For more than 1,000 years, the people we call the Fremont lived mainly in what we now call Utah. Groups of Fremont people lived in deserts, caves, mountains, and valleys and along the edges of lakes. They made different kinds of houses, from under ground houses, to stone houses, to houses made out of brush.
"The Fremont culture was very cool," says state archaeologist Kevin Jones. "They farmed and lived in the most amazing and rugged places you can imagine. They were fantastic farmers, builders, architects, and artists. And they did it all without metal tools."
Think about some Fremont artifacts for yourself: Find in the picture a clay figurine, a grinding stone, rock art, a granary for storing corn, a bowl, a cornfield, and an underground pit house.
Rock Art At least some of the Fremont were great artists. Besides those cool (and mysterious) clay figurines, they left behind some amazing art on rocks and cliffs.
Why did they do it? Nobody knows for sure. Maybe they did it to tell stories, to mark places on the land, to record special events or dreams, as part of their religion, as a way to leave a record of a person or group, or just because they wanted to create something. What do you think?
We do know that those artists went to some trouble— after all, making rock art was not like scribbling with a crayon on paper. The painters had to mix up special paint using ground-up minerals and plants. Or, instead of painting, they would slowly chip their designs into the cliffs. Many times, the artists painted and pecked their art in really high, hard-to-reach places.
We also know that those artists left some spectacular rock art. And we know that everyone needs to take special care of this art. (Rule #1: Never, never, never touch it with your hand or anything else!) (Rule #2: We've got paper now, so use that for your own drawings. Never write on rocks, or you'll ruin both the Fremont art and the beauty of the rocks.)
Some of the things the Fremont artists drew:
Anthropomorphs— human-shaped figures [anthropo (human) + morph (shape)]. Some of the figures have great details, like clothes, jewelry, hair, and weapons.
Animals— snakes, lizards, mountain sheep, birds, deer, and sometimes some strange ones.
Designs— like spirals, squiggles, and zigzags.
Hey kids!
Make your own "Rock Art" art! It's fun. It's easy.
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You'll need:
- A piece of paper cut from a brown paper grocery bag or kraft paper
- A little chlorine bleach in a bowl
- A cotton swab (like a Q-Tip)
- Something (like newspaper) to protect your clothes and furniture (this is important!)
- An adult's help (this is also important!)
Choose a rock art design. Collect your adult helper and your supplies. Using the swab, paint the design onto the paper with the bleach. Let it dry. When it is dry, you might want to crumple and then uncrumple the paper to give your art an interesting texture. |
Discover a Family Archaeology Site
Creating your own family "archaeological site" is a fun and informative family activity. The participants in the game need to know several definitions: Archaeology is a method for studying human cultures by analyzing material evidence (artifacts and sites). Artifacts are any objects made or used by humans. An archaeological site is a place where human activity occurred and material remains were left.
The week before the activity, ask each family member to bring an article, or picture of the article, that would reveal an important part of their life. It might be fun to have parents and grandparents include things from their childhood.
Create your own "dig" or "site" by burying the oldest person's artifacts first. As an example, Grandpa might bury an old-fashioned pen that required liquid ink in which to dip the pen. Father's contribution might be a ballpoint pen and Son buries a picture of his computer. Plastic peanuts, wheat or beans might be used in place of sand or dirt.
Now, let's fast-forward to the year 3003 and the family is a group of archaeologists studying the family site. The "dirt" is carefully removed, layer by layer, to reveal the artifacts left 1000 years earlier.
Questions that might be asked:
What do the artifacts tell about each member of the family living there 1000 years ago? What did it tell about technological advancement? What would you hope your "site" told about your family?
What would happen to the integrity of the site if someone dug into it, right through all the layers, turned the soil over, and Grandpa's pen was at the top and Son's computer at the bottom" The history that your family site might reveal would not be accurate. When a site is left undisturbed, archaeologists know that the layer on the bottom is the oldest and the layer on the top is the youngest.
How does this apply to an Anasazi or Paiute site where vandals have dug through the site? site by site, much of the lost history of the world is being brought to light through the efforts of those interested in archaeology.
Written by Barbara Jolley, Washington, Utah Statewide Archaeological Society member. This article appeared in the St. George Spectrum in January 2003; used by permission. |
Got a Question?
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Q
A |
When I was digging in my yard I found a little aluminum/tin-like coin about the size of a dime, with a hole in it. It says, "Utah tax relief" on one side and "one token" on the other. What is it?— e.t.
You have found a sales tax token. The sales tax we all love came to Utah in 1933. The depression had drained the state's revenues, so the legislature established a sales tax. (It was supposed to be only temporary.) After Governor Henry Blood signed the bill into law, peeved citizens called the tax "Blood Money." In 1937 the state issued sales tax tokens, made from aluminum (later, the tokens were plastic). People used tokens to pay the tax until 1951. (This information came from Harry F. Campbell's Tokens of Utah.)
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