Reading Artifacts
📋 What it is
An artifact is anything people made or used; analysing its material, wear and design reveals how people lived and thought.
🗣️ Coach says
A single pot can tell you what people ate, how they cooked, what they traded and even what they believed. Analysing an artifact means asking: what’s it made of, how was it used, and what does that reveal about its makers?
🧠 Memory hook
One object → what they ate, made, traded, believed. Ask “what does it reveal?”
😂 Giggle
Why did the mummy go to school?
It wanted to improve its wrap sheet!
😲 Whoa!
Scientists can study the wear on ancient teeth and tools to learn what people ate — even thousands of years later.
🗺️ Choose your path through the dig. There’s no way to lose — a wrong turn just sends you back to try again.
You’ve cleaned a single ancient pot. How much can ONE object really tell you?
Dead end — a single pot can reveal food, cooking, trade and even beliefs. One object is a whole story.
You examine what it’s made of, how it’s worn, and what its design shows.
Careful — a good story isn’t analysis. Read the material, wear and design to reveal how people actually lived.
From one pot you reconstruct what people ate, how they cooked, what they traded, and something of what they believed.
🧠 Say it back: A single artifact like a pot can reveal how people lived — what they ate, how they cooked, what they traded, their skills, and sometimes their beliefs.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Pick one object you own and list two things it would tell an archaeologist about you.