For Immediate Release Contact: Pat Kremer (312) 665-7100 (For Media Use Only) Kids and Families Discover...Kids and Families in The Ancient Americas Put yourself in the shoes of a hunter-gatherer on an open prairie… a child in a pueblo village of the American southwest… a family living at an outpost on the Great Road of the Inca Empire…. How would your family live? How would you spend your days? Each major gallery of The Ancient Americas has a special section to excite the imagination of children and spark conversation among family members. But it doesn’t end there. Families will also be captivated by the exhibition’s immersive environments, animated videos, touchable objects, and interactive displays. Following are some highlights of family activities, gallery by gallery. Ice Age Americans Journey back in time more than 13,000 years and visit Chicago as it might have looked at the end of the last Ice Age. Watch for mammoths and other wildlife emerging from behind spruce trees on a snow-covered prairie. For now, the plants and animals own the landscape; tomorrow, a new creature will arrive and change everything… Touch replicas of mammoth and mastodon teeth. Feel the distinctive shape of spear points like those made by the Clovis people and their contemporaries, and light up a map showing where these objects have been found. Innovative Hunter-Gatherers At the “Food Wall,” discover some surprising connections between the foods we enjoy today – like tomatoes, corn, squash, beans, and chocolate – and those of the ancient Americans. Watch animated videos and find out how ancient people, by tinkering around, figured out how to make nourishing food from toxic plants like acorns…how to turn wild plants like squash into plants they controlled…and how to turn some wild animals into tame ones that people could put to many uses. Another animated video shows how ancient Mexicans turned a wild grass into a very different, very important plant: corn. Farming Villagers Walk through a recreated Puebloan household for a glimpse of life in one type of early village. See how and where a family lived, cooked, ate, and slept; the room where they stored their food and household goods; the plaza where adults prepared food and made crafts while children played; and the kinds of work children could do on an early farm. Pretend to grind corn using a mano (grinding stone) and metate (a flat, rough, stone surface). See how early Americans ground their corn coarse, medium, or fine. Try your hand at the archaeologist’s most “puzzling” task: piece together a virtual ceramic vessel from sherds – broken pieces of pottery – like those unearthed by archaeologists. Continue>>