At the pottery and social interaction station, the students document their excavation finds. The shards not only provide information about what kind of vessels the people of Schleswig-Holstein used in the Neolithic period, but also about the regions with which they were in contact (photo: Kieler Forschungswerkstatt).

The archaeo:lab of the Kiel Science Factory (Kieler Forschungswerkstatt) celebrates its opening

The inauguration of the archaeo:lab of the Kiel Science Factory took place on Monday, September 13. Through excavations and experiments at the archaeo:lab, school classes from grades five to seven can discover how people lived in Schleswig-Holstein during the Neolithic Age as well as what their food consisted of and what their houses looked like. The archaeo:lab project is a collaboration  between the Cluster of Excellence ROOTS and the Kiel Science Factory.
A sixth-grade class from the Käthe Kollwitz School Kiel visited the new thematic lab on opening day. They were welcomed by the prehistorian Professor Johannes Müller and the environmental archaeologist and archaeobotanist Professor Wiebke Kirleis. They head the Institute for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University and are members of the Cluster of Excellence ROOTS. The research results and the everyday work of the scientists of ROOTS are directly incorporated into the concept of the archaeo:lab program.
“When designing the learning stations, it was important for us to not only convey the archaeological content to the schoolchildren, but also to give them an understanding of scientific work. We provide them with realistic insights into the field of research, which is often characterised by myths and adventures,” explains ROOTS spokesperson Müller. “From the specially created excavation field to the various archaeological finds and tools, everything is therefore as true to the original as possible.”
At the opening, environmental archaeologist Kirleis told the pupils more about her day-to-day research and what she sees as special about her work in archaeobotany. “The work is highly varied. In addition to excavating and obtaining borehole profiles, it involves sample preparation in the laboratory, analysing the finds under the microscope, and data evaluation on the computer,” Kirleis said. “It is fascinating to wash out 6,000-year-old grains from a soil sample. In this meadow, we are really looking into the Stone Age people’s cooking pots, we can tap into their daily lives in great detail, and even reconstruct ancient cooking recipes.”
The actual day of the visit then began with a ten-minute introductory lecture on the Neolithic Age by Dr. Katrin Schöps, research associate at the Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) and head of the archaeo:lab. In small groups, the schoolchildren discovered the various stations on the basic human needs of housing, nutrition, clothing, the environment and social interaction. In the covered excavation area, for example, they searched for archaeological finds from which – in combination with experiments – they can draw conclusions about Neolithic life. In the process, the schoolchildren also learn from the excavated pottery sherds that it is not only possible to tell what kinds of vessels were used by people in Schleswig-Holstein 6000 years ago. From the sherds and with a bit of luck, you can even determine which regions carried out exchange. “I have always found archaeology fascinating, but I would not have thought that you could learn so many different things from the discovery of a single pottery sherd,” said one of the schoolgirls enthusiastically.

A visit to the archaeo:lab can now be booked via the Kieler Forschungswerkstatt website: here
The press release in German can be found here.

On their visit day at archaeo:labor, the school children from grades 5 to 7 also learn how archaeologists find out what people ate in the Neolithic Age (photo: Kieler Forschungswerkstatt).

At the pottery and social interaction station, students document their excavation findings (photo: Kieler Forschungswerkstatt).

At the pottery and social interaction station, the students document their excavation finds. The shards not only provide information about what kind of vessels the people of Schleswig-Holstein used in the Neolithic period, but also about the regions with which they were in contact (photo: Kieler Forschungswerkstatt).

Johannes Müller, Director of the Institute for prehistoric and protohistoric archaeology of Kiel University speaker of the Cluster of Excellence ROOTS, welcomes the students to the opening of the archaeo:labor in the lecture hall (photo: Kiel Research Workshop).

Before the students work hands-on at the learning stations of the archaeo:labor, they learn more about life in the Neolithic Age in an introductory lecture by IPN staff member and lab director Dr. Katrin Schöps (photo: Kieler Forschungswerkstatt).

On the opening day of the archaeo:labor, school children from the Käthe Kollwitz School in Kiel learn more about the work as an environmental archaeologist and archaeobotanist from Wiebke Kirleis (photo: Kieler Forschungswerkstatt).

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Contact
Kieler Forschungswerkstatt
Katrin Schöps
0431/880-5912
schoeps@ipn.uni-kiel.de