Archaeology Alive!

Vermont's History from the Ground Up

Created as a joint project with the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, this kit provides a unique approach to the study of archaeology. Students learn the principles of archaeology through artifacts, creative activities, games, and books that appeal to their imaginations and help them to delve into this fascinating field. Artifacts in the kit range from prehistoric stone stools to modern plastic implements.


The kit includes a comprehensive Teacher’s Guide that includes teaching objectives, background information, and discussion questions leads instructors step by step through all of the activities and all of the artifact-based lesson plans. The kit is arranged so that a teacher may use the entire kit to teach an archaeology unit, or may pick only one or a few activities as time, inclination, and class age permit.



The kit includes:

  • The Excavating Vermont game — A bag of “artifacts” for each student launches them into this board-game archaeological dig.
  • Cultural History Mystery — study several artifacts spanning four historical eras and create theories about the education, transportation, communication, and other cultural activities followed by the people who used the items.
  • What is a Tool?— A box of artifacts that includes both Native American and modern tools helps students discover the definition of a tool, as well as how tools were developed and have evolved over time.
  • Archaeology Bingo — bingo game cards, chips, and coordinate cards that help students recreate a dig site.
  • A Rich and Ancient Heritage video and plenty of books, pamphlets, and other reading materials help to round out the comprehensive archaeology unit that teachers can create using this kit.

Funding for this kit provided through the generosity of: