Lost Roman Treasure

Student Handout

Uncovering Your City

You are an archeologist in the year 4000, assigned to excavate a part of your city that was buried by an earthquake in the year 2002. You will be assigned a four-quadrant area on your map and, because of limited funds, must choose which section of that area to excavate. Once you choose what part of the city to uncover, think about what might be left after almost 2,000 years and what it would say about your city and its inhabitants.

Procedure

1. Look closely at the map you have been assigned. You can only excavate one quadrant of this area. In choosing your excavation area, consider what you might find and what it could tell you about this community.

2. Once you have chosen your section, redraw your chosen area on a separate sheet of paper. Create a new map scale for your resized version of your chosen area.

3. Carefully study the section you have chosen and record the objects you think you might find there. Consider whether each item you might find would have survived for almost 2,000 years.

Questions
Write your answers on a separate sheet of paper.

1. What were your reasons for choosing your selected section?

2. If your city were buried as it is today, not everything would survive for 2,000 years. What do you think would survive? What do you think would not survive?

3. What might you conclude about the city and its people from the surviving artifacts?

4. Using present-day archeological methods, list some ways you might discover more information about the artifacts you found.