Bone Deep Read Free Page A

regular subscriber to Dig magazine and I’m a member of the Crescent Beach Archaeological Society.
    â€œArchaeology uses things people made, or the places they lived and worked, or even their bodily remains to learn about humankind’s past. These artifacts are often in the ground, so you have to dig them up — but not like you’re digging for treasure. It has to be done carefully — there’s a method to it.”
    â€œThat’s a great definition of archaeology,” said Amanda. “So do archaeologists only recover artifacts in the ground?”
    â€œMost often, although artifacts might also be found in places like caves or old temples or even out in the open if the soil has eroded away.” I was thinking of where I lived again. In Crescent Beach, lots of people have found things that belonged to the early Coast Salish right on the surface, like arrowheads, hammerstones, and scrapers. It’s not surprising since they lived in the area for about five thousand years.
    â€œSo where do things like sunken ships fit in to your definition?” Amanda asked. I admit I didn’t know much about how sunken ships and archaeology went together. “Have you ever heard of underwater archaeology? It’s a branch of maritime archaeology.”
    TB snickered. “Looks like Indiana Jones Junior still has a thing or two to learn,” he whispered. If I wasn’t so keen on listening to Amanda I might have planted a big red welt on the back of his neck as a souvenir of our field trip.
    â€œSo just how do you dig under water?” I asked, completely focused on this new idea. “Moving all that sand and soil would make it pretty cloudy and hard to see anything. And when you find artifacts — how do they get to the surface without damage? And what about properly recording the site?” I was glad when Amanda laughed, because I could tell that my teacher, Mrs. Sparrow, was about to hush me for asking so many questions.
    â€œIt’s nice to have a student who is so enthusiastic. And those are all good questions. For obvious reasons excavating a maritime site is quite different from those done on dry land. However, there are several aspects that are the same. Like the site would need to be surveyed and its position recorded, some kind of a grid set out to mark the area of study, and in some cases sediment would need to be moved — perhaps by a special vacuum system that filters out the water but catches any objects sucked up. And because it’s important to document and record as much information as possible, a good underwater camera and waterproof paper and pens come in handy.” Then Amanda looked at me and winked. “Of course the first thing an underwater archaeologist would need to know is how to scuba dive.”
    By the time I got home that day I could tell the cat was out of the bag. Aunt Margaret was curt, Mom quiet, and Aunt Beatrix, who was drinking tea out of a mug, clicked her dentures resentfully the whole night until she went off to bed — my bed. But I didn’t care because I’d had a great day. Even sleeping on the sofa couldn’t spoil it. As I was dozing off I thought about what Amanda said about anyone serious about underwater archaeology would have to learn to dive. Tomorrow I’d pick Eddy’s brain and then afterwards I’d figure out how to get Mom to let me take scuba diving lessons.

Chapter Two
    â€œIf it’s underwater archaeology that you’re interested in you should meet my friend, Philip Hunter.” That’s what Eddy said when I called the day after the field trip to the Maritime Museum. Then just a few days after that we were walking down the halls of the archaeology department at Simon Fraser University to meet him. As we passed open doors I got goose bumps after catching glimpses of students and professors working. In one room someone was hovering over a tray of small broken pieces of