Digging through time

Under a white dome on a hill on Antelope Island, there are six very dirty kids digging away enthusiastically in sectioned-off areas of dirt.

"What is this?" one girl asks, running up to Ron Rood with her treasure cradled in her hand. Rood looks it over. "That's just a rock, sweetie," he tells her.

Undeterred, she tosses the rock aside, then returns to her 3-foot square site and continues sifting through the dirt.

This girl is one in a group of six children, mostly 9- and 10-year-olds from Escalante Elementary in Salt Lake City. They are spending the week on Antelope Island, digging for whatever ancient treasures they can unearth under the tutelage of Rood, the assistant state archeologist.

"These kids do everything a real archeologist would do," said Rood who is also the leader of this expedition.

Each child has a trowel and a bucket, which they use to chip away at the dirt in their section of the dig site. Loose dirt is scraped into a dustpan, and then dumped into a bucket. When the bucket gets full, or the loose dirt runs out, they haul it outside, where it is sifted through for any interesting looking finds.

The group's first day was Monday, Rood said, and they'd already made some exciting finds.

"We've found some bones and some charcoal," said Ally Erksine, a 10-year-old who attends Trailside Elementary in Park City.

The charcoal is an exciting find, Rood said, because it can be used to get a radiocarbon date, which is crucial in archaeologists' quest to better understand the history of Utah.

The site the group is working on this week is an ancient Native American site, Rood said. He estimated that most of the artifacts they have unearthed are about 1,000 years old, although there are hints of an even more ancient occupation.

Rood said he has been working in partnership with local schools to take groups to Antelope Island to dig for artifacts since 1999. The purpose of these partnerships, he said, is to expose kids to a real archaeological site, in a setting that allows them to work with professionals.

One kid who keeps coming back for more is Abram Sorensen, Rood's 13-year-old "assistant field director." Sorensen said his interest in archaeology began when he started digging things up in his back yard. He got in touch with Rood and has been working with him ever since.

The rest of the group is showing enthusiasm similar to Sorensen's. At the end of a long day of digging, Rood surveys his dirty pupils, then queries, "Who's coming back tomorrow?"

Six hands shoot into the air. They've gotten a taste of what it's like to dig up buried treasure, and nobody wants to miss out on a chance to find some more.

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E-mail: dmaxfield@desnews.com