HANDS-ON HISTORY: WICKLIFFE MOUNDS RESEARCH CENTER ALLOWS VISITORS TO GET A FIRSTHAND UNDERSTANDING OF ARCHAEOLOGY

WICKLIFFE, Ky. -- Visitors to the Wickliffe Mounds Research Center can see, hear and even taste history during the annual Archaeology Weekend.

About 500 visitors are expected to attend the event, which features demonstrators reproducing artifacts of Native American tribes who lived in the area more than 1,000 years ago. Besides watching demonstrators, visitors can try their hand at grinding corn, taste venison jerky or catfish baked in mud and clay, or launch a spear using an authentic atlatl.

Archaeology Weekend runs through 4:30 p.m. today.

"A lot of people from the community come because they get to see how things were done and created years ago," said Jim Phillips, who manned the display featuring an archaeology lab. "People also like the fact that everything is interactive, which is something archaeology needs to become more of. We need to show people that this is something for everybody -- no one person benefits from this."

Phillips said the event doesn't feature any excavation work this year. More archaeologists are recognizing the need to preserve sites, he said, unless a specific question needs to be answered. This gives future archaeologists a chance to use more advanced technology on authentic sites.

"This site is being conserved now for future use," Phillips said. "We have to realize that our archaeological sites need to be preserved so there's always research."

Kit Wesler, director of the Wickliffe Mounds site, said the interactive Archaeology Weekend has been held for at least nine years, but this is the first year no active archaeology digs have been conducted on the site. The absence of excavation work makes some people believe the center is closed, he said, but in truth the lack of active digs helps to develop lesser known examples of archaeology work.

"One of the things we have problems with is every time we change the program, people think we're closed," Wesler said. "Despite the fact we're not doing excavation anymore, we're still really active and encourage people to come out to events like this. I hope they're going to leave with a little more lively knowledge that archaeology is not just digging in the dirt."

A good example of other types of archaeology on display this weekend are the flint-knappers, Wesler said. Flint-knapping, or the art of making stone tools, was a forgotten art for many years, he said. Lately, however, people have begun to relearn the art, and this helps archaeologists understand more about how people lived in various time periods.

Larry Kinsella is one of two flint-knappers demonstrating their art this weekend. Local tribes used deer antlers to work chert rock into knives, spear heads, and other tools. Chert, which is similar to flint, forms in limestone bluffs in the area, he said.

"We can walk creeks and trails to get the rock, but nowadays we also do a lot of buying and trading," Kinsella said. "It's kind of like the Indians were doing -- we have a trade network."

Darlene DeLong, of Scott City, Mo., visited the event Saturday with her daughter, Kiesha. She said she attended the event to prepare Kiesha for a trip she's taking to Australia in July.

"I brought her over here because she's going to Australia and I thought maybe it would help her," DeLong said. "She'll be visiting a tribe of aborigines, and so I thought is would help her to compare the ways of the aborigines to the Mississippians."

Other visitors said they had passed the center many times and stopped so they could attend the special event. "My son's been wanting to come to see it, so we thought we'd stop today and let him see what everything was about," said Rene Riley of West Paducah, Ky.

Wesler said Archaeology Weekend is one fo the largest and most popular events for the center. He said he hopes visitors will interact with the demonstrators and develop an interest in archaeology. "It can be a lot of fun," he said. "We've got a lot going on out here, and we want people to try their hand at all of the crafts. You never know what might happen."