Visit to Purana Quila excavation

Aspiring archaeologists of tomorrow of classes VI and VII of The Indian School-Second Shift visited the excavation site at Purana Qila on 1 May, 2018 to take a peek at the nuts and bolts of the archaeological excavation, its features and the artefacts found, with the objective to ignite in them a curiosity and respect for their heritage.

The trip was announced in the class and the childrens excitement knew no bounds when they heard that they were actually going to witness an excavation! All this while, they had only read about archaeological sources of history in their history lessons! Are we really going to see the artefacts that were buried underground thousands of years ago? was their query.

[gallery link="none" ids="15461,15462,15463"]

On reaching the site and having the ASI official explain about the process of such excavations, the students had a number of queries, How deep do you dig the trenches? How do you know that the pots belonged to a particular period? Dont the artefacts break while digging? etc, etc. They demonstrated immense enthusiasm in seeking information about the past and were elated when they were allowed to touch and feel the beads, figurines, broken pots and a crochet needle excavated at the site. On their return, when asked how did they felt about the visit, one of the said It was very interesting. We have learnt a lot!

The tangible experience was indeed educative, exciting and enjoyable. The next day a special assembly was conducted at School where they shared photographs and their experiences with the other classes through a PPT and worked on a worksheet.

Ms.Sarita Gupta.