Boys' Discovery Helps Archaeologists Form Better Picture of Area's History

Reading about history is nice, but finding ties to long-ago historical events in your own back yard is really exciting.

In their heavily populated Fairfax County subdivision, neighbors Adam Giles, 13, and Derek Hann, 12, uncovered pieces of glass that looked quite different from what's used today. "After digging about two feet down, I stumbled upon an interesting bottle," Derek said. The bottle had a "pontil scar" on the bottom, an indication that it was hand-blown rather than machine made. It also had the name "Fraser" on one side.

Adam found remnants of a green bottle and some very thick brown glass -- again, far different from today's glassware.

After doing research on the computer, the boys contacted Aimee Wells of the county's Cultural Resources office. She showed them a computer program that digitally puts old maps over modern satellite photographs.

Bingo! Their back yards were once part of a military encampment used by Ohio soldiers on their way to fight in the Spanish-American War in 1898. In fact, thousands of soldiers from many states occupied a huge, temporary tent camp called Camp Alger -- sprawling over 14,000 acres in the Vienna-Falls Church area.

The war lasted four months but effectively ended Spain's empire while establishing the United States as a world power. Cuba became an independent country, and Guam and Puerto Rico became U.S. territories.

So how do a few bottles get connected to a brief war that was more than a century ago? "We get there by good judgment," Wells said. "We know the time period of the bottles and what happened in that area." Anyone can dig a hole, but archaeologists (those who study relics and artifacts relating to long-ago human activity) seek a deeper understanding. How do objects found relate to things around them?