What in the world?? Be an amateur Archaeologist!

Be an Amateur Archaeologist in Four Easy Steps

That's right. You can do in five minutes for free what we've spent years of school and thousands of dollars being trained to do--the irony is, this isn't far off the mark. Here's how:

1.    Look at the pictures on this page, observing as much as possible about the artifacts.

2.    Read the pertinent details about the finds.

3.    Based on the information available, make
       an educated guess as to what they might have been used for.

4.    University of Pennsylvania Museum Submit your educated guess !

Some Pertinent Data

Late Period [300 BC - AD 200] burials also contained bronze bracelets, iron artifacts and carved baked clay rollers . . . While there is no evidence to support their use in pottery decoration, their elaborate designs echo the rollers interest in curvilinear motifs found in the painted pottery. It is interesting to note that these rollers have been found in the graves of children aged one to six years. Since the manufacture and use of these implements must have required considerable skill, the placement of these rollers with children too young to have been accomplished artisans seems significant.

Joyce C. White, 1982, Ban Chiang: Discovery of a Lost Bronze Age.
University of Pennsylvania and the Smithsonian Institution
Traveling Exhibition Service, Philadelphia.

Other Important Data

v Ban Chiang, where the rollers were found, is a bronze age site in northeast Thailand.
v     The average length of the rollers is 6 cm, the average diameter is 3 cm.
v     Several of the designs, including some of the more intricate ones, occur on more than one roller.
v     It is somewhat difficult to perceive in the photos, but each of the rollers has a small hole through the center.

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