Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 15, 1994 TAG: 9408150070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But 15 public schoolteachers from Bedford County, Amherst County and Lynchburg spent part of their summer digging up new teaching methods in the hard red clay below Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson's Bedford County retreat.
They enrolled in Poplar Forest's second annual archaeology field school for teachers. Sponsored by the University of Virginia's continuing education department, the one-week class allows teachers in the public schools to get a hands-on look at history while earning recertification credits.
Joyce Zug, a seventh-grade teacher at Bedford County's Forest Middle School, was the only teacher from Bedford to participate in the program. She said, "All the information we've found here just ties into the whole history of Bedford County. I've learned a lot in the past week."
But, Zug said, she also learned that archaeology "is not easy. It gets hot and sweaty. We really get to appreciate what [archaeologists] do."
The teachers dug from 8:30 a.m. to noon every day last week, carefully clearing away squares of dirt around the site of a cabin that belonged to some of Thomas Jefferson's slaves.
Working in teams, the teachers shoveled away topsoil and grass, forming 10-foot squares to search. Then, meticulously, they used spades and garden tools to dig about 6 inches below the surface, where Jefferson-era artifacts can be found.
Dressed in T-shirts and shorts, the teachers bent down on their hands and knees, plucking through the stubborn white roots that poke out from the red clay like bare trees in a desert.
Occasionally, rewards appeared in the form of tarnished buttons or rusty nails or pieces of ceramic dishes, sifted out of the dirt and clay.
Robin Oglesby, a fourth-grade teacher at Lynchburg's Perrymont Elementary School, said, "This is like a treasure hunt. We get excited about every little thing." Digging Thursday in a corner of her team's search area, she found pieces of pottery, a button and what appeared to be the rusted hasp of a 19th century-style padlock.
In afternoon classes taught by staff archaeologists at Poplar Forest, teachers are taught how to recognize items from the Jefferson period. They also learn the significance of items such as burnt charcoal and animal bones, which may show how people ate or cooked and how they got rid of garbage.
The teachers also took turns in Poplar Forest's archaeology lab, washing and labeling artifacts for mending and future analysis.
Barbara Heath, director of archaeology for the Corporation for Jefferson's Poplar Forest, said, "I think people don't realize ... that not everything we find is a complete plate or a gold ring ... but that all the pieces we find make up a good story."
Excavation of the slave-cabin site began last year when Poplar Forest's staff of three full-time archaeologists began digging test holes on the eastern border of the former presidential plantation.
The archaeologists found artifacts such as cooked domestic and wild animal bones and pieces of inexpensive ceramic dishes that were consistent with what slaves used. This greatly attracted the interest of the Poplar Forest archaeologists, Heath explained, because, like many plantation owners, Jefferson excluded slave quarters in maps of his plantation.
Also, because many slaves were illiterate and didn't keep records of their daily life, not much is known about them, Heath said.
For the past seven years, Poplar Forest has sponsored a four-week archaeology school for anyone interested in the subject. Students from that class and the newer teachers' class have been excavating and learning at the site, while providing Poplar Forest with much-needed help.
Excavation by those groups so far has yielded what Poplar Forest archaeologists believe to be twin root cellars, which slaves or later owners filled in with garbage after the cabins were destroyed. They also have found pieces of wine bottles and homemade soapstone smoking pipes.
Poplar Forest is not the only institution that gains from the classes, the teachers are quick to point out. To earn their recertification credits, teachers will take what they've learned about Thomas Jefferson and Poplar Forest and present it to their students in structured units, designed with help from the Poplar Forest staff.
Some will teach about Thomas Jefferson's architecture, some will teach about plantation life, and some will teach about archaeology itself, among other topics.
Kendra Harvey, a kindergarten teacher from Heritage Elementary in Lynchburg, will use the experience to teach her pupils about trash and recycling.
"We're learning about how they lived from what they threw away," she said. She said she would probably hide pieces of a puzzle, and have her students dig them up and put the puzzle together to explain to them about archaeology.
Joe Seagle, who teaches fifth-graders at Amherst's Elon Elementary, said, "I'm going to have some fun with this. I teach everything, including history. Jefferson's letters and his slaves' letters will be a good source for writing assignments" for students.
Oglesby said, "It gives you a different angle when you're teaching kids, when you've actually been a physical part of finding things out here. It always helps to get excited about what you're teaching."
by CNB