| Description |
Required for concentrators specializing in archaeology. Aims to introduce students to the methods and thinking of archaeologists and prehistorians, so that they will be at home in fields where archaeology supplies the evidence they study. Topics include the concept of prehistory (the idea that part of human history is not recorded in writing); ethnographic analogy and the interpretation of material remains; relating material culture to texts (e.g. a Mesopotamian site to the cuneiform texts found there, or Jericho to the Bible); schemes of cultural development (the definition of "civilization"); and how to read an excavation report. |