October 7, 2002
50 elementary school archaeologists dig into Rainier Valley’s past
WHO: Fourth- and fifth-grade students from John Muir Elementary School in Seattle, archaeologists from the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington and artist Donald Fels.
WHAT: The archaeologists and students will show what they’ve uncovered so far at an urban dig in Rainier Valley.
WHEN: 11 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9
WHERE: Courtland Place South and South Charlestown Street (four blocks east of Rainier Avenue) in south Seattle.
DETAILS: Fifty students from Muir elementary under the direction of Peter Lape, the Burke’s curator of archaeology, and UW archaeology students are participating in an urban dig that runs through Saturday in the Rainier Valley. Wednesday is the third day of the dig and Lape and others will explain what the student archaeologists have uncovered. Preliminary test digs uncovered numerous medicine and milk bottles, as well as pottery shards and pieces of metal. Some of the artifacts, or castings of them, will be incorporated into a hillside path and set of sculptures being designed by Fels, a lecturer at the UW’s Bothell campus. Fels began work within the community as an artist in residence and conceived of the archaeological dig as a way of getting community members, young and old, actively involved in researching neighborhood history. The sculptures will be placed in the neighborhood. Lape said the site is believed to have been a dump on the southern edge of Seattle i!
n the early 20th century. Japanese and Italian farmers who sold their produce at Pike Place Market lived in the area and a dairy was near the site. The area was covered over in the 1930s. The project offers the elementary school students a variety of learning opportunities. Not only will they learn basic archaeological techniques, but they also will learn how to use maps and photographs, understand how a landscape changes over time, explore the early history of their neighborhood and conduct oral history interviews with longtime area residents. The Rainier Valley Historical Society and the King County Department of Cultural Resources are cosponsoring the project.
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For more information, contact Lape at (206) 685-2282 or plape@u.washington.edu or Robin Goldberg, project manager, at (206) 685-1734 or rbgold@u.washington.edu . For details about the artwork to be created with some of the artifacts uncovered at the dig, contact Fels at (425)-222-7268 or fels@u.washington.edu
