People Uncovering history Nancy Grace Nancy Graceisadetectiveand storyteller who finds clues from the past. ne of the most memorable moments the 1970s. What does it feel liketobethe Ofrom Nancy Grace’s33-year career person who steps down through the ground is the time she took a4,000-year-old skeleton to find thingsthathaven’t beenseen for to the dentist. As an archaeologist, thousands of years?Grace tells The Week Gracespends her days researching Junior,“Standing on thatsurface, past human activities from thefirst person to stand on it clues that areleft behind for4,000 years, is likewhen underground. When the snow fallsand you’re astorm ripped up atree the first person to put in Dorset and revealed your foot on the snow. acrushed skeleton, Youdon’t evertakeit Graceknew she had to forgranted.” find out more. Graceisalways on the With the lower hunt for new finds at jawbone in hand, she National Trust properties headed to her dentist. An NancyGrace across the country,using old X-raymachine wasusedtofind lookingfor clues. maps and recordsaswell as out that the person had signs of gum cutting-edge technology to work out where disease. Further research showed that the historic items could be lying undiscoverreed.d. person wasroughly 26 years old when she She explains, “Wefind rubbish that LL died, about 4,000 years ago. people would have thrown away, SME ATER and Graceispartofthe archaeology team remnants of buildings that have YOUL et,G race ite i n D ors smell of at the National Trust, an organisation that fallen down, and it’slikebeing a At a s oticed the en preserves historic buildings and areasof detective looking for evidence. Even team n had be her wood that ound countryside across the UK. Her job has led her buildings above ground have things burned the gr d u nder rs. to research fragments of glass dating back to beneath the floorboards that have trappe ,000 yea the Romans and graffiti created as recently as clues for us.” for 4 DonCameron Down-to-Earth maker THEYSAIDIT! of intergalactic objects anna Brar from Norwich says that one of the Hstrangest things she’sever had to makewas aspacedoughnut. As aprops assistant who worked on Star Wars films including The RiseofSkywalker, she’salso made lots of droids and weapons. Props are objects that actors use in their performanceonscreen or on stage. Brar considered acareer in costumes but it wasprops that captured her imagination. She says, “I knew Iwanted to be apartofitand create things from scratch.”She told The Week Junior,“Seeing my Reachingnew heights work on screen for the first time wasasurreal but n1967, Don Cameron waspartofthe team that awesome feeling. It made me feel very proud of Imade the Bristol Belle, Europe’sfirst modern hot-air myself to be part of such an iconic film.” balloon. Now,atthe ageof80, he is hoping to make Hanna Brar “The idea wasthatit history again. This time he is working with the would be the biggest Russian adventurer Fedor Konyukhov,who is attemptingtoflytoanaltitude (height) of about vomit sequenceever 26,000 metres, which would be aworld record for a filmed anywhere. hot-air balloon. His company,Cameron Balloons, is Ithink we needed the world’slargest maker of hot-air balloons and is about 3,000 gallons.” responsible for morethanthree quarters of the ActorSir Michael Palin,the winner of the world’sspecial-shaped ones. His favourite placetofly NationalTelevisionAwards Special

GES over is the LakeDistrict in Cumbria. Cameron told the Recognitionprize, talking about how fake

IMA i newspaper,“Youcan go up high and look at the sickwas used in one of his comedy shows.

GETTY mountaintops. It’samagic experience.”

8February 2020 • The Week Junior 9 schools.theweekjunior.co.uk

09_TWJ_217 People v1.indd 9 5/02/20 11:03 AM Topical Tuesdays!

People Uncovering history Nancy Grace Nancy Graceisadetectiveand storyteller who finds clues from the past. ne of the most memorable moments the 1970s. What does it feel liketobethe Ofrom Nancy Grace’s33-year career person who steps down through the ground is the time she took a4,000-year-old skeleton to find thingsthathaven’t beenseen for to the dentist. As an archaeologist, thousands of years?Grace tells The Week Gracespends her days researching Junior,“Standing on thatsurface, past human activities from thefirst person to stand on it clues that areleft behind for4,000 years, is likewhen underground. When the snow fallsand you’re astorm ripped up atree the first person to put in Dorset and revealed your foot on the snow. acrushed skeleton, Youdon’t evertakeit Graceknew she had to forgranted.” find out more. Graceisalways on the With the lower hunt for new finds at jawbone in hand, she National Trust properties headed to her dentist. An NancyGrace across the country,using old X-raymachine wasusedtofind lookingfor clues. maps and recordsaswell as out that the person had signs of gum cutting-edge technology to work out where Uncovering History disease. Further research showed that the historic items could be lying undiscoverreed.d. person wasroughly 26 years old when she She explains, “Wefind rubbish that SMELL died, about 4,000 years ago. people would have thrown away, ER ULAT race and Graceispartofthe archaeology team remnants of buildings that have YO orset,G of at the National Trust, an organisation that ite i n D smell fallen down, and it’slikebeing a At a s oticed the en preserves historic buildings and areasof detective looking for evidence. Even team n had be her wood that ound countryside across the UK. Her job has led her buildings above ground have things burned the gr d u nder rs. to research fragments of glass dating back to beneath the floorboards that have trappe ,000 yea the Romans and graffiti created as recently as clues for us.” for 4 DonCameron Down-to-Earth maker THEYSAIDIT! of intergalactic objects anna Brar from Norwich says that one of the Hstrangest things she’sever had to makewas aspacedoughnut. As aprops assistant who worked Hold a debate on Star Wars films including The RiseofSkywalker, she’salso made lots of droids and weapons. Props are objects that actors use in their performanceonscreen or on stage. Brar considered acareer in costumes but it wasprops that captured her imagination. She says, “I knew Iwanted to be apartofitand create things from scratch.”She told The Week Junior,“Seeing my Reachingnew heights work on screen for the first time wasasurreal but n1967, Don Cameron waspartofthe team that awesome feeling. It made me feel very proud of Imade the Bristol Belle, Europe’sfirst modern hot-air myself to be part of such an iconic film.” balloon. Now,atthe ageof80, he is hoping to make Hanna Brar “The idea wasthatit history again. This time he is working with the would be the biggest Russian adventurer Fedor Konyukhov,who is attemptingtoflytoanaltitude (height) of about vomit sequenceever 26,000 metres, which would be aworld record for a filmed anywhere. hot-air balloon. His company,Cameron Balloons, is Ithink we needed Read the article and then try the following activities... the world’slargest maker of hot-air balloons and is about 3,000 gallons.” responsible for morethanthree quarters of the ActorSir Michael Palin,the winner of the world’sspecial-shaped ones. His favourite placetofly NationalTelevisionAwards Special

GES over is the LakeDistrict in Cumbria. Cameron told the Recognitionprize, talking about how fake

IMA i newspaper,“Youcan go up high and look at the sickwas used in one of his comedy shows.

GETTY mountaintops. It’samagic experience.”

8February 2020 • The Week Junior 9 Archaeologists spend a lot of time and money digging up 09_TWJ_217 People v1.indd 9 5/02/20 11:03 AM evidence from the past. Is it time we just left it all in the ground? We already have a pretty good idea of how people lived in the centuries before ours; do we really need to find out more? How does it help us to know that some woman who lived 4,000 years ago had gum disease? Every time we try to build something new, it seems we have to halt the work so that archaeologists can dig around for a few months. What’s gone is gone. Or is it always important to study evidence from the past. It is often said that one of mankind’s greatest faults is our failure to learn from history. What’s more, now and again archaeologists discover precious works of great beauty that deserve to be seen and enjoyed once again rather than lying buried forever in the dirt. What do you think?

Writing challenge! Choose one of the following writing warm-ups.

Imagine you are an archaeologist 4,000 years or ReImagine you are in the future and you have just discovered Grace, the woman 1the remains of the house you are living in today. 2with gum disease from Write a diary entry for the day you made your 4,000 years ago. Write a find, describing the most interesting things funny pretend recount of you unearthed. Focus on those of your current going to visit your stone- possessions that you think would be most age dentist. interesting or bewildering to people in the future.

Investigate The word archaeology comes from the roots archae, meaning old or historic and ology meaning study. Find out what these words mean the study of: campanology, dendrochronology, glottochronology, ichthyology, ufology, vexillology.

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