maisy

The Site

I am in Vietnam with my team of highly skilled archeologist in 1985, ten years after the Vietnam war. I am in a trench searching for ancient artifacts. It is cold and the ground is hard. It is around 2:00pm and I am so hungry. We had to pack light so that we could bring the artifacs back to our lab without damiging them. So we didn't have much space for food.

Formation

My archeological team and I are in a trench searching for artifacts. We have discovered a book that was written at about the same time as the Vietnam war and many generations before, leading back to the 13th century. This book was lost by a soldier running through this trench. Then over the years it had been buried in this trench. This trench is located in Vietnam in Hoi An, an ancient city deserted many years ago, in around 1400. This book is brown and old. It has writing inside dating back to the same time as the Vietnam war an dates dating back to around 1300. It is in the shape of a square with three notches holding it together. The book seems to be made of animal skin/hide. We believe that it was made by monks looking to sell it. A monk is a member of a religious community of men typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. We also found a golden pen with it. The book also seems to be written in Vietnamese, it states about the life of a Marine during the Vietnam war, it also states things from many years ago, showing that it has been passed down through generations, as a journal.

Excavation

I was in a trench with my team of highly skilled archeologists searching for ancient artifacts, when I stumbled upon this beautiful book, when I was digging. I was in this trench on a cold winter day, when the ground was hard ands tiff. We were all bundled up in big parkas. When I stumbled upon this book when I was digging. I had placed my shovel in the ground when it hit something hard. So I pulled my shovel up. When I placed it back down I was careful not to bump the object. I retrieved the object and cleaned it off safely. We also found a pen with it, this pen was golden with lots of carvings. Indicating that it was made in 1314.

Excavation

Dating

I would love to date this object so I can know how old it is and find out more information about this time period. This book is a primary source, primary sources are sources produced during the same time as the event/events. So this is a primary source because it was written at the same time as the Vietnam war and at the same time as many other events in other generations. This book is also a written source, a written source is a source/object with readable writing in/on it. This book is a written source because you can read the writing inside, the writing on the inside is written in Vietnamese. This book is an artifact, an artifact is an object made by a human being, typically an item of cultural or historical interest. This book was made by humans, and it is a historical and cultural interest. I am going to use cultural dating, cultural dating is when archaeologists compare objects they find with information that they already have to determine ti’s age. So we can use this to help better our information on what would have been going on during this time. Also by using other materials to determine this book’s age we can see what different things they used during that time period. I am also going to use radiocarbon dating on the leather, because the leather was from cow which was a once living thing. Radiocarbon dating is a method of dating objects that uses the amount of radioactive carbon left in the object to determine the age. Using these methods we have determined that this book is over 600 years old and was passed down through generations.

Interpretation

This book was used to keep track of all the things that happened during the war, this book was also used before the war as a journal. The journal was written in Vietnamese so we needed someone who spoke Vietnamese to come translate it for us. We believe that this book came to rest when a man in the Vietnam war was running and had dropped the book in the trench. We also found a golden pen next to it, we believe that this pen was made in 1314. I know that it was used to keep track of what went on in the war because of the writing inside. Its states each day and the fighting that went on, it also states what life was like in the 1300s.