Elementary students are often hampered by a tendency to ascribe innovation to increasing human intelligence or individual agency rather than increased information, better access to information, or collective and institutional agency. As a result, they struggle to build evidence-based interpretations of the distant past. A fifth-grade "experimental archaeology" approach to studying ancient Eastern Woodlands Indians served as an intellectual tipping point in students' interpreting ancient people's intellect, ingenuity, and agency. As fifth-graders participated in a field-based experience with "chaîne opératoire" (the sequence of operations) for tools and technologies, classroom-based opportunities to consider material objects as primary sources, and opportunities for reflection, they confirmed the power of "engaged understanding" in supporting the humanistic and civic goals of social studies.