In honor of October being Mississippi Archaeology Month, Mississippi State University’s Cobb Institute of Archaeology will hold a mock excavation and a fundraising event to help child refugees in Syria. 
This event will take place on Oct. 31, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Cobb lawn and will be for children of all ages.
Archaeology month usually consists of activities that include public talks on archaeological methods, visits to ongoing archaeological fieldwork projects, site tours and fieldwork opportunities. 
The goal of the mock excavation is to honor Archaeology Month by teaching young adults and their parents about archaeological tools and techniques while excavating a mock site full of simulated artifacts. 
During the excavation, the Anthropology Club will hold a bake sale to raise money for the Save the Children Foundation. This is described on their website as an international organization to improve the lives of children.
With the bake sale, Mississippi State’s Anthropology Club plans to raise enough money to donate to the foundation specifically focused on child refugees in Syria.
According to the information on the Save the Children website, there are over 7.5 million Syrian children in need of humanitarian aid due to the Syrian Civil War. 
Millions of these children have witnessed violence from the brutal conflict that began more than four years ago.
When researching the foundation, Daniel Shawl, president of the anthropology club said the club researched who they should send aid to.
“In the beginning, the club was hoping to create a fundraising event in order to help others,” Shawl said. “When we came across the information about Syria, we had a staff member who had lived there in her early years and did her dissertation there before the war began,” Shawl said. “To her, this fundraiser hit close to heart. So we decided that raising money for this cause was of great importance. We researched the effects of the war on these children and discovered that almost three million children are no longer in school and two million are living as refugees in neighboring countries or on the run in search of safety.” 
in light of these high numbers of children that are without education, homes and medical care, Syria is now considered to be one of the most dangerous countries in the world for children to live due to having the largest amount of refugees.
With the fundraiser taking place at the same time as the mock excavation, it enables parents and children to not only learn about basic archeological methods, but also become aware of the current events in Syria. 
Additionally, parents watching their kids in the mock excavation may wish to donate to the foundation as they witness the disparity that exists between their children and those in another part of the world. 
Altogether, Shawl said staff members and students of the Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures and the Anthropology Club are hoping to provide an array of events to honor this month and enlighten people of Archaeology; while also providing the children of Syria with a healthy new start, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm.