When we find something like that,

we've documented its exact location.

The difference between archaeology

and treasure hunting is documentation.

That's beautiful! Now that it's been documented,

if you guys want to lift it up and take a look.

You can pick it up with your hands. [Jazzy] Are you serious?

[Renee] First hands to pick it up in years.

What's it look like on the other side?

[Jazzy] It's got like, ash on the other side.

[Renee] Oh wow, it's just a little bit charred and b*rned.

It's a cooking vessel.

That's one they would've used on the fire.

It feels so amazing, it just,

like you've never felt anything like this.

Just thousand-year-old pottery,

it's just so different than regular pottery.

How awesome to be holding this right now!

I think it's awesome.

You took my word. [both laugh]

[Renee] Then the easting is ..

Why are we doing this?

We're trying to determine how deep that was

below the surface that it was excavated from.

So how much dirt was piled on top of that.

Thirty-six centimeters.

Haw!

That's how you know you're working hard,

when you can no longer tell your own skin color!

[Gates] We saved all the dirt that we dug up,

and we sifted through it

because there could've been smaller pieces of pot.

[Jazzy] Just to make sure that we didn't miss anything while digging.

Okay, go for it.

[Renee] You have to look through this

and see if you see any more artifacts.

They're anything from the size of a Life Saver

to little heishi beads.

Okay, that one is just a rock.

This one is just a rock too.

This one I'm suspicious of, but let's look.

Well Gates, you were right, that's just a rock too.

After we finish excavating the artifact,

we need to wash them up.

[Jazzy] So we would fill a tub of distilled water,

then we take a toothbrush

and we clean off the dirt that was on it.

Oh, that reminds me-- I gotta brush my teeth!

[Gates] I always worry about if you're scrubbing a little too hard

because you don't want to damage it.

I think it's just amazing

that something could survive this long

without like, completely being destroyed,

and there's something left.

We did get to look at some of the other student's stuff,

and some of it was really cool.

I love the sharp objects.

One was a scraping thing, and it was this pretty rose color.

[Izzie] Oop! And it's sharp!

And another one was

like, a little baby arrowhead this big. Yeah.

She said it was cute.

It was cute.

Thank you for excavating and finding

the biggest pottery on site.

I can't wait for tomorrow! [Renee] All right.

♪ ♪

Whoo! We did it!

Oh yeah!

Whoa!

It feels amazing!

Cucumber, pineapple.

Pineapple! [both laugh]

[both laugh]

Okay, let's take a break from playing faces.

♪ ♪

[Jazzy] Today we're going to check out a granary,

and granaries are where they store their food,

and hopefully we'll find some food remnants.

♪ ♪

We are above a granary.

When we first came into Range Creek

and started recording granaries up in the cliffs,

I took rock-climbing lessons!

This one hasn't been sampled yet,

so we want to sample this one today.

Okay, let's do it.

Okay, yeah, I can't wait any longer.

I've been waiting for this all week.

♪ ♪

I did it!

Be careful there. Yeah, good job!

Whoa, whoa, whoa!

A little help here!

[Gates] When we were pulling down to the granary

we had to be extremely cautious

because the ground was kind of slippery, and if you fell,

you really didn't want to damage the granary.

[man] It's a piece of cake really, isn't it? [Gates] Yeah.

[Jazzy] Good job, Gates.High-five.

[Renee] Well, this is a Fremont granary, it's very fragile.

It's been here for about years.

Let's go ahead and lift the lid.

If you look inside you can see the roof beams,

and down at the bottom, there's a layer of sand and gravels.

There may be food remains.

[Gates] Wow, it's so smooth inside of it.

We found a lot of rat feces. [laughs]

Oh, I hope there's none of those in Jake's locker.

[Jazzy] And little bones.

Hopefully we find something, just a little seed.

I like how they put the rocks and the adobe together.

It looks like they spent a lot of time on this structure.

And how well-preserved it is

kind of shows how hard they worked on it too.

It's really fascinating that things from that long ago

can still be existing.

You don't really think about people way back then,

but obviously there is,

and it's amazing how advanced they actually were.

[Jazzy] This used to be another granary right here. It did.

[Gates] They're actually really well-constructed

or they wouldn't still be here today.

Want me to find the volume of this?

[Jazzy] I took the measurements, and she did all the math.

I thought that was cool.

, cubic centimeters.

That's liters.

So trips each way just to fill the granary with grain,

and then to come back and get it later when you want to eat.

From the granary, it was pretty amazing

to get that much material up to it

because there was granaries there.

So it would've taken twice that, like loads!

[Renee] Going to do scoops in about the same place into the bag.

[Jazzy] We took some pollen samples.

The pollen samples tell us

if there's any food particles in it or how old the dirt is.

[Renee] Excellent!

Yes, more scooping!

This is great practice for the Great Jake Locker Excavation!

[Renee] That looks great. Thank you so much, that's perfect.

Well, now the science is done,

and it's time to go back up, are you guys ready?

Yeah!Of course not!

All right. [SciGirls laugh]

[Gates] Climbing.

I really wonder how they got up there

because even with the ropes and with a climbing instructor,

and the crevice wasn't there,

and they would have to climb straight up

from off the ground because it seemed really hard.

[Jazzy] Climbing. [man] Okay.

[Jazzy] The most surprising thing about it was it's so well-preserved.

[Izzie] Hey, wait for me!

[Gates] It was just unreal to look at something like that.

Tomorrow we're going to be presenting our final theories,

which is really exciting

because we've worked pretty hard on these theories.

I don't want to tell anybody.

I want it to be a complete surprise.

Overall, this camp was

a pretty amazing experience, it was great.

It's a good lesson and good experience

for kids like us because it's really nice

just to get outdoors and experience the...

nature![both laugh]

That's funny!

Again with the mugs!

[Jazzy] Renee taught us a lot.

We learned a lot of new things about the area.

It was really cool.

We learned so many things from Renee.

I didn't even know most of the things.

It was so great because I had no idea

anything about this place, and it's great.

Hey, it's Gates,

and I'm just here to tell you a little more about myself.

I like to ride horses and snowboard.

My favorite subjects in school are math and science.

I love science because it's not like you ever stop learning.

There's always something new to be learned.

I started collecting rocks when I was like, .

This is my absolute favorite.

My great-great grandmother gave it to me.

She always told me it was a dinosaur egg.

But that's kind of what great grandmas do.

On my quiet days

I usually like to read a book.

Today we left Range Creek,

and we went to go see Renee at the museum.

She showed us around a little bit.

[Renee] These are Fremont corn and beans and squash digging sticks.

That's, of course, for planting seeds.

That's a Fremont figurine, that's possibly just toys,

possibly just dolls, and some of the prehistoric basketry.

This is an artist's reconstruction of what

this person may have looked like wearing the headdress.

Would you guys like to take a look at the artifacts

from the site you were excavating this week?

Sure! I would love to.

[Renee] These are all food remains we found

in the different granaries.

Then in some of the granaries

we have grass seeds.

This is Indian rice grass that's been parched,

and this is Great Basin wild rye.

In our granary we haven't found anything

that was completely noticeable,

but they sent it in for a pollen sample, but

we won't know how that turns out until a few months from now.

We'll have to wait for a while to get those results.

What do you guys think

was going on in Range Creek years ago?

We've presented our theories, and it was really cool

because Renee actually really thinks about our theories

instead of going oh, they're just kids, they don't know anything.

I'm going to start with the wall art.

[Renee] That looks very professional, Jazzy.

This guy kind of looks like a bighorn sheep.

I looked at the antler headdress that was upstairs;

I think it was that, like a headdress of some sort.

Then we found this bighorn sheep.

I'm not sure if it was a deer or a sheep.

But I think it was a sheep.

So that suggests the sheep were probably hunted.

And considering the food that they ate.

There was the pot that we found and the animal bones

and the little baby arrowhead.

They probably hunted small animals like rabbits or birds.

And then the granary was stored up so high,

probably to protect it from rain,

or maybe bears or animals that could get up there.

Renee thought my hypothesis was good.

Most of my theory is really similar to Jazzy's.

I do think what we found, like the animal bones

and the pictures, really relate to what they ate.

They probably ate deer and rabbit

and probably some bighorn sheep.

I think the Fremont were hunters and gatherers and farmers.

[Renee] Most of the food remains we have from the house look like

they had a pretty important focus on the wild foods.

We have a surprise for you.

We want you to keep this.

Oh, thank you!

The "Indiana Jones" notebook!

[Jazzy] We wrote a little note for you.

Thank you. Oh wow.

I think that Jazzy and Gates are very observant.

They have a bright future in whatever they decide to go into,

but I hope it will be archaeology.

Thank you so much for sharing this with us.

This has definitely changed

some ideas that I might have for my future.

I think of Renee as an inspiration.

I thought she was really cool.

Renee's archaeology camp, I think

has had a big impact on my life.

There's a lot of things

that I probably wouldn't have known about myself.

I probably wouldn't have discovered I actually enjoy art,

and I interpret it different than everyone else.

I think it will change a little bit of my perspective on life.

Big hugs. Oh!

Ooo, careful, careful!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And in that layer we have...

one slightly used retainer.

Check!

unsent love notes to one Missy McClure.

Hey!

And what appears to be a fossilized piece of toast.

[Chomp! Chomp!]

What? I'm hungry.

Oh Jake, look!

Eouw.

Lucky socks!

Ha, ha, ha, yes!

Thank you, Iz!

I don't know what I'd do without them... or you.

Yeah, anything for you, Jake.

And I do mean "anything."

Phew!