“Richardson Park looked very different 12,000 years ago,” archaeologist Lynn-Marie Wieland explains to RHS ninth-grade Foundations of Modern History students this week. “There was no soil, no trees, not a lot of vegetation at all.” Ms. Weiland supervised the archaeological dig at Richardson Park fifteen years ago and brought her knowledge of Indigenous artifacts her team excavated – from the Paleolithic to Archaic to Early Woodland to European Contact – to RHS this week.
A week earlier, students had toured Richardson Park, across the street from RHS, and were surprised to learn the history Ms. Wieland and her team had uncovered there. She explained how the artifacts show the change in the indigenous populations over time. “When there is little vegetation, there are few animals, including people,” she explains. “But as the environment and climate changed, so did the soil conditions, resulting in the availability of food.” Also, the tools changed from informal tools to small projectile points to fine arrowheads; there was evidence of fishing and agricultural technology alongside the increasing establishment of a permanent community.”
Starting this year, RHS requires all ninth graders to take a semester-long Foundations of Modern History course. Over the summer, social studies teachers Denise Barrett, Stephen Seltz, and Johnathan Zalucki worked with Grade 6-12 Humanities Supervisor Dr. Annie Tucci and RHS Social Studies Chair Danny Martins to write a new curriculum. The first unit is Thinking Like a Historian: Early Civilizations so collaborating with the team from the Ridgefield Historical Society was an excellent way to provide rich history available locally.
Students seemed fully engaged as they examined the artifacts from the site before listening to the lesson. They asked questions about culture, community, and technological advancements – the paint indicates that they had rituals – and why some of the tools were so small. They looked at a map of Ridgefield with the Native American sites marked in red. Resilience and innovation were the major themes.
The collaboration between the two “RHSes” – Ridgefield High School and Ridgefield Historical Society – has been rich and varied over the past few years and runs throughout the Ridgefield Public Schools. Thank you to our Historical Society partners for bringing history to life and engaging our students with our past and the processes we employ to preserve and study history.
This article was originally published in the Ridgefield Public Schools Update eblast on Sept. 27, 2024: https://secure.smore.com/n/r4079
