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Anthropology 110 Syllabus
Principles of Archaeology
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ANTH 110 | SPRING 1999 | TTH 9:30-10:45 | Alumni 205
Dr. Brian Billman | Office Hours | Wednesdays 1:00-3:00 and Thursdays 3:30-4:30 or by appointment
UNC Department of Anthropology
UNC Research Laboratories of Archaeology
Alumni Building Room 201B
(919)962-9348
GOALS OF THIS COURSE
Archaeology and archaeologists are portrayed in the mass media as scientists, treasure hunters, adventures, harmless eccentrics, or murderers. Newspaper and magazine articles describe the latest scientific discoveries by archaeologists. Movies, such as the Indiana Jones series, portray the archaeologist as adventurers pursuing treasures and fame. Mystery novels by Tony Hillerman, Agatha Christy, and others present tales of murder and intrigue on archaeological digs in exotic settings. Despite the high level of media attention that archaeology receives, seldom do we encounter accurate presentations of what archaeologists are attempting to accomplish and how archaeology is done. In this course students will learn about the goals and methods of contemporary archaeology. How do we do archaeology and what are we trying to achieve.
At the completion of this course, students should be able to:
- Describe the various contemporary approaches to archaeology
- Identify the major periods of historical development of archaeology
- Explain how archaeological research designs are structured
- Explain how archaeologists gather data for their research
- Explain how archaeologists determine the date of sites and reconstruct the culture history of an area
- Explain how archaeologists link archaeological data with specific patterns of human behavior
- Describe how archaeologists reconstruct past lifeways (subsistence and technology) and past environments
- Explain how archaeologists reconstruct past social, political, and economic institutions
- Explain how archaeologists reconstruct past ideology and religion (cognitive archaeology)
- Explain how archaeologists investigate the lifeways of prehistoric hunter gatherers
- Explain how archaeologists investigate long-term culture change
- Explain the goals of historical archaeology and how it is conducted
- Describe the Federal laws that govern cultural resource management
- Describe some of the problems that have developed between archaeologists and Native Americans.
- Describe some the ways that archaeologists and Native Americans can work together in a mutually beneficial manner.
- Describe the ethical rules that govern contemporary archaeology
- Describe how archaeology can be applied to contemporary problems
READINGS
The textbook for this class is:
Archaeology by David Hurst Thomas
Four case studies have also been selected for this class. Students will select one of these case studies for the paper assignment. SELECT ONLY ONE OF THESE FOUR BOOKS:
- Awatimarka: The Ethnoarchaeology of an Adean Herding Community | by Lawrence Kunzar
- The Ceren Site: A Prehistoric Village Buried by Volcanic Ash in Central America | by Payson Sheets
- The Pithouses of Keatley Creek | by Brian Hayden
- Purisimeno Chumash Prehistory: Maritime Adaptations Along the Southern California Coast | by Michael Glassow
In addition, I have put together a collection of articles that will be available at the reserve desk in the House Undergraduate Library.
CD-ROM
Occanneechi Town: Archaeology of an Eighteenth-Century Indian Village in North Carolina | edited by Stephen Davis, Patrick Livingood, Vincas Steponaitis, and Trawick Ward
This CD-ROM may be purchased at the Bull's Head bookstore (downstairs) or directly from the UNC Press office (116 South Boundary Street, Chapel Hill | (919)966-3561 | http://sunsite.unc.edu/uncpress/). Purchase of the CD-ROM is optional; it will also available through the web site of the UNC Research Laboratories of Archaeology.
PARTICIPATION
Ten percent (10%) of your grade will be based on class participation, including class attendance and participation in discussion. Prior to each class a study guide with questions for discussion will be handed out. To get the most out of our discussoin, we must be prepared. That means you are responsible for having read the class assignments and for having thought through the questoins given out ahead of time. In order to create a good climate for everyone to participate, please follow these discussion guidelines:
- Be ready to share and explain your opinions. Feel free to disagree with others, but be specific in your own assertions and back them up with evidence.
- Listen carefully and respond to other members of the group. Be willing to change your mind when someone demonstrates an error in your logic or use of facts.
- Do not hesitate to ask for clarification of any point or term that you do not understand.
- Make your point succinctly, avoid repetition, and stick to the subject.
PAPER
Students will write one paper (a minimum of 5 pages, typed, double-spaced) on one of the four case studies. In their papers students will explain what the goals of the archaeologist who conducted the case study were and how he attempted to achieve them. Students will also give a class presentation about their evaluations of the results of their chosen case studies. This paper counts as 15% of your grade.
CD-ROM ASSIGNMENT
Students will write one paper (a minimum of 5 pages, typed, double-spaced) on the CD-ROM assignment. The paper will count for 15% of your grade.
EXAMS
There will be a midterm and a final exam, each of which will count for thirty percent (30%) of your grade.
HOW TO SUCCEED IN THIS COURSE
- Attend lectures consistently
- Keep up with the readings
- If something is unclear, ask a question
- Clarify expectations with the professor
COURSE SCHEDULE
WEEK 1 | COURSE OVERVIEW
January 7 | Introduction to archaeology and this course
WEEK 2 | THE GOALS OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHAEOLOGY
Objectives:
- State the differences between scientific, historical, and intepretive explanation
- Explain the roles that scientific, historical, and interpretative explanation play in contemporary archaeological research
- Identify the major periods in the historical development of archaeology
- State the major accomplishments of archaeologists in those periods
- State the goals of archaeology in each of those periods
- Explain some of the factors that caused changes in the goals of archaeology
- Explain how changes in the goals of archaeology have led to changes in archaeological methods
- Compare and contrast the goals of the various contemporary approaches to archaeology
Readings: Thomas, Chapters 1, 2, and 3
January 12 | Case Study: prehistoric cannibalism in southwestern North America
January 14 | A history of the development of anthropological archaeology
WEEK 3 | HOW DO ARCHAEOLOGISTS CONDUCT RESEARCH? ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH DESIGNS
Objectives:
- Describe the elements of an archaeological research design
- Explain the cycle of archaeological research
- Define low-level, mid-level (or middle-range), and high-level theory
- Explain the role that each of these levels of theory play in archaeological research designs
Readings: Thomas, Chapters 2 and 3
January 19 | What is the scientific method and how is it applied to archaeological problems?
January 21 | Levels of archaeological theory
WEEK 4 | TALES FROM THE FIELD: CONDUCTING ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN PERU AND SOUTHWESTERN COLORADO
Objectives:
- Explain the research goals of the two projects
- Explain why the goals of the two projects were different
- Define how low-level, mid-level (or middle-range), and high-level theory were used in the projects
- Explain the role that each of these levels of theory play in each project
- Describe how data were collected in each project
- Evaluate the results of each project
Readings: Thomas, Chapters 4, 5, and 6
Readings on Reserve: Billman 1998, Billman 1990
January 26 | Archaeology in a time of cholera and terrorism...or,
Doing dissertation research the hard way: the Moche Valley Settlement Survey Project, Northern Peru 1990-1991
January 28 | Archaeology on the reservation...or,
Dealing with tribes, consultants, and bureaucrats: the Ute Mountain Ute Irrigated Lands Archaeological Project, Southwestern Colorado 1994-1998
WEEK 5 | HOW DO ARCHAEOLOGISTS GATHER DATA? SURVEY, REMOTE SENSING, AND EXCAVATION
Objectives:
- Explain what archaeological survey is and how it is conducted in various settings
- Explain how archaeological excavation is conducted
- Explain what remote sensing is and how it is conducted
- Explain the role that each of these three techniques play in archaeological research
Readings: Thomas, Chapters 4, 5, and 6
Assignment: Occaneechi Archaeology CD-ROM Assignment
February 2 | Survey and remote sensing: why and how
February 4 | Archaeological excavation
WEEK 6 | HOW DO ARCHAEOLOGISTS DATE SITES? ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE DATING
Objectives:
- Explain the difference between relative and absolute dating
- State the types of absolute dating techniques used by archaeologists
- Explain the limitations of each absolute dating technique
- Explain what techniques archaeologists use in relative dating
- Define the law of superposition
- Describe how archaeologists use stratigraphy to build chronologies
- Describe how archaeologists create and use temporal types
- Describe how seriation is used to date sites
Readings: Thomas, Chapters 7, 8, and 9
February 9 | Absolute dating methods: radiocarbon, tree-ring, and obsidian hydration
February 11 | Relative dating: stratigraphy, temporal types, and seriation
WEEK 7 | HOW DO ARCHAEOLOGISTS LINK ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA WITH SPECIFIC PATTERNS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR? MIDDLE RANGE THEORY
Objectives:
- Explain what site formation processes are
- Define ethnoarchaeolgy
- Define experimental archaeology
- Explain the roles that experimental archaeology and ethnoarchaeology play in archaeological research
Readings: Thomas, Chapter 10
February 16 | OCCANEECHI PAPER DUE
February 18 | Ethnoarchaeology and experimental archaeology
February 18 | Middle range theory in action
WEEK 8 | HOW DO ARCHAEOLOGISTS RECONSTRUCT PAST ENVIRONMENTS, DIET, AND HEALTH: PLANTS, BONES, AND BODIES
Objectives:
- State the techniques that are used to reconstruct past environments
- Explain how those techniques are used to reconstruct past environments
- Evaluate the limitations of those techniques
- State the techniques used to reconstructed past diet
- Evaluate how site formation processes influence studies of past diet
- Describe the types of information that bioarchaeologists can gather from the study of human remains
Readings: Thomas, Chapters 11 and 12
February 23 | Studying environmental change
February 25 | Diet, health, and violence
WEEK 9 | HOW DO ARCHAEOLOGISTS RECONSTRUCT PAST SOCIAL SYSTEMS?
Objectives:
- Explain the differences between adaptive and political approaches to understanding past societies
- Define social agency and political power and how those concepts have been applied to the study of past social organizations
- Describe how mortuary studies are used to reconstruct past social systems
- Define the difference between achieved and ascribed status
- Explain how Peebles identified ascribed and achieved statuses at Moundville
- Describe how settlement pattern studies are used to reconstruct regional political organizations
Readings: Thomas, Chapter 13
March 2 | Reconstructing past social and political systems: the analysis of mortuary remains and settlement patterns
March 4 | MIDTERMS
WEEK 10 | WHAT DO ARCHAEOLOGISTS DO FOR SPRING BREAK?
March 9 | NO CLASS
March 11 | NO CLASS
WEEK 11 | HOW DO ARCHAEOLOGISTS STUDY HUNTER-GATHERERS?
Objectives:
- Describe some of the characteristics of foraging societies
- Explain why the study of foragers is important
- Explain how archaeologists reconstruct the season during which a site was occupied. Explain why it is important to reconstruct site seasonality when studying foragers.
- Define the terms toolkits and activity areas and explain why they are important concepts for studying forager societies
- Describe some the site formation processes that muddy our interpretation of tool kits and activity areas
- Explain the goals of optimal foraging theory and evolutionary ecology
- Explain the assumptions underlying optimal foraging theory
- Describe they types of data needed to apply optimal foraging models to archaeological cases
- Discuss whether or not there are universal types of human behavior and the extent to which survival dictates human actions
- Explain the difference between the terms "sex" and "gender"
- Explain how archaeologists examine gender roles
- Explain how gender stereotypes influenced forager archaeology
Readings: Thomas, Chapter 14
March 16 | What are "foragers" and how can archaeologists study them?
March 18 | What is optimal foraging? Male archaeologists and female foragers
WEEK 12 | HOW DO ARCHAEOLOGISTS STUDY LONG-TERM SOCIAL CHANGE?
Objectives:
- Describe the main theories of the origins of agriculture
- Describe the main theories of state formation
- Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of neo-evolutionary theory
- Discuss how archaeologists test theories of long-term social change
Readings: Thomas, Chapter 15
March 23 | What happened in the last 100,000 years? A long-term view of social and economic change
March 25 | The origins of agriculture and the state
WEEK 13 | HOW DO ARCHAEOLOGISTS RECONSTRUCT PAST BELIEF SYSTEMS? AND THE POSTPROCESSUAL CRITIQUE
Objectives:
- Explain the goals of cognitive archaeology
- Define ideology, cosmology, and iconography
- Describe how archaeologists study iconography and what they can learn from it
- Discuss some the ways archaeologists reconstruct belief systems
- Discuss the major criticisms of processual archaeology offered by postmodernists
- Discuss how processual archaeology has responded to those criticisms
- Discuss the limitations of postprocessual archaeology
Readings: Thomas, Chapters 16 and 17
March 30 | Reconstructing belief systems: Moche iconography in Andean South America
April 1 | The postprocessual critique
WEEK 14 | HOW AND WHY DO ARCHAEOLOGISTS STUDY HISTORIC SITES? HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
Objectives:
- Discuss the goals of historical archaeology
- Discuss how historical archaeology differs from prehistoric archaeology
- Discuss the past and potential future contributions of African American archaeology
Readings: Thomas, Chapters 18 and 19
April 6 | A history of historical archaeology in North America
April 8 | African American archaeology in action
WEEK 15 | WHAT THE HECK IS CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT? CARING FOR OUR CULTURAL HERITAGE
Objectives:
- Describe how cultural resource management developed in the US
- Explain how the Historic Preservation Act protects archaeological sites
- Describe the roles that private consultants, Native Americans, lead federal agencies, the SHPO, and the Advisory Committee play in Cultural Resource Management
- Define the ethical rules that govern contemporary archaeology in the US
Readings: Thomas, Chapter 20
April 13 | A history of cultural resource management. Archaeological ethics
April 15 | Consultans, clients, tribes, and bureaucrats in action
WEEK 16 | WHO OWNS THE PAST? ARCHAEOLOGISTS AND NATIVE AMERICANS
Objectives:
- Describe some of the problems that have developed between archaeologists and Native Americans
- Explain what NAGPRA is, its history, and how it works
- Describe some the ways that archaeologists and Native Americans can work together in a mutually beneficial manner
Readings: Thomas, Chapter 21
Readings on Reserve: TBA
April 20 | A history of the Native American Graves Protection and Repartriation Act (NAGPRA)
April 22 | Can archaeologists and Native Americans work together?
WEEK 17 | ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY: FUTURE DIRECTIONS IN ARCHAEOLOGY
Objectives:
- Describe how can archaeology be applied to contemporary problems
- Discuss how archaeology can used to shape social identities
- Describe what technological innovation might reshaped archaeology in the 21st century
- Describe career opportunities in archaeology
Readings: Thomas, Chapter 21
April 27 | Is archaeology relevant: archaeology and our modern world
April 29 | Technological innovation and archaeology in the 21st century. Careers in archaeology
April 29 | SECOND PAPER DUE
FINAL EXAM TUESDAY, MAY 4, 8:00AM
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