loving art, science and creative kids

   Beginnings - If I was a cave artist this is what I might have produced. 

                               Are There Jobs for Archeology Buffs?

Wouldn’t it have been exciting to be the teenager who found a Duck-billed Hadrosaur mummy in North Dakota in 2007?  Imagine discovering a dinosaur with skin so that scientists don’t have to guess about the outer covering of this great extinct mammal. 

Dinosaur explorations often change our view of history. I always imagined myself on a dig-team, becoming famous for finding a missing link.  When my children were growing up I thought it would be fun to take them to the Dakotas or Texas on a dig as part of a family vacation. I never followed through though, so now I have to be satisfied by visiting museums and purchasing interesting books about cultural and physical anthropology.

When I took my 9 and 10 year old granddaughters to see dinosaurs in Seattle, the children asked me to wait as were getting into the car.  The girls had to get their “research material” to bring with them to the museum. I laughed at the idea, but waited patiently while they ran to the house, grabbed notebooks and pencils along with a small reference book. At the museum they immediately went from display to display, writing down information and drawing a picture of each dinosaur. My grandchildren were so intensely involved in their studies that I asked the guide if any of the closed cases containing dino-eggs and small parts could be opened for closer examination. Yes, was the answer, and the children were shortly engaged in looking at specimens under a microscope.  That museum visit made me realize how fearless, curious, and participatory young children are when given a chance to explore. They often lead the way to learning.

Pre-history is interesting for young and old alike. Kennewick Man, found on the banks of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington is shown to be between 8,000 and 10,000 years old.  He must have been in a great deal of pain because of five broken ribs that healed improperly and a projectile point lodged in his hip. Because his physical characteristics and diet were so different from other Native American people living in the area his ancestry stirred quite a controversy since his 1996 discovery. He was a seal hunter who came from far away, possibly Alaska or the Aleutian Islands. With his Asian features he might even made the journey himself across the Bearing sea.

According to recent DNA tests my partner, Ray, has a mixture of genes that point to part Asian ancestry. I now wonder if some of his relatives may have been related to Kennewick Man. We had always assumed that he had Clovis ancestry but his test results point to an earlier time. His Northwest coast carvings, though, have always embraced the more recent native art forms. 

Archeology teaches us a great deal about our human ancestors but when you go further back in time to look at remains of creatures that predated man’s existence we begin to start to get a more  complete story about how change in climate conditions affected their lives. Can understanding geology and archeology help us with current issues of global warming?

Scientists look at prehistoric creatures and how they lived, at changes in land mass and atmospheric and oceanic conditions for clues that can help in predicting the fate of the earth over the next millennium. According to Peter Dodson at the University of Pennsylvania there are great times ahead for dinosaur hunters. In Science Daily he reported that paleontology will be a good career because new discoveries are increasing by 10-20% a year.  So…if  those visits to museums, digging for dino-bones in toys, and reading books spark an interest in your child you may want to fan the flame. And if forensics and DNA analysis fascinate you it may be time to become a sleuth yourself by joining the National Geographic Genome study. 

 Please share your opinion about this issue. 

Photo of Ray and Marilynne getting ready to perform wearing Ray’s Masks.