Subjects: World History
Description:
This lesson addresses the balances and compromises that must be struck between the need to excavate and study archaeological sites discovered in Italy and the need to minimize the disruption and expense that such investigations cause to the modern communities. Often current populations and businesses are active at the same locations as the archaeological sites in this increasingly urban environment. In this lesson, students will learn of one of these major archaeological sites located under a modern railroad station in modern Pisa. They will study the information and value of this site to history and how it had been excavated. They will also read about the disruption it has caused to the construction of the new railroad terminal. Next they will learn about new technologies that can be used to study the archaeological site while causing minimal disruption to modern-day activities at the site. As a culminating activity, students will role-play a situation in which a historical site has been discovered and the people involved in the site, both the archaeologists and the other people living and working at the site, have to work out how they can co-exist and all meet their own needs.
