Stockton,
CA 
Bones
Bones
from archaeological sites tell us what people ate. At the Chinese
laundry we found a great many bones from meat that had been butchered
or cut up. Some of the meat came cows, pigs and sheep, or from birds
like chickens. We also found the bones of both freshwater and saltwater
fish.
Most of the meat came from pork, which was traditionally very popular in China. The fact that the laundry workers ate so much pork tells us that they probably liked to eat food similar to what they did at home in China.
Bones
don’t only tell us about the food people ate. The bones found
on archaeological sites could also be from pets, farm animals, vermin
like rats, or even from medicines. At the laundry we found a bottle
that contained the bones of cut-up crows. The crows together with
medicinal herbs were probably steeped in alcohol to make a type
of traditional Chinese medicine.
What meals do you eat that contain bones?
What might future archaeologists find out about your family’s
eating habits from the bones thrown away after meals?
Discover
more artifactsor
Compare
your ideas to the archaeologists' ideas