Course Description
Concepts and principles of archaeology, including site
formation, survey and excavation techniques, artifact retrieval
and analysis, chronology, archaeological theory, and
contemporary issues such as "ownership" of the past; focus on
sites from Greek and Roman antiquity.
Athena Title
Intro to Classical Archaeology
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in CLAS 3015, ANTH 3015
Non-Traditional Format
This course will be taught 95% or more online.
Prerequisite
One 1000-level ENGL course or one 1000-level CLAS course or second year or higher student standing or permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
- Students will be able to describe the development of the field of classical archaeology.
- Students will be able to describe the major principles of site formation.
- Students will be able to describe the methodologies for site identification and assess their use.
- Students will be able to describe archaeological field methods and assess their applications.
- Students will be able to define major archaeological periods and describe major typologies for material culture.
- Students will be able to describe archaeological dating techniques, techniques for collecting demographic data, and sourcing finds and to assess their use in classical archaeology.
- Students will be able to describe ethical issues in classical archaeology relating to cultural resource management, data recovery and dissemination, and "ownership" of the past.
- Students will produce writing appropriate to the field of classical archaeology.
- Students will engage in critical analysis of the concepts and principles of classical archaeology.
Topical Outline
- I. Changing goals, changing techniques
a. What do we mean by classical archaeology?
b. The progress of the discipline
- II. Is there anything to find?
a. Effect of formation processes
b. Unusual preservation -- wet and dry conditions
c. Unusual preservation -- frozen and buried
- III. How do you find it?
a. Looking down -- aerial photography
b. Looking below -- subsurface testing
c. Looking across -- field survey
d. Landscape archaeology and the surrounding environment
- IV. Digging it up
a. Excavation: if, when, why, and how
b. What to do with what you find
c. Archaeology underwater
d. Computers in archaeology
- V. Dating material: establishing chronologies
a. Relative dating methods
b. Absolute method
- VI. Man in archaeology
a. Subsistence and diet
1. Plants, animals, and food preparation
2. Teeth, bones, and stomach contents
b. Examining people
1. Can archaeology take a census?
2. Sex, age, and determining the killer
3. Reconstructing faces from the past
c. Technology, resources, and contact
1. Metals, stones, and pots
2. Tracing contact
- VII. Publication and presentation: selling the past
a. Museums -- do not touch
b. Conservation, pollution, and destruction
c. Cultural property and politics
d. "Alternative" archaeologies-- gender, nationality, ethnicity
e. Field archaeology and the question of who owns the past
General Education Core
CORE V: Social Sciences
