Garbage to Gems

By Dania, Adeeba and April 7A.

Inventory List1. Aluminum Can2. Screw3. Baby Sunglasses4. Cracker Bread Box5. Playmobil Catalog6. Card7. Zigzag scissors8. Plastic Ring with Strap9. Paper Bill

INFERENCE STATEMENTS

1. ALUMINUM CAN

The civilization must have had materials to extract bauxite from rocks and create aluminum because that is what the can is made of. There was also colored ink since the can is colored black, golden, white and red. That must have required appropriate equipment. The can previously contained liquid because the contents were measured in milliliters. The can was sealed with a piece of metal, perhaps to keep the contents fresh. A tradition may have been to drink the contents of the can and place the piece of metal in the can because that is where it was found.

2. SCREW

• The screw must have been made of iron or steel because the bottom has started to rust. They must have had some kind of machine to wield the metal to form the spiral and hexagon at the head of the screw. The must have been used to keep parts together, and add strength because that is what the spiral indicates. A tool with a hexagon shaped tip must have fit into the head the screw to push it into objects. The society must have had a good understanding of building.

3. BABY SUNGLASSES

• The civilization must have had materials to make plastic from crude oil because that is what the dark lenses and the frame are made of. The band is made of a stretchy synthetic material. It is man-made. There was english writing and numbers on it proving that the civilization knew english. There is a strap adjuster made of velcro, indicating that the civilization knew how to make velcro and that they have different sized heads. An assumption is that the climate must have been hot and sunny enough to use sun glasses or perhaps they were a fashion statement back then. If it was sunny then the people must have understood how sunlight can damage children’s eyes.

4. CRACKERBREAD BOX• The box is made of cardboard, meaning they knew how to make it from trees and how to

shape it. They must also have had machines to color it, because the box was yellow and the writing was in several different colors. Other than English, there are several other European languages on it, meaning that the product must and have been international, also proving that their must have been an efficient trade system in Europe between those countries at the time.

• One of the ingredients was wheat. To grow the wheat they must have had cool weather and soil to grow it, and laborers to harvest it. The flour in the product is made from wheat. They must also have the machinery to process the wheat and turn it into flour. The package says that the product might contain milk and/or soya. They must have had cows to get the milk from, and they must of known how to harvest soya if there were traces of those items in the product.

• The box says ‘125g’. That must have been the amount of food in the package when it was first made and grams would probably have been part of their measurement system back then. The box was ripped when it was found. The box must have been sealed at first, and hen probably ripped open by someone, possibly to access the contents inside. There must have been a type of machinery to seal the package. Maybe the box was sealed to keep the contents fresh.

• The box has a recycling tag on it, meaning there must have been a way to recycle cardboard back then. There is a website written on the box. It might have been the company’s website, and the fact that they have a website proves that the Internet existed back then.

• There is a barcode on the box, meaning they had scanner machines to identify the code.

5. PLAYMOBIL CATALOG

• A multi colored catalog made out of paper and glossy plastic, they must have used a machine to stick the plastic on to the paper. The catalogue contains different kinds of colorful plastic toys for children. The company who made this catalogue must have known how to make paper glossy, they might have also known how to color or paint plastic and they might also know how to melt and mold plastic into new toys (recycled plastic). The toys that are displayed inside the catalogue had numbers on them and they were also for selling. They also how to measure because there was some measurements in centimeters and inches, and they also know how to count numbers they had numbers on the page.

6. CARD

• The card is made of glossy paper, which proves that the civilization had trees and the ability to make paper, using machines because it is man-made. It must also have had plastic to make the paper glossy. The card has colors, which means that ink was present back then. The people probably knew what bees were because they are printed on the card. Since the number 9 is presented in 3 different ways I can assume that this was a teaching tool.

7. ZIGZAG SCISSORS

• The scissors are made of plastic and metal meaning that they must have had the machinery to make plastic out of crude oil, and mines to dig out the metal. The plastic was colored orange, black and white which means they knew how to make ink and colors. There must have been some way to weld metal at that time, because the blade was zigzagged. There was writing in English, so that means most of the population must have been able to comprehend it. A possible use for scissors might have been to cut paper, so that the edges would be zigzagged.

8. PLASTIC RING WITH STRAP

• This ring is colored gray and white it is made out of plastic and cloth. The only writing on it says Lock & Lock in English

• Meaning that that was the brands or companies name, and the civilization also knew how to read and write english. They must have known enough about machinery and oil to make plastic and form it into a ring. The civilization might also have know how to weave the threads into a fabric. Two uses for this might have been:1) something to hang your keys from or 2) something to hold your water bottle in when your doing sports or exercises.

9. PAPER BILL• The bill is made of paper, meaning the civilization knew how to make

paper from tree leaves. There are English writing and numbers on it, meaning that probably most of their population knew how to read and comprehend English. The bill is for anti-bacterial surface wipes. They must have what bacteria were and how to fight it, with the proper chemicals of course. There must have been printers and blue ink to actually print out the paper with all the information on it. There must also have been some form of currency back then, which is probably ‘QR’ because the bill said that QR22 is the price of the wipes, the bill also says that it was paid in cash, so there must have been material to make the bank notes,. The date on the bill is 16/09/10, meaning all of the technology used must been there around that time. The location on the bill says ‘Mothercare’ in ‘Landmark’. Presumably Mother care might have the shop at which the wipes were bought from and Landmark might have the location of the shop. There is a telephone number on it, meaning the civilization must have had a telephone system.