1
Introduction to Archaeology
Ant 304/ Ary 301
Spring 2005
Prof. J. Denbow, email:
Office 1.118 Schoch
Office Hours: MW 11-12, and by appointment
Phone: 471-8512
Email:
TAs:Kirsten Atwood:
Valerie Batt:
This course provides an overview to world prehistory and a brief introduction to archaeological methods and techniques. Grades will be based on one mid-term exam (30%), a final exam (30% each), a written 3-4 page film review on one of the archaeological films shown in class, or an archaeological film you have seen at UGL (20%), answers to your lab questions (10%), and attendance measured by random attendance “exams”(10%). Exams will be take home and include multiple choice and essay questions covering materials from your readings, class lectures, labs, and films. Dates for the exams will be announced in Class 1 week in advance. The typed film reviews are due on Monday April 4th.
Classes will meet on M and W in our regular classroom, and will break into smaller quiz sections on Fridays unless announced otherwise in class. One quiz section will meet in the regular classroom, the other will meet in Schoch 2.136 at the same time.
Textbooks:Kenneth Feder. The Past in Perspective: an introduction to human prehistory.
Brian Fagan. Quest for the Past: Great Discoveries in Archaeology.
Lab exercises: Virtual lab exercises related your class topics can be found at: I have included references to these in the syllabus. These should be read in advance before quiz sections so that you will be able to ask questions.
Other Information: Your text book has a web site at: which has chapter reviews, quizzes, and other information you may find helpful while studying. A few questions on each exam will be drawn from these online quizzes, so it would pay you to have a look at them.
After the mid-term, you will see that I have drastically reorganized the Feder readings. That is because I feel that for the more recent periods it makes more sense (at least to me) to try to place each civilization into its historical context, rather than focus on loose evolutionary patterns and trends as the organizing focus. In lectures, I will do my best to string these sections together for you. As a result, class attendance is very important. I encourage you to ask questions by raising your hand during the lecture if you have questions. If your questions require longer answers, please come to see me during office hours, or raise the question on Fridays during the quiz sections run by your TAs.
Course Schedule
Topic 1Principles of Archaeology
Feder, Chapter 1: Encountering the Past.
Fagan, Quest for the past, Chapter 1: Quest for the past.
Lab 2: (survey methods)
film: Pompeii: Buried alive
How do you know where to dig? What did they eat?
Feder, Chapter 2: Probing the past.
Fagan, Quest for the past, Chapter 2: How archaeology works.
Lab 3 (Excavation Analysis)
Lab 4: (Sampling strategies)
How old is it?
Class lectures
Lab 1 (seriation, stratigraphy, absolute dating)
What did they eat? How was their health?
Class lectures
Lab 7 (Palynology)
Lab 8 (Caddoan archeology and dental anthropology)
Topic 2Hominid Evolution and peopling of the Earth
Early hominids
The first humans.
Feder, Chapter 3: African roots
Fagan, Quest for the Past, Chapter 3: Louis Leakey's valley of bones.
Lab 5: Human origins
Lab 6: lithic technology
film: In search of human origins, part 1
film: In search of human origins, part 2
Pre-modern and Modern humans
Feder, Chapter 5: The Premodern Humans
Feder, Chapter 6: The Origins of Modern Humans
film: In search of human origins, part 3
Late Pleistocene and Holocene hunters and gatherers
Feder, Chapter 7: Expanding Intellectual Horizons
Feder, Chapter 8: Expanding Geographic horizons
Feder, Chapter 9: After the Ice
Symbolism and Rock Art
Class lectures
Film: /Num Tchai
Film: Seminole Canyon
Mid-Term Exam
Topic 3Origins of Food Production: New World Civilizations
Food Production and the Roots of Complexity in North America, Meso-America, and the American Southwest
Feder, Chapter 10: the Food Producing Revolution
Feder, Chapter 11: pp. 407-423
Feder, Chapter 13: An explosion of Complexity
Feder, Chapter 14, pp. 523-532
Fagan, Quest for the Past, Chapter 4: The Makah find their history.
Fagan, Quest for the Past, Chapter 11: The city of Teotihuacan.
Lab 8. (Caddoan Archaeology)
Film: Cahokia: America's lost city
Film: The fall of the Maya;
Film: City of the gods
Topic 4Old World Civilizations
Southwest Asia and North Africa
Feder, Chapter 10: pp. 353-358
Feder, Chapter 12: pp. 424-433; 439-445.
Feder,. Chapter 11, pp. 399-406
Feder Chapter 12, pp. 433-438
Fagan, Quest for the Past. Chapter 8, Pyramids, pyramidologists, and pyramidiots.
Fagan, Quest for the Past. Chapter 9, Howard Carter and Tut-ankh-amun.
Fagan, Quest for the Past. Chapter 5: Layard of Nineveh,
Fagan, Quest for the Past. Chapter 10: Women in archaeology.
Lab 9: (Ancient Egypt: sex, gender and demography);
Film: Pyramid. vidcass 1774
Film: Mesopotamia: return to Eden
Europe
Feder, Chapter 11, pp. 388-399
Feder, Chapter 12, pp. 424-433
Feder, Chapter 12, pp. 458-466
Fagan, Quest for the Past. Chapter 6: Heinrich Schliemann and ancient Troy.
Fagan, Quest for the Past, Chapter 7: Arthur Evans and the Minoans.
Lab 10: The structure and function of Stonehenge
Film: Ice Maiden
Film: Stonehenge
Africa
Feder, Chapter 14, pp. 537-551
Feder, Chapter 14: Evolutionary Epilogue
Final Exam: following the registrar’s schedule announced toward the end of the semester