Choose a book that not only tells you what an archaeologist does, but that also tells you stories of great archaeological finds. Bring the subject alive. Below are a list of terms to learn, and some activities to try at home. This works only if you know for sure when certain objects were made or used. You would compare it to other objects and decide it is older than this, but younger than that.
Trees grow new rings every year, and the thickness is affected by climate.
When something dies, it stops taking in carbon, and begins losing it in a known pattern. By measuring how much radioactive carbon is left in an item, scientists can tell when something died. This only works on items more than 1000 years old and less than 60,000 years old, and is not entirely accurate then. Scientists analyze this to learn how people lived. Archaeology students often evaluate the garbage of modern people for practice.