It's fine to read about history in books, but if you really want to get a feel for the past, you've got to get your hands dirty.
Thirteen members of the Chapel Hill-based Homeschool History Hunters got to do just that last month at an archaeological dig in Morganton.
They spent three days at the site of a Spanish fort built in 1567 - predating the coastal "Lost Colony" by nearly two decades. With help from archaeologists with the Exploring Joara Foundation - named for the Native American settlement that was there even before the fort - students got to dig, sift and wash what they found in a western North Carolina meadow that harbors a lot of history.
Most surprising to History Hunter Luke Myers, 10, was just how much they found.
"You found way more artifacts than you thought you would," he said. "I thought I would find two an hour, but instead I found like 40 an hour."
Luke and his fellow young scientists found lots of pottery shards, a pipe stem, arrowheads, pieces of tools, and what might have been a bit of bone.
One interesting find during the group's work was something that might be just another piece of a plate - or it might be part of a Spanish olive jar, a find that would help confirm the presence of Spaniards on the site.
"It felt good" to be a part of the scientific work, Luke said.
And that's just what Betsy Kempter, who organized the trip for the Homeschool History Hunters, was aiming for.
They had studied archaeology and done some mock digs, Kempter said, "but the kids were like 'We really want to do something real.' "
Her daughter, Clara Kempter, 13, appreciated the chance to take a closer look at the land and the treasures it can hold.
"It was really neat just being able to go through sifting and washing and find things," Clara said. "If you're just walking around you don't find pottery shards, but by the second day you find like 30 every six or seven sifts."
She liked the way the artifacts connected her with history.
"My family finds stuff on our ranch that's pretty old," she said, "but I think it was even cooler to actually know who it was from, where it was from, what time it was from."
But perhaps best of all, she liked the digging.
"I don't know," she said. "It's just fun to shovel dirt."
Luke, on the other hand, favored the sifting.
"You're the first people to get a close-up look at the artifacts, and you also get the credit for finding them," he said.
But he wasn't all about the glory.
"I like to get my hands dirty, and get down on my knees and work and stuff," he said. "It made me feel like I was doing something worth doing, something significant."
