Intro Syllabus

Introduction to Archaeology

Semester/ Year

 

 

Course Instructor:                                                                                                           Class Meeting:

Steven T. Goldstein                                                                                                        Day/ Time

Email:

Building/Room

 Thursday 9:30-11:00 am, 4:00-6:00pm

         Or by appointment

 

Course Description

                “Archaeology” consists of all the tools, techniques, and ideas for investigating the human past. It is our only means of understanding how we developed biologically and culturally through the nearly 3 million years of human activity before writing. Archaeology is becoming increasingly important in exploring the lives and contributions of those groups otherwise ignored in popular views of history.

                In this class will explore questions such as: “How do archaeologists know where to dig?”, “Why do they dig square holes?”, How do they analyze and understand what they find? and most importantly “Why is archaeology important?”. The first phase of the course is dedicated to discussing the methods and theories that archaeologists use, in other words- what archaeologists “do”. The second phase of the course presents a series of case studies on how these methods have been put into practice, resulting in major discoveries and breakthroughs that build our current understanding of who we are and where we come from.

 

Course Goals:

By the end of this class, students will know how archaeologists develop questions, how they investigate those questions, and why the past matters. You will be able to critically assess claims made about the past and have a solid foundation for becoming an archaeologist. Most importantly, the course is fun and encourages critical thinking that is relevant to all disciplines.

 

Lectures, Labs, & Discussion:

                Thursdays from 6:30-9:00 pm. Lectures will be delivered by the instructor, and by other specialists in various aspects of archaeological research. Labs will take place in class in order to provide hands-on experience with aspects of archaeological analysis, as well as to demonstrate problems related with case studies discussed in lectures. Finally, course discussions will be centered on different theoretical approaches, evaluating selected readings, and major ethical issues in archaeology.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Course Requirements:

 

There is no required textbook for the course. Instead, we will use Thinking Strings’ Revealing Archaeology (v.4.3) multi-media courseware. This is divided into eight learning modules, to be completed by 11:59pm, Friday of the week it is assigned. Late assignments will lose 5% per day. When you have completed a module you will be able to submit progress to the instructor. You will be provided instructions for purchasing and downloading the program, and we will demo installation and use in class. Please see me during office hours if you require any assistance in using the program, need access to computers, or have any other issues.

 

In Revealing Archaeology, students explore archaeological method and theory in a clearly organized framework. It engages students with interactive activities (for example, interactive graphing to introduce the concept of radiometric dating; a simulated excavation whereby students excavate and analyze the assemblages they uncover; excavation on a cliff-face to teach biostratigraphic correlation; and more).

 

Additional readings are assigned at a rate of ~1-2 per week, and these will be posted on Blackboard. The goal is to expose students to a wide range of scientific articles and popular writing covering archaeology and to present compelling case studies on important archaeological discoveries, theories, and contributions to social issues.

 

Tests

There will be two tests in this course. The first will concentrate on the development of archaeology, theories in archaeology, and the content of Section 1. The second test will cover Sections 2, 3 and 4 only.

Each test will be 25% of your total grade. Please see me as soon as possible if there is a schedule conflict with an exam from another course.

                 

Attendance and Participation

Because each class meeting covers a week of a standard class, missing a night is the equivalent of missing an entire week. We will be doing activities in class and you will get one point of participation for each activity, including group discussions. This is worth 10 percent of your grade.

 

Extra Credit Options

Attend any public archaeology lecture and write a 2-3 page critical review. There are several options in the area including American Institute of Archaeology St. Louis chapter lecture series, St. Louis historical society lecture series, Wash U’s “Friday Archaeology” lecture series, and talks at Cahokia and other local museums. Full schedules for all of these will be provided when possible. Each lecture counts for 1.5% extra credit, and can be repeated up to three times.

 

Grading

Revealing Archaeology modules                    60 percent (7.5% x 8 modules)

Midterm                                                          25 percent

Final Exam                                                      25 percent

Attendance and Participation                         10 percent

 

Grades will be assigned as follows:

92-100 percent:          A

90-91.9 percent:         A-

88-89.9 percent:         B+

82-87.9 percent:         B

80-81.9 percent:         B-

78-79.9 percent:         C+

72-77.9 percent:         C

70-71.9 percent:         C-

Below 70: discussion with me before assignment of grade.

 

Grading Problems: Any grading problems or inconsistencies should be addressed within 1 week of receiving the graded assignment. After 1 week, the grade for any individual assignment will not be addressed and the grade will be considered permanent.

 

Academic Integrity

I hold all students in this class to the university's policy on academic integrity. Cheating on tests or projects would be a serious offense. Please refer to http://wustl.edu/policies/undergraduate-academicintegrity.html for the complete code. If you are unclear on whether or not what you are doing is plagiarism, ask me before you turn it in.

 

Disability

Students with disabilities must work through the Cornerstone Center for Advanced Learning,

http://cornerstone.wustl.edu/DisabilityResources.aspx. Please make me aware of any specific needs well in advance of tests or homework that would be affected.

 

Classroom policies

Cell phones must be turned off or set to “silent”, and must remain put away for the duration of the class time. Please refrain from recording or photographing lectures of powerpoint presentations unless you receive explicit permission. Outlines of each lecture will be posted online.

 

Harassment

Harassment will not be tolerated. I refer you to http://www.wustl.edu/policies/discriminatoryharassment.html for the university's definition. If you feel you have been discriminated against or harassed in any way, please let me know immediately. If you are uncomfortable talking to me, I would be happy to put you in touch with other organizations at Wash U.

 

Make-up Exam

Make-up exams will not be given. Tests are given as per the schedule set out on the syllabus, please make your plans accordingly. Please contact me well in advance if there are conflicts in your schedule (i.e., not the day or night before the test).

 

            Attendance

We will be covering material not in the book, which will appear on the test. If you will be missing a class, email me with an honest reason. I will accept a wide variety of excuses, so please be honest, and I reserve the right to determine if an excuse is valid. Please arrange to get the notes you missed from a fellow student.

 

CLASS SCHEDULE:

Class periods will consist of lectures, films, activities, quizzes, and discussion. It is therefore important that you read the assigned materials before class in order to make lectures more comprehensible and to maximize class discussions. Topics and readings are subject to change if needed to accommodate guest lectures, special events, etc. Note that additional readings may be assigned in class.

[* Reading will be posted on Blackboard]

 

[Day-to-day schedules will be arranged depending on number of classes per week, semester/trimester structure, holiday schedule etc.]

 

Please note that readings may change through the semester.

 

Week 1 [Dates]: Introduction to the course

Topics:            What is archaeology? Why should we care about the past?

                        Archaeology, anthropology, and science in the past and present.

                        How do we know what we know? Analogies, frauds and hoaxes

 

Readings: Feder. Anatomy of an archaeological Hoax (Blackboard)

Assignments due: no assignments due

 

Week 2 [Dates]: The History of Archaeology

Topics:              Origins, development, and the contemporary scene

                          The (sub)culture of archaeologists and archaeology

                          The role of archaeology in the modern world

                          Dating, stratigraphy, and environmental reconstruction

 

Readings:         Gifford-Gonzalez 1993; Flannery 1982 (Blackboard)

 

Assignments due: Revealing Archaeology Module 1: “Humanity’s Imprint”

 

Section 1: Human diversity

 

Week 3 [Dates]: Origins of humanity and behavioral complexity

Topics:                        Earliest traces of humankind

                        Archaeo-genetics

                        Tracing human migrations

Behavioral modernity and “the revolution that wasn’t”

Readings:        Gibbons, A. (2013). How a fickle climate made us human. (Blackboard)

Assignments due: no assignments due

 

 

Week 4 [Dates]: Humans, environments, and our shared heritage

Topics:                        Climate change and hunter-gatherers

                        Environmental archaeology, cultural ecology, historical ecology

                        Archaeological perspectives on cultural diversity, heritage management

 

Readings: Jones (2004). Introduction to “The Archaeology of ethnicity”  (Blackboard)

Assignments due: Revealing Archaeology Module 2: “Leaving a trail”

 

Week 5 [Dates]: Archaeology of diversity

Topics:                        Negotiating identities: ceramics, iconography, and rock art

                        Case Study: Peopling of the New World and North American cultural diversity

                        Case Study: Cosmopolitan past: archaeologies of trade and exchange

 

Readings: Labadi (2007). Representations of the nation and cultural diversity in discourses on World Heritage [EXCERPTS] (Blackboard).

Assignments due: no assignments due

                       

 

Section 2: Archaeology of food security

 

Week 6 [Dates]: Origins of food production

Topics:                        Global pathways to food production: theories and early studies

                        Understanding ancient diets: Paleobotanical and zooarchaeological methods

Small scale food producers and alternative pathways

                         

Readings: Logan (2016). An archaeology of food security in Banda, Ghana. (Blackboard).

Assignments due: Revealing Archaeology Module 3: “Tracking down time”

                       

                       

Week 7 [Dates]: Community level food security

Topics:                        EXAM 1

                        Case Study: Sub-saharan Africa and storage-on-the-hoof

Case Study: Crop diversification and risk reduction in the Andes, Seed security in Eastern North America

 

Readings:  no readings

Assignments due: no assignments due (but study!)

                       

 

Week 8 [Dates]: Failure, famine, and recovery

Topics:                        Environmental archaeology and identifying famine archaeologically

                        Food (in)security in China, Egypt, and the American southwest

                        Case Study: Resilience theory and the ancient Maya

 

Readings: Fewer (2000). Archaeology of the Great Famine (Blackboard)

                 Fagan (1999). Pharaohs in Crisis (Blackboard)

Assignments due: Revealing Archaeology Module 4: “Charting Time”

 

 

 

Section 3: Origins of social inequality

 

Week 9 [Dates]: Archaeology and inequality

Topics:                        Archaeological perspectives on inequality

                        Early cities: Catal Hoyuk, Cahokia, and Great Zimbabwe

                        Studying hierarchy and the emergence of control, ownership, and inequality

Readings: Wolf (2010). Europe and the people without history (Blackboard, please note this is a

challenging but very important read and try to give yourself enough time to work through it.)

Assignments due: Revealing Archaeology Module 5: Following the Trail

 

Week 10 [Dates]: Alternative configurations for social order

Topics:                        Heterarchy, anarchic archaeology, non-uniform complexity

                        Post-modernist archaeologies: Feminist archaeology and Marxist archaeologies

Case Study: Geographic Information Systems and studying landscape level social systems

Readings:  Frachetti (2012). Multi-redional emergence of mobile pastoralism and nonuniform

complexity across Eurasia (Blackboard)

Assignments due: no assignments due

 

Week 11 [Dates] NO CLASSES (Fall/Spring break)

>>>Assignments due: Revealing Archaeology Module 6: “Detecting Technology”<<<

 

Week 12 [Dates]: Marginalized groups in the archaeological record

Topics:                        Archaeology of slavery and the African diaspora.

                        Case Study: The African burial grounds in New York City (Video)

The fringe and the frontier: archaeological investigations of people living on the margins.

 

Readings: Unearthing Gotham: Chapter 1 (Blackboard)

 

Assignments due: Revealing Archaeology Module 7: “Provisioning society”

 

 

Section 4: Human impacts on the environment

 

Week 13 [Dates]: Archaeology of human-environment interactions

Topics:                        Human adaptations to extreme environments

                        Isotopic methods and other new approaches for reconstruction environments

                        Geoarchaeology and understanding natural systems

 

Readings: Marshall et al. Ancient pastoralists created nutrient hotspots that shaped

African savannas.  (Blackboard)

Assignments due: no assignments due

 

 

Week 14 [Dates]: The Anthropocene: How humans have shaped the world

Topics:            Studies in the Anthropocene and Anthropocene archaeology: pollution, CO2, methane, and garbage in the ancient world.

                        Niche construction: Amazonian archaeology, the American Great Plains, and  African savanna “hotspots”

                        Case Study: Garbology in the modern world

 

Readings: Smith and Zeder (2013). The onset of the Anthropocene (Blackboard).

Assignments due: Revealing Archaeology Module 8: “Preserving the Trail”

 

 

Week 15 [Dates]: Applied archaeology

Topics:            Cultural Resource Management (CRM) in the United States & NAGRPA

                        Ethics in archaeology

                        Applied archaeology and anthropology: Non-academic careers in archaeology

 

                        FINAL EXAM

 

Readings: no readings

Assignments due: no assignments due