Rebuilding History

Andres Rosenthal believes that being an archeologist is just like being a detective. At the tender age of 11 and already pretty savvy about the ways archeologists work, Andres is going to spend part of his winter break as a junior counselor in the Adventures in Archeology winter day camp at the Skirball Cultural Center.

Andres participated in last summer’s version of the Skirball program for children ages 8-12 and was invited to help out with the newly launched winter session. He will help other children sort through historical artifacts as they try to figure out the who, what, where and why of life in several ancient cultures.

“We get to touch stuff, the real things that were discovered and brought there for analysis,” Andres said. “We crack the code by learning how to turn the ancient alphabet letters into English.”

Many of the artifacts bearing ancient Roman, Hebrew and Proto-Canaanite inscriptions will be used in the upcoming session, said Erin Clancy, the Skirball archeology curator in charge of the camp.

Each day of the three-day program, which starts Tuesday, will be devoted to a different culture. The programs, which run from 9 a.m. to noon, are titled “Egyptian Afterlife,” “The Land Between Two Rivers: Mesopotamia” and “Life in the Levant.”

Clancy herself has participated in archeological digs in those areas, as well as in Central America.

“Andres’ calling it detective work is appropriate,” Clancy said. “Archeology is not just excavation. The other phase is analysis in a lab setting, which is how this winter camp program will be organized.”

She has assembled collections of artifacts for each participant in a container with bits of fabric, coins, pottery and other items that they can use to figure out if the ancient person who owned them was a peasant, a king, a merchant or a religious leader. Based on this evidence, Clancy said, “kids will be asked to put together a story about that person.”

They will get to make clay tablets similar to those used in the territory between the Tigris and Euphrates (now Iraq) when it was the site of an early civilization. They will write on the tablets in ancient cuneiform, the first alphabet. On the day devoted to the Levant--now Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Israel--the children will make their own versions of ancient coins.

The children will come to learn that archeologists are faced with the problem of solving mysteries without having access to something detectives have.

“Detectives can question witnesses,” Clancy said. “All we are left with is the material evidence.”

BE THERE

“Adventures in Archeology: Skirball Winter Day Camp,” Dec. 21-23, 9 a.m.-noon. Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Sepulveda Pass. Fee: $30 a day or $70 for three days. Skirball members receive a discount. Recommended for ages 8-12. Enrollment is limited. Call for application: (310) 440-4636.