Mathers digs up fun for all

To some children, becoming an archaeologist is as common a dream as becoming a professional athlete or fireman. Children love the excitement of action, the intrigue of mystery, and archaeology presents them with both. But children are incapable of spending their time searching for dinosaur bones in the black plains of Montana or Egyptian mummies deep inside tombs of pyramids. \nInstead of waiting for a trip to the field, the Mathers Museum of World Cultures is bringing that opportunity to Bloomington. The museum, with the Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology, is hosting a free "Discover Archaeology" function from 12 to 4 p.m. Saturday. It is for all ages and is open to the public. \nJudy Kirk, assistant director of the Mathers Museum, said the idea for "Discover Archeology" dates back to 1996, when several of the museum staff were brainstorming ideas for their participation in what was then Indiana Archaeology Week, and has now become Indiana Archaeology Month. \n"Indiana has a wealth of archaeology, and IU has a number of faculty in archaeology," Kirk said. "We wanted to give people a chance to see what all the archaeology students were doing. And every year several hundred people attend the exhibit.\nThis year the Museum is leading off the four hours of hands-on demonstrations with a new and commonly overlooked division of archaeology, the archaeology of food. From noon to 1 p.m., there will be a lecture given by Geoffrey Conrad, the director of the museum, on the origins of the food we eat today. \n"It will concentrate on our diet, a combination of old world and new world foods, a result of the Columbian Exchange," Kirk said. \nAlong with the lecture will be various foods to taste such as ham, cranberries and salsa. \nConrad said he thinks of the idea for the Archaeology of Food as an offshoot of a course he was teaching. \n"Food is such a natural thing to address huge questions to, but food is also something we greatly take advantage of," Conrad said.\nHe initially became interested in archaeology as a result of growing up in a house built in 1775. As a child he would always find broken pieces of pottery or old nails while digging in his backyard. \n"I thought it was fascinating to hold in my hands something that passed through someone else's hands 200 years ago," Conrad added. "To this day, I don't know much that still holds my attention, interests me and frustrates me like archaeology does."\n"Discover Archaeology" will boast a variety of other activities, all with the intention of informing the public that archaeology is not solely the search for bones, but actually goes deeper. Demonstrations range from the archaeology of food and drink to flint knapping and primitive technology to zooarchaeology. More than 20 archaeologists and archaeology students will be present to aid in the activities and share their experience, knowledge and personal stories of past archaeological digs. A majority of the activities are hands on and all aim to be educational.\nSarah Willey, one of the student archaeologists present at Discover Archaeology, and a few other graduate students will be presenting the Experimental Ceramics display, which stemmed from Wiley's involvement in a ceramics class at IU.\n"It will show how people in the past made pots. What tools they used to make the pots, and why they were decorated in a certain way," Willey said. "We will have a lot of clay for people to use, have fun with, and try to make their own pots." \nWilley, like many other children, became interested in archaeology in grade school when she learned about the mummies of Egypt. She has since majored in archaeology at IU, and is now a grad student. \nThe Mathers Museum is located at 416 North Indiana Ave. Parking is available on the streets surrounding the museum and at the McCalla School parking lot. For more information call 855-6873 or visit the event Web site at http://www.indiana.edu/~mathers/new/programs.