Wilson Butte Cave

Archaeology FUNdamentals

How do archaeologists learn from the past? Archaeologists use many tools to study past human lives by finding and analyzing artifacts. Artifacts are objects people have made, used and discarded. They can be stone tools, animal bones, seeds, charcoal, pottery, and old sandals. They can also be bits and pieces of material left over from making things. An animal bone can be an artifact if it has cut marks on it from a tool like the ones found at Wilson Butte Cave. Artifacts can even be trash.

Archaeologists call places of past human activity sites. It is a place where people lived or stopped long enough to leave clues behind. A site can be where people collected plants, butchered animals, or made a cooking fire. Features are natural or human built things that can't be moved. Caves, firepits, walls, or floors are some good examples.

Activity - Observation and Inference

Next Page: How do Archeologists Find Sites?

Return to Wilson Butte Cave Homepage

TEACHER PAGES

The Mystery of WBC

Recent History of WBC 

Who were the First Americans?

What is Archaeology?
    Teacher Activities
     Archaeology FUNdamentals
    • How do Archaeologists Find 
       Sites?
    • Excavation and Documentation
    • At the Laboratory
    • How Old Is It?

What was found at WBC?

Daily Life at WBC  

When Ice was on the Land

Beringia 

Native American Perspective 

Glossary