Artifact Alley

Core 6 (2012)

Gallery of

Modern Artifacts

If many modern artifacts are a mystery to us, how much more so are ancient artifacts?

This gallery reminds us that much of archaeology is like a guessing game.  The students brought in artifacts currently used in their homes to see if others could guess what they were.

MIDDLE SCHOOL VIRTUAL MUSEUM

Sixth Grade Curator: Judith Pransky

Eighth Grade Curator: Christine Farrell

Technology Director: Stephanie McHugh

Art Director: Laura Stern

Cave and Rock Art

Core 6 (2012)

Gallery of Drawings

Drawing was a way to
communicate before writing.The students created artistic interpretations of ancient
drawings that "spoke" to
them. They also researched
the artworks and developed
theories about their meanings.  The students' renditions are displayed along with the original prehistoric cave art and historic rock art.

Egyptian Cartouches

    Core 6 (2012)

Gallery of

Framed Names

When the names of Egyptian rulers were inscribed on statues, tombs and documents, they were always enclosed in oblong frames to show their royal stature.  In a modern rendition of this practice, the students created decorative and meaningful frames to enclose their names written in hieroglyphics.

Cuneiform Tablets

   Core 6 (2012)

Gallery of Pictographs

Ancient Sumerian cuneiform began as pictographs, or picture writing, with each shape symbolizing a word.  Over time, the shapes evolved from complicated pictures that closely resembled an object, to simpler shapes that were easier and faster to write.  The student scribes of ancient times used a hand-held clay tablet and a stylus to practice the more than 900 shapes of the Sumerian alphabet.  To better understand how this alphabet developed, the Sixth Graders created complicated pictographs of modern objects, then simplified the shapes so they could be written more quickly. 

Immigrant Poetry

     Core 8

Gallery of Poetry

Students read the poem "Prospective Immigrants Please Note" by Adrienne Rich. In it, Rich writes of the symbolic "door" that confronts new immigrants to America. Students used the metaphor of the door to create a poem of their own. Students chose a "door" to enter through or exit from, they then shared what lies beyond or behind the door, finally they reflected on the consequences of their choice.

Manifest Destiny

     Core 8

Gallery of Poetry

Students examined a series of paintings to understand the concept of Manifest Destiny and how this concept changed the lives of immigrants and Native Americans.

Students also came to an understanding about how this idea dramatically changed the American landscape.

African American Folklore

Greek Pottery

   Core 6 (2012)

Gallery of Cylices

A cylix is a shallow bowl on a small pedestal. Two handles projecting from the sides allow it to be used as a drinking cup.  Greek artisans decorated this and other pottery with images that were important to their culture--nature, the gods, and daily life.  Everything from warriors, to women applying cosmetics, to children in schoolrooms, can be found in their paintings.  During a museum visit, the students chose painted pottery to inspire designs for the cylices they would make in Art class.  They also used the pottery to inspire historical fiction that they wrote about the Ancient Greeks.

Roman Scrolls

Core 6 (2012)

Gallery of Papyri

As part of our study of the Roman Empire, the students learned about Roman daily life, including what people used as writing equipment.  To their surprise, they discovered that papyrus, a material usually thought of as an Egyptian artifact, was still very much in use for Roman writing scrolls.  The students also found out who processed all that papyrus--slaves--and they had a taste of slave labor as they created and wrote on their own papyrus documents.