The Archaeology Challenge is "an academic competition in the field of archaeology for individual students and groups of students in grades 4 through 12." You can enter a paper, presentation or exhibit. I entered a paper in the Intermediate (grades 7-8) category. The competition is open to anyone who lives in Missouri. There are four regions - Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, and Southeast. The Southwest regional competition was Saturday, March 6. I won first place! The only problem was, I was the only person who showed up! To see some pictures from the regional contest and the state contest, click here.
My paper is called The Belle: An Archaeological Treasure Trove. It is about the explorer La Salle's voyage to Texas in 1687. One of his ships, the Belle, was wrecked in Matagorda Bay in Texas, where she was found by archaeologists in 1995. The ship was fully excavated and a great deal about the history of North America was learned from excavations at the site. You can access my report (without images) here. A copy of my report with the original pictures included (this will take longer to download) can be found here.
The state competition was on April 6 in Jefferson City. I was the only person in the whole state who submitted a paper! The judges were impressed with it, even though it was the only one! Click here to see some of their comments. I did very well, earning 91 out of a possible 100 points and a rating of "Excellent," the highest rating. I was very excited to win the award for "Best Entry in Historic Archaeology," a book called "Marking Missouri History."
You can also check out the Archaeology Challenge web site at www.archaeologychallenge.org.

This page was last updated on Saturday, June 5, 2004.

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