Thank God for a new topic!
I did one once in an aquarium with little plastic skeletons and such like...
No good for actual excavation, but it did help in teaching students how to
see and interpret stratigraphy.
Mary Ellin
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At 11:56 AM 8/27/97 -0400, you wrote:
>OK, you can take your finger off of the delete button now -- the
>SOPA/ROPA/DOPA thread is over.
>
>Meanwhile, a non-email colleague at a local community college is interest=
>ed
>in hearing from anyone who has constructed an "archaeological" site for t=
>he
>purpose of training students in stratigraphic excavation techniques. He
>wants to do the same and would like advice, others' experiences, etc. =
>
>I did this myself a few years ago and am still digging portions of the si=
>te
>every spring.
>The advantages: =
>
>1.  I'm not destroying a real site for no other purpose than to give
>students an introduction to digging.
>2.  There's no report to write at the end of the class (I really like tha=
>t
>one).
>3.  It's *exactly* like digging a real site. After only 3 months, I
>couldn't tell that it was a phoney.
>The disadvantages:
>1.  I have to rebuild a portion of it each year.
>2.  It cost about $500 for soil to create.
>3.  I had to hassle with university administration for a piece of unused
>land: "You want to do WHAT?"
>
>So, if you have ever built a site -- something with real digable features=
>,
>not just artifacts on the surface -- please let me know and I'll pass on
>the information. Thanks a lot!
>
>Adrian Praetzellis
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>[SOPA member since 1981]
>
>