Sparks Fly
[Home] [PBS VideoDatabase] [Social Studies] [TSU] [UVA]

Archeology

Radiocarbon Web Info http://www.c14dating.com/k12.html

Welcome to the K12 section of the Radiocarbon WEB info site. The aim here is to provide clear, understandable information relating to radiocarbon dating for the benefit of K12 students, as well as lay people who are not requiring detailed information about the method of radiocarbon dating itself.

Echoes from the Ancients http://www.pbs.org/echoes/

Almost 2,000 years ago the people of Yodefat - a small city in the Galilean region of what is now Israel - took a brave stand against the powerful Roman army. The rebellion of this poor, agrarian community started a monumental six-year war with the Romans that would change the course of Western civilization.

Prehistoric Art http://www.jlc.net/~brian/art/prehistoric.html

What precisely is prehistoric art? Some believe that prehistoric art is any art which does not show the human form remotely similar to what actually exists. That is, there is no definite nose, mouth, eyes, or other complex facial features. Some compare prehistoric art to the art of younger children playing with crayons and in some ways this belief is not entirely dissimilar to the actual truth.

 Field Museum “Living Together” http://www.fmnh.org/exhibits/exhibit_sites/living_together/default.htm

On this site you'll explore three concerns common to all of us: COMMUNITY, HOME and IMAGE. Take your time; look carefully. Why do you respond to your concerns the way you do? How might you respond if you were in someone else's shoes?

Mapping the Treasures of the Sunken City of Alexandria http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sunken/

Welcome to the companion Web site for the NOVA program, "Treasures of the Sunken City,". This program chronicles the underwater discovery of the fabled Pharos lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, just offshore from the modern city of Alexandria in Egypt. Here's what you'll find online:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sunken/clips/ 

The Science of Archeology http://www.unmuseum.org/archaeol.htm

The word Archaeology means "The study of everything ancient." It is the science that looks into man's past to determine how our ancestors lived and why they did what they did.

http://www.unmuseum.org/odd.htm  A Collection of Odd Archaeology

 If the Mummy Talked http://www.discovery.com/news/features/mummyfaces/mummyfaces.html

Together they assembled a team in 1997 that has pioneered new high-technology techniques for putting a human face on the mysterious dead — in this case, a mummy acquired in 1893. The two-year project ended this past summer.

How is an archaeological expedition organized? http://www.civilisations.ca/membrs/archaeo/nogap/howis.htm

If you don't plan well in advance, you may not know where you are, you may not have what you need, you may not like what you must eat, and you may not have the help you require. All of these factors must be taken into account before you proceed into the field.

http://www.civilisations.ca/membrs/archaeo/nogap/vidsound.htm  Retracing an Expedition

Odyssey Expedition http://www.website1.com/odyssey/week1/home.html

Each week you will be able to log into these World Wide Web pages and watch and participate with an archaeological excavation in action.

African Roots http://www.suntimes.co.za/2000/01/02/millennium/mil02.htm

HUMANITY was born in Africa. All of mankind are children - or great, great grandchildren - of the earliest Africans.

 Anthropology

National Geographic Outpost http://www.nationalgeographic.com/outpost/index.html

Follow Lee Berger and his team as they hunt for fossils in Botswana and South Africa.

University of Pennsylvania Bodies of Cultures display http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Exhibits/bodmodintro.html 

Body modification and what it means is personal and cultural, some of it dating as far back as the 9th century B.C.

Strange Science http://www.turnpike.net/~mscott/index.htm

Ever wonder how people figured out there used to be such things as dinosaurs? Curious about how scientists learned to reconstruct fossil skeletons? The knowledge we take for granted today was slow in coming, and along the way, scientists and scholars had some weird ideas. This Web site shows some of their mistakes, provides a timeline of events, gives biographies of a few of the people who have gotten us where we are today, and lists resources you can use to learn more.

Neanderthals http://members.iinet.net.au/~chawkins/heaven.htm

The first Neanderthal fossil was found in 1856 in the Neander Valley (in red), near Dusseldorf in Germany, hence Neanderthals.

Medicine Through Time http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/medicine/index.shtml

This site makes extensive use of Shockwave Flash technology to bring you interactive animations and exercises as it looks at medicine through the centuries.

Historians

Why do Civilizations Fall? http://www.learner.org/exhibits/collapse/

Why did this great civilization fall? The history of humankind has been marked by patterns of growth and decline. Some declines have been gradual, occurring over centuries. Others have been rapid, occurring over the course of a few years. War, drought, natural disaster, disease, overpopulation, economic disruption: any of these can bring about the collapse of a civilization. Internal causes (such as political struggles or overfarming) can combine with external causes (such as war or natural disaster) to bring about a collapse. What does this mean for modern civilizations? What can we learn from the past?

Documentary Photography and the Great Depression http://chnm.gmu.edu/fsa/

From 1935 to 1943, photographers working for the federal government produced the most enduring images of the Great Depression. Beginning under the auspices of the Resettlement Administration in 1935 and then the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in 1937, a group that over time included about twenty men and women worked under the supervision of Roy E. Stryker to create a pictorial record of the impact of hard times on the nation, primarily on rural Americans. This project, as photography historian Alan Trachtenberg has noted, "was perhaps the greatest collective effort . . . in the history of photography to mobilize resources to create a cumulative picture of a place and time."

Historiography http://www.pvhs.chico.k12.ca.us/~bsilva/ib/histo.html 

When doing history, it helps to keep in mind that there are many different ways of determining how history happens. One of the key things to remember is that historians disagree very much over why almost any event happened. In the search for how things happen, we get ideas about how to understand our present world's events and what to do about them, if anything.

History Through the Eyes of Those Who Lived It http://www.ibiscom.com/index.html

Illuminating the past through personal narratives and other first-hand sources, EyeWitness is presented by Ibis Communications, Inc. a digital publisher of educational programming.

The World of Sumer and Akkad 40 Centuries Ago! http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/stone/319/

Welcome to our sun-dried mud brick house. We have several rooms clustered around a courtyard. Steps lead up to the roof on our one-story structure. Palm tree logs span the top of the rooms and are packed with mud. Frequent repairs are needed from the erratic rain storms. The weather is hot, so most activity takes place on the roof or in the courtyard.

History of the Written Word http://public-library.calgary.ab.ca/srg99/wrihistory.htm

Calgary Public Library links to the history of the written word.

HyperHistory Online http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html

2 000 files covering 3 000 years of world history.

Geographers 

Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/Map_collection.html                   Vast collection of online maps covering all areas of the world

Map Machine by National Geographic http://www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/maps/                                 Dynamic maps, atlas maps, and related information

Geography Matters http://www.esri.com/geography/gis_touches/everyday.html

GSI technology, how it works and what it does.

Terrarum http://www.kapili.com/terrarum/index.html

This is a site about Physical Geography. When you pull out a map and look for a place, say the Island of Yap. You need a map which shows Political or Social Geography. Here in Physical Geography we talk about the Earth you walk on, the air that you breath, the water in the oceans. Basically, the stuff that existed long before there were countries and humans and will exist long after humans. All you have to do is look for the stones. They will take you to the different sections of Terrarum.

Cultural Connection http://library.thinkquest.org/50055/index.shtml

Have you ever wondered what life is like in other countries?  Cultural Connections will help you discover other cultures and answer your questions, so pack your bags and choose a country to begin!

 Multiculturalpedia http://www.netlaputa.ne.jp/~tokyo3/e/

We want this "Multiculturalpedia" to be a site where you can find many ideas from different backgrounds. We would like to share customs, ways of thinking, etc. of various cultures to find how different, or probably similar, we are. We would like to understand other people more and at the same time understand ourselves.

Early Man (or Woman--Lucy)

Gallery of Achievement http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/joh1pro-1

The lives of legendary achievers have endlessly fascinated the public. We marvel at George Washington's selfless commitment to his countrymen, Thomas Edison's ingenuity, Amelia Earhart's courage. Such magnificent feats, young people often believe, could only have been accomplished by someone born blessed or given lucky breaks. The lives and words of these heroes reveal a different story -- they were people just like you and me.

The Hall of Science and Exploration http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/joh1int-1

Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.   Discoverer of Lucy

Mr. Dowling’s Electronic Passport—Pre-History http://www.mrdowling.com/602-lucy.html

Don Johanson changed a great deal of what we know about the evolution when he uncovered the oldest hominid in the fossil record. A hominid is the family of mankind and their ancestors. Johanson nicknamed his find "Lucy," after "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," a song by the Beatles.

Daily InScight http://www.academicpress.com/inscight/07291998/grapha.htm

A new analysis of African fossils shakes up the human family tree. Researchers suggest in the July Journal of Human Evolution that two species of Australopithecus--long thought to be a smooth ancestor-descendant sequence--may instead have evolved independently from a common ancestor. The study clouds the relationships of early humans and implies that hominid evolution is more complicated than previously thought.

People and Discoveries      http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/do53pi.html

"Piltdown Man Hoax Is Exposed," announced the New York Times on November 21, 1953. "Part of the skull of the Piltdown man, one of the most famous fossil skulls in the world, has been declared a hoax by authorities at the British Natural History Museum," the article said.

Food Shelter

Hunting and Diet http://sapphire.indstate.edu/~ramanank/other.html

Neanderthals were hunters and gatherers that lived during the Middle and  Upper Paleolithic. Their life was rough and rigorous. It was so harsh that their average life span was from forty to forty-five years of age. Many aspects of their behavior contributed to this. One of these was the way in which these hominids hunted their sustenance.

ABC News--Science http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/hominid990422.html

Two and a half million years ago near a lake in Ethiopia, a humanlike creature raised a stone and smashed it down on an antelope bone to get at the marrow and fat inside.
The hominid is long gone, but the broken antelope bone remains, the earliest known evidence of a stone tool used to butcher an animal.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/hominidfood990115.html

You are what you eat. A corollary of that adage — hominids of 3 million years ago were what they ate — has provided paleontologists insight into the diet of our early relatives.

Stone Age Habitats    http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/w/x/wxk116/habitat/

Man's earliest ancestors sought protection from the elements and predators in natural shelters such as caves and rock overhangs. Gradually, they learned to improve their caves with inlaid stone floors, walls at the entrances and fireplaces.

Ice Age Clothing http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/uiuc-iac020100.html

Archaeologists have discovered what the well-dressed Ice Age woman wore on ritual occasions. Her outfit, however, including accessories, doesn't resemble anything Wilma Flintstone ever wore, or, for that matter, any of our carved-in-stone conceptions of "paleofashion."

Domestication of Animals http://www.le.ac.uk/archaeology/rug/AR210/TransitionsToFarming/animals.html

Animals were of vital importance to prehistoric farmers. They provide assistance with farm work, clothing, protection, as well as food. Land management became easier and tasks quicker. The disadvantages were primarily to do with feeding the animals.

Iceman:  Mummy from the Stone Age  http://dsc.discovery.com/stories/history/iceman/otzi.html

You're hiking high in the Alps, and stumble across something poking from the ice: The discovery will revolutionize our assumptions about Stone-Age man. Click around to investigate this 5,000-year-old mystery.

The Secrets of Forensics http://exn.ca/Stories/2000/02/03/53.cfm

Think of life for women in the Stone Age and you've probably got them in crudely fashioned dresses made of animal skin, perhaps being dragged across the cave floor by their hair. Or hovered over a hot fire tending to a dinner of mastodon or mammoth. Now think finely woven hats, belts and skirts - and a place in the highest echelons of society. That's what a new discovery tells us about women and their clothes in the upper Paleolithic.

Neanderthal Flute http://www.webster.sk.ca/greenwich/fl-compl.htm 43,ooo-82,ooo-year old Cave Bear femur bone segment with 4 holes. (2 complete holes, and 2 confirmed partial holes, one at each broken end of bone.)

The Study of a Cave http://www.culture.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/en/recherche.htm

Every discovery of prehistoric art, regardless of its inherent significance, must be authenticated. Almost immediately after the discoverers of the Chauvet Cave announced their find, a "verification visit" was organized. It was conducted on 29 December 1994 by Jean Clottes, an expert on Paleolithic art, guided by the discoverers.

Hunting Hominids http://exn.ca/hominids/

One of the great mysteries of science is when and how we became human. We know that our earliest ancestors and the great apes branched from a common ancestor more than 4 million years ago in Africa. The first of our genus, Homo, goes back more than 2 million years in Africa as well. But you wouldn't recognize them as us. These are the early hominids - no longer ape, but still not quite human either.

Neanderthals:  A Cyber Perspective http://sapphire.indstate.edu/~ramanank/

In 1856 at the Feldhofer Cave, near Dusseldorf Germany, Neanderthal Man informally introduced himself to the world. Named after the valley in which he was discovered (Neander Tal), this hominid would send anthropologists mad for over 100 years. Neanderthals were the ancestors that nobody wanted.

Neanderthals:  Burial, Ritual, Religion http://sapphire.indstate.edu/~ramanank/ritual.html

In the same humanly manner that Neanderthals cared for their disabled companions, they also buried their dead. "Neanderthals were not credited with deliberate meaningful burial of their dead until more than a half-century after their discovery"

Discovery:  In the Stone Age http://dsc.discovery.com/stories/science/stoneages/day.html

Enter our virtual cave and discover clues that will take you back in time to when Neanderthals roamed western Europe, some 50,000 years ago.