University of Chicago Field Trip 4/13/12

FIELD TRIP!!!

THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

The whole group on U of C's main quad.

At the museum, half of us went on a simulated archaeological dig while the other half of us toured the museum.  Then we switched activities.  In the picture below our guide, Moriah, is explaining the process before we dig. In this picture you can see the time period levels from earliest on the bottom to most recent on top because that is the order in which archaeologists find things when they dig at a site.   We got to dig up artifacts from all of the different time periods.  We really liked how many different things we found, and we liked using the trowel and brush to uncover artifacts.  We drew diagrams of the objects we found and took notes about what we thought they might have been used for.  One of our favorites was the mask from Roman times that Anna and Mili excavated and Lucas is wearing below.  We could see how some things advanced through time, but other things stayed the same over the years.

During our tour of the museum we saw many cool artifacts from the time periods we studied in social studies!!  Our favorite was "Lammasu," a gigantic sculpture of a winged bull with a human head that protected King Sargon II of Assyria, pictured below.  We couldn't imagine how in the world the Assyrians were able to carve it, and we also liked learning about how it was dug up and brought to the University of Chicago.  It was so heavy that two ships sank while carrying parts of it!!  Another favorite was the Egyptian mummy still in its colorful coffin and the HUGE statue of Tutankhamun.  We couldn't believe they were genuine Egyptian artifacts!!  We were also excited to learn that people who work at the Oriental Institute actually dug up some of the artifacts themselves.  We were thankful for Moriah and Josh for being such great guides and teachers during our visit.  Many of us want to come back to the museum with our families!

After our Oriental Institute tour and dig, we ate lunch on the quad.  We were glad to have a warm and sunny day for this.  Some of us pretended that we were U of C students, not sixth graders.  We brought iPads from school and dowloaded the U of C app.  Then we went on a short tour of the campus.  Highlights were the old buildings with tons of ivy and cool architecture.  We also liked the interesting statues, the domed library,  and the landscaping.  We thought the campus was well put-together with a pretty design.  Some of think maybe we'll go to school there someday.  Nicholas would like to go to U of C's medical school.  Thanks to Cici and Katherine for the beautiful, artistic photos below.  They both have a real talent for photography!