MC to host Archaeology Day on May 1, 2012

Local elementary and secondary students attending a special Archaeology Day at Monmouth College on Tuesday, May 1, will have the opportunity to learn what life was like in western Illinois centuries before they were born. 

The two-hour event will begin at noon in the college’s Quad, which is located south of the Haldeman-Thiessen Science Center and west of the Stockdale Center. It is sponsored by the Western Illinois Society of the Archaeological Institute of America and the college’s departments of classics and history.

“The purpose of the event is to use experimental archaeology to further our understanding of prehistoric Native American cultures and to promote our wonderful Native American Artifact Collection,” said faculty member Michael Laughy. “Our Archaeology Lab students will help host the event.”

The MC students will offer a series of Native American technology and skills demonstrations, including flintknapping, bow making and shooting, and heat treating. The latter demonstration will show how stones are heat treated to make projectile points and how to make pine pitch glue.