World Archaeology

Course Description

Archaeology reveals the human story of curiosity, innovation, exploration, and adaptability preserved in geologic layers around the world. Adaptions to different ecological zones and environmental regimes has produced the bewildering phenotypic and cultural variability observed in humans today. Telling the story of our past requires finding and connecting clues to the timing and origin of adaptations such as the first stone tools around 3.3 mya, animal and plant domestication, large scale settlements and political bodies, and now our modern global civilization. While cultural variability among modern humans often divides us and highlights our differences, we all share common themes among us such as the search for food, need for companionship, and the necessity to support the next generation of the human species. This course takes an explicitly thematic approach as we explore some of the major questions related to topics in Anthropological Archaeology such as becoming human, the search for food, migration and exploration, food production, the rise of the state, food and culture, warfare, and the modern world. Throughout the course students will engage with basic archaeological concepts, methods, and theories to build an understanding of how archaeologists investigate the human condition. Students will also engage with the ethics and importance of telling diverse stories, connecting people to their past, and preserving cultural properties and traditions around the world.

Code

ANTH 160A1

Credits

3

Subject

Anthropology, Sch of