Archaeology on Mulberry Row
A bird's-eye photo of an excavation of "Building o," a dwelling for enslaved people, along Mulberry Row at Monticello in 1981 and 1982
Historical Period
Skills and Conceptscontributing partner
About
Archaeology is a key part of the historical process. The photograph shows how an archaeologist plans and manipulates the environment to recover artifacts. In this image of a 1981-1982 excavation at Monticello, archaeologists are shown from above uncovering a dwelling for enslaved people at Thomas Jefferson’s home. The building may also have had industrial uses in the 1790s.
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Archaeology on Mulberry Row
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What do the people in this photograph appear to be doing?
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What do you notice about the holes in the ground?
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The people in the photograph are called archaeologists. What do you understand about the job of an archaeologist based on what you see in the photograph?
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How are the archaeologists in the photograph interacting with the environment?
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Archaeologists excavate (dig up) artifacts from the ground in order to understand more about life in the past. What artifacts from the past does it look like the archaeologists in this picture have found?
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What information about the past do you think the archaeologists might learn from the pieces of pottery that they’re looking at?
use it as evidence
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Why would evidence of the past be found underground?
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Citation & Details
Citations
- Creator: The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Department of Archaeology
- Date Created: c. 1981-1982
- Point of Origin: Monticello
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