April 12, 2006

MFS FIFTH-GRADERS DONATE “POMPEII” QUILT TO SCHOLARSHIP FUND

MOORESTOWN, NJ –Fifth-graders at Moorestown Friends School recently created a quilt based on a geometric pattern found in tile at the House of the Faun in Pompeii, Italy. The project was part of an intensive study of archaeology, which also included the creation of Greek vases and experiencing a mock archaeological dig.

The quilt project was funded by the Kids In Need Foundation. The completed quilt was donated to the education department at the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. It will be sold at the museum’s gift shop, and the monies raised will be directed to a scholarship fund so kids in need may attend a summer program on archaeology.

The students studied Pompeii and excavations of the city that followed the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in August, 79 AD. One of the homes discovered there – called “The House of the Faun” after a statue found in its courtyard – has an impluvium, a pool that collects rainwater from an opening in the roof of the atrium. The floor of the atrium is tiled in a geometric pattern that is known as a nine-patch quilt pattern, which was the basis for the quilt the students made.

Each student sewed a nine-patch square to simulate the tile floor. A group of quilters from a local quilt guild volunteered their sewing machines and guidance in the project.

Students also studied Greek Vase Painting and then painted their own vases depicting the 12 Labors of Hercules.

Students went on two field trips for research: one to the Independence National Park Archaeological exhibit to see the findings from 18th century Philadelphia and one to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to study various civilizations.

They made objects similar to those from six ancient cultures, which they buried in their own archeological sites. The objects were typical of those from Roman, Canaan, Israelite, Eskimo and Polynesian societies. The following day, their classmates uncovered the sites and presented their “findings” to the group.

The unit was designed to teach how archaeologists work and think, what basic archaeological information looks like, how data is analyzed and how historians draw conclusions based on archaeological evidence.