Fall 2006

Survey of Archaeology

New College of Florida

Professor Uzi Baram

Class Meets on Tuesday and Thursday 10:30 to 11:50 a.m. in College Hall 224

Professor’s Office: College Hall 205

Office Hours: Tuesday 1‑3 pm & by appointment

Office Telephone Number: 359-4217

EMail:  Baram@ncf.edu

Course URL:  http://faculty.ncf.edu/baram/SurveyofArchaeology.html

Catalogue Description:

The course offers an introduction to the subject of archaeology.  It is divided into three parts:  1) the nature and history of archaeology, 2) basic archaeological approaches, and 3) a brief survey of world prehistory.  Given time limitations, the latter section will focus on selected topics of major methodological and theoretical concerns in the discipline.

Course Prospectus:

The course is an introduction to archaeology as part of anthropology.  The three major concerns in archaeology are the study of the human past, the study of material culture, and social change over time. Techniques and methods, theories and ethical concerns will guide exploration of case studies and the overview of human history from the earliest ancestors of Homo sapiens to the modern period.  Contemporary archaeological understandings of material culture and of explanations of change will frame the examination of sites, events, and social processes.

Course Objectives: 

In this course, we will explore 1) the study of material culture in anthropology and 2) the human past from an archaeological perspective.  We will cover the methods and theories of archaeology for understandings of the range of human variation over time, including archaeological fieldwork, analysis, and interpretation.  We will focus on significant and mundane changes that occurred during the long prehistory and the history of humankind.  Topics will include the great transformations of the past and controversies in the present about the past.

Requirements:

You are expected to read the assigned chapters and articles for class discussion.  You are required to attend each and every class during the semester.  If you need to miss a class meeting, let the professor know ahead of time via email, voice mail, or a note in the divisional mailbox; all standard reasons for missing class will be accepted.  Evaluations will focus upon attendance, quality of class discussion, two exams (midterm on September 28 and final exam on November 28), and successful completion of the exercises in Revealing Archaeology by the end of the semester.

Accessing the Professor:

I will strive to arrive early to the classroom for each class meeting: that is a wonderful time to raise any questions about the course or anthropology in general.  My office hours are organized as open door: there is no need to sign up for a time slot, just come by my office and I promise to be there to discuss the course and almost any other issues.  If there is a crowd of students, I will address your specific questions. If you are the only student to arrive, you have the time to discuss nearly anything related to the course, anthropology, or the college.  Beyond office hours, if the door to my College Hall office is open and I’m free, we can chat.  In addition, I will reply to emails but please be polite in your requests and acknowledge my response to your questions/concerns.

Texts:

Brian Fagan 2006 People of the Earth (12th edition)

-         available at the campus bookstore and online.

-         noted as Fagan below.

Thinking Strings 2006 Revealing Archaeology (CD)

-         available from the publisher at http://thinkingstrings.com/Product/RevealingArch.html

-         noted as RA below.

The articles and book chapters are on electronic reserve. They provide arguments (or counterarguments for the course), introduce significant scholars, and illuminate archaeological concerns. 

Schedule of Topics

Mini-Class:  Artifacts and the Importance of Material Things in Anthropology

I. What is Archaeology

Weeks 1-2: Introduction to the course and to archaeology

8/29 - Definition and Range of Archaeologies/Archaeology in the popular imagination
Readings:

·        Fagan Chapter 1 (Introducing World Prehistory)

8/31 - Current Issues in Archaeology: Exciting Finds and 21^st Century Ethics

Readings:

·        RA Humanity’s Impact: from Presence of the Past to Archaeology’s Goals

·        Douglas Preston 1997 "The Lost Man" The New Yorker (June 16, 1997), pages 70-81.

9/5 – A Brief History of Archaeology

Readings:

·        RA Humanity’s Impact: from Archaeology’s Earliest History to Contemporary Archaeology

9/7 – Studying the Archaeological Record

Readings:

·        RA Leaving a Trail: from The Archaeological Record to Context and Variability

II. Methods and Theories of Archaeology

Week 3:  Techniques of Archaeology: Fieldwork and Dating

 9/12 – Fieldwork: How to excavate the archaeological record

Readings:

·        RA Leaving a Trail: from Cultural Deposition to Preservation Environments

9/14 – Dating in Archaeology

Readings:

·        RA Tracking Down Time

Week 4:  Methods of Archaeology

9/19 – Methods of Archaeology Case Study:  Little Salt Spring

Readings:

·        Carl J. Claussen 1979 "Little Salt Springs, Florida: A Unique Underwater Site" Science 203(4381):609-614.

·        George Luer 2002 Three Middle Archaic sites in North Port.  Archaeology of Upper Charlotte Harbor, Florida.  Florida Anthropological Society Publication. Number 15:3-29.

·        RA Following the Trail

9/21 – Methods of Archaeology Case Study: Tel Dan and the Question of Biblical Israel

Readings:

·        Avraham Biran 1994 selections from Biblical Dan, pages 21-25 and 125-146.

·        Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman 2001 “Memories of a Golden Age” The Bible Unearthed, pages 123-145.

·        Fagan page 444

·        RA Detecting Technology

Week 5: Differing Approaches to the Archaeological Record

9/26 - Theory in Archaeology: Culture History and Processual Archaeology

Readings:

·        Lewis Binford 1962 “Archaeology as Anthropology” American Antiquity 28(2):217-225.

9/28: Post Processual Archaeologies: recovering mindset and concerns over social context of archaeology

Readings:

• Lynn Meskell 2005 “Archaeological Ethnography: Conversations around Kruger National Park” Archaeologies 1(1):81-100.
• Joan Gero 2004 “Engaging with Heritage Issues: The Role of the World Archaeological Congress” In Marketing Heritage, pages 287-294.

III. A Brief Survey of World Prehistory

Week 6:  The Plio-Pleistocene and the Lower Paleolithic: The Emergence of Humans

10/3 – The Origins of Homo sapiens

Readings:

·        Fagan Chapter 2 (Human Origins)

·        RA Charting Time

10/5 – The Lower Paleolithic

Readings:

·        Fagan Chapters 3 (Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, and Homo sapiens) pages 66-91.

Week 7: Middle and Upper Paleolithic: Life in the Stone Age

10/10 – Middle Paleolithic: Neanderthals and Modern Humans

Readings:

·        Fagan Chapters 3 (Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, and Homo sapiens) pages 92-109.

• Richard Klein 2003 “Whither the Neanderthals?” Science 299(5612): 1525-1527
• Ralph Solecki 1957 "Shanidar Cave" Old World Archaeology, pages 66-72.
• James Shreeve 1995 "Mystery on Mount Carmel" The Neandertal Engima: Solving the Mystery of Modern Human Origins, pages 168-206.

10/12 – Upper Paleolithic: Cave Art, Female Figurines, and Central Places

Readings:

• Fagan Chapter 4 (The Great Diaspora)
• Catherine Hodge McCoid and LeRoy D. McDermott 1996 "Toward Decolonizing Gender: Female Vision in the Upper Paleolithic" American Anthropologist 98(2):319-326.

Week 8:  Fall Break!

Week 9-10:  Origins and Development of Society in the Americas

10/24 – Peopling the Americas

Readings:

·        Fagan Chapter 5 (The First Americans)

·        RA Provisioning Society: from Human Subsistence to Subsistence Resources

10/26 – Farming in the Americas

Readings:

·        Fagan Chapter 13 (The Story of Maize)

·        Patty Jo Watson and Mary C. Kennedy 1991 "The Development of Horticulture in the Eastern Woodlands of North America: Women's Role" In Engendering Archaeology, pages 255-275.

·        RA Provisioning Society: from Studying Plant Remains to Other Evidence

10/31 – Development of Complex Society

Readings:

·        Fagan Chapter 21 (Mesoamerican Civilization)

11/2 – New Views on Complex Societies: River Valleys and Coasts in the Americas

Readings:

·        Fagan Chapter 22 (South American Chiefdoms and States)

·        Dena F. Dincauze and Robert Hasenstab 1989 "Explaining the Iroquois: Tribalization on a Prehistoric Periphery" In Centre and Periphery, pages 67-87.

·        William H. Marquardt 2001 The Emergence and Demise of the Calusa. In Societies in Eclipse: Archaeology of the Eastern Woodland Indians, A.D. 1400-1700, pages 157-171.

Week 11: Back to the Old World: The Neolithic Revolution

11/7 – From Complex Gather-Hunters to the Neolithic

Readings:

·        Fagan Chapters 7 (Intensification and Complexity) and 8 (A Plenteous Harvest)

11/9 – Focus on Çatalhöyük:  Economic and Ideological Origins for Settled Life

Readings:

·        Fagan Chapter 9 (The Origin of Food Production in Southwest Asia)

·        James Mellaart 1964 "A Neolithic City in Turkey" Old World Archaeology, pages 120-129.

·        Ian Hodder 1995 “The Domestication of Europe” Theory and Practice in Archaeology, pages 241-253.

·        Michael Balter 2005 “The Seeds of Civilization” Smithsonian Magazine Online

Week 12 –13: The Rise of Complex Societies

11/14 – Mesopotamia: the Heartland of Cities

Readings:

• Fagan Chapters14 (The Development of Civilization) and 15 (Early Civilizations in Southeast Asia)

·        Samuel Kramer 1957 “The Sumerians” Old World Archaeology, pages 145-156.

11/16 – Egypt: Gift of the Nile and the Power of Pharaoh

Readings:

• Fagan Chapters 11 (First Farmers in Egypt and Tropical Africa) and 16 (Egypt, Nubia, and Africa)
• Jonathan Shaw 2003 “Who Built the Pyramids?” Harvard Magazine July/August:43-49, 99.

11/21: Civilization in the Indus Valley and Northern China: Variation in Early States

• Readings:
  Fagan Chapters 17 (Early States in South and Southeast Asia) and 18 (Early Chinese Civilization)

·        Andrew Lawler 2004 “The Indus Script – Write or Wrong?” Science 306(5704):2026 – 2029.

·        Steve Farmer, Richard Sproat, and Michael Witzel 2004 “The Collapse of the Indus-Script Thesis: The Myth of a Literate Harappan Civilization” Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 11(2):19-57.

11/23 - Thanksgiving

IV. Archaeology of and in the Modern World

11/28 – Exam on Prehistory and Ancient Civilizations

11/30 – Archaeologies of Complex Societies: Historical Archaeology

Readings:

·        Kathleen Deagan 1996 “Rethinking Modern History” Archaeology 51(5):54-60.

·        Mark Leone 1984 “Interpreting Ideology in Historical Archaeology: Using the Rules of Perspective in the William Paca Garden in Annapolis, Maryland” In Ideology, Power and Prehistory, pages 25-35.

·        James Whittenburg 2002 “On the Power of Historical Archaeology to Change Historians’ Minds about the Past” Public Benefits of Archaeology, pages 74-84.

Week 15: Public Archaeology:  Politics and the Power of the Past

12/5– Conflicts and Possibilities for Archaeo-Heritage

Readings:

·        Shereen Ratnagar 2004 “Archaeology at the Heart of the Political Confrontation: The Case of Ayodhya” Current Anthropology 45(2):239-259.

·        Brent Weisman 2003 “Why Florida Archaeology Matters” Southeastern Archaeology 22(2):210-226.

·        RA Preserving the Trail

12/7 - Archaeology as Anthropology

Readings:

·        Alfredo González-Ruibal 2006 “The Dream of Reason: An Archaeology of the Failures of Modernity in Ethiopia” Journal of Social Archaeology 6(2):175-201.

·        A.H. Joffe, "The Environmental Legacy of Saddam Husayn: The Archaeology of Totalitarianism in Modern Iraq" Crime, Law & Social Change, 33 (2000), pp. 313-328.

·        Jordan Kerber 2003 “Community-Based Archaeology in Central New York: Workshops Involving Native American Youth” The Public Historian 25(1):83-90.