You've helped them one at a time. The real understanding is how the ideas CONNECT — teach that next.
Layer (stratigraphic context — where in the layered earth an object sat; deeper is older) ×Past (dating techniques — when, by which method; dates as ranges with confidence, not single numbers)
A carbon-dated bone comes back far younger than the deep layer it was found in. How do Layer and Past work together here?
Layer then says: “A lab date always overrides the layer; where an object was found in the earth tells you nothing.” — is that right?
The link: relative layer-order and absolute lab dates check each other.
Read the layer and the lab date together — they keep each other honest.
Keep (cultural-context inference — keep what people said; do not invent what they must have meant) ×Ask (community-partnership ethics — whose story is this, and who gets to tell it? grounded in descendant-community partnership)
An archaeologist is tempted to declare what an ancient object 'obviously' meant to the people who made it. What do Keep and Ask advise?
Keep then says: “An archaeologist can simply decide what an object meant, with no need to keep to evidence or ask the descendant community.” — is that right?
The link: keep to the evidence, and ask whose story it is to tell.
Do not invent the meaning, and do not speak over the people it belongs to.
Capstone — excavate one site responsibly together
Three responsible-archaeology moves. Bring in the cast member for each.
Read where it sat in the layers. Who?
Who do you bring in?
Date it as a range, not a certainty. Who?
Who do you bring in?
Ask whose story it is and who tells it. Who?
Who do you bring in?
The synthesis: read the layers, date with humility, and honor whose story it is — archaeology done with care and respect.
Layer, date, and ask — the past handled with respect.
