Archaeology Day at the Burke Museum

We went with friends to the Burke Museum in Seattle for Archeology Day. Honestly it was the Roman reenactors that made our boys want to go, and positively thrilled them!  Some wore full sets of armor and told kids all about the life of Roman soldiers.  Others described the life of civilians and displayed replicas of all sorts of everyday Roman objects.  We loved the hobnailed shoes!  

There was also a demonstration of atatls which were spear throwing tools used in the Pacific Northwest, demonstrations of flintnapping, a display from the Center for Wooden Boats on all the cool shipwrecks they've found scuba diving in Lake Union, and lots of other neat stuff.

Flintnapping.

Then there was the museum itself.  Hands down our favorite part is their fossil exhibit.  It's not a large museum, but you've gotta love our closest exhibit with full sized dinosaurs!

Mastodon.

An itty bitty saber toothed kitty!  Dinictis Squalidens.

Allosaurus fragilis, looking rather fierce.

Jasper is fond of these flowerlike sea critters known as crinoids.  Most are extinct but there are some species alive today.

Water scorpion, Eurypterus remipes, from 420 million years ago.

A mosasaur, Platecarpus tympanicus, from 75 million years ago.