This course introduces anthropological research on material culture and hominid evolution from prehistory to the present, outlines the fundamental findings of archaeological scholarship, and examines how archaeology and physical anthropology illuminate the contemporary social and material world. The course focuses on several major themes: human originations, the emergence of agriculture and social complexity, and the material record of state society and inequality. The class provides a general worldwide survey of anthropological interpretation of the human past and introduces the methodological techniques and philosophical perspectives archaeologists use to analyze evolution, culture, and the material world. We will probe how questions about the past originate, study the relevance of archaeological insight in contemporary society, and contemplate how and why archaeology persistently stirs popular imagination.

Regular attendance and participation are essential to doing well in the course.  The overwhelming majority of the course material will be introduced and discussed in class, so attendance is highly recommended.  You will receive five participation points if you have no more than three unexcused absences.  After that you will lose one participation point for each absence:  for example, if you have three unexcused absences you'll receive all five points, but if you have four absences you will receive four points, five absences receive three points, and so on. Excused absences are documented illnesses, religious holidays, or an absence that is discussed with me prior to or immediately after the absence.  Please be prepared to document absences that will be excused:  for instance, for illnesses have a physician's note (not simply sniffles in the next class or sounding really crappy on the phone), if you're called to jury duty keep that court record, and so on.  Students who attend less than half a class session will not receive attendance points without my permission.  I will consider excusing absences for other reasons (e.g., K-12 school breaks, etc) on a case-by-case basis, so please contact me about such absences as soon as possible.  Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class meeting on a course roster that circulates through class.  If you come in late, you must ensure that you sign this roster at the end of class; at the end of the semester I will not negotiate over the days you forgot to sign the attendance roster. I will not allow students to sign the roster if they arrive halfway through the class meeting; please discuss any delays outside your control with me (e.g., caught in traffic jam, but not an errant alarm clock). 

The vast volume of course material usually yields a lot of notes, so if you miss class you should secure thorough and reliable notes from another student and consult the course Powerpoints on Oncourse.  All class lectures will be posted on Oncourse and can be accessed by clicking on the Resources tab and then clicking on the Powerpoint lecture you wish to access.  Powerpoints are in relative order and not organized by the date of the lecture, so sometimes a single powerpoint can cover multiple class meetings.  Lectures will be posted as the semester progresses, and usually lectures will be posted at least a few days prior to class.  To access these you must be on a computer with Powerpoint (this includes all University computers).  These are big files and may not load on a dial-up modem.  Most PC's will ask whether you want to save or open the file; if you save it you can print the notes with 3-9 pictures per page and save a whole lot of the forest.  To do this, save the file and then open it; next click on file, then click on print, and a window will open; in that window, click on "print what" and pull down the option "handouts"; just to the right of that in the option "slides per page" pull down the menu and enter however many pictures you want printed on a single page (e.g., 3, 6, 9).  Let me know if you have any problems accessing the lectures.

If you cannot complete an assignment on time for any reason, you should contact me as soon as possible. I can always be contacted before or after class, you can schedule an appointment, and I check my email virtually every day.  Please contact me via my email address and not Oncourse email, which I check infrequently and is somewhat unpredictable.  Make-up tests will be essay tests.  Please do NOT wait until after a deadline to talk to me. Do NOT postpone talking to me if you are having any difficulty completing an assignment or if you are having difficulty with the class.  Please do feel free to discuss any problems you are having in class, whether they're related to illnesses, work schedules, problems with your car, or the wide range of real-life things that can happen over a semester, and I will do my very best to help in whatever way I can.

Late exercises will be penalized a point for every class they are late if you do not negotiate an extension with me beforehand or discuss the delay immediately afterward.  Exercises are considered late after 3:00 on the day they are due.  You can email me exercises as attachments, or you can leave assignments in my mailbox in 413 Cavanaugh Hall.  Please do not submit exercises via Oncourse.  I prefer electronically submitted assignments be in Word 2003--you users of the new Word have an option to save in 2003 format.  Word Perfect usually is fine too.  Be absolutely certain to keep a copy of any emailed assignments you send to me should the email disappear or not arrive at my end, and save every single assignment in two places:  Don't just save it on your laptop or a thumb drive, since they can crash, get lost, or be purloined by somebody who undervalues your commitment to education.  Even if you miss a due date for an exercise, contact me so that you can complete a partial credit makeup: to miss the exercises is, at best, mathematically ill-advised.  You can check your grades during the semester by logging onto Oncourse. 

All work in the course is conducted in accordance with the University’s academic misconduct policy.  Cheating includes dishonesty of any kind with respect to exams or assignments. Plagiarism is the offering of someone else’s work as your own: this includes taking un-cited material from books, web pages, or other students, turning in the same or substantially similar work as other students, sneaking a peek at the neighbor's exam, or failing to properly cite other research.  If you are suspected of any form of academic misconduct you will be called in for a meeting at which you will be informed of the accusation and given adequate opportunity to respond.  A report will be submitted to the Dean of Students, who will decide on further disciplinary action.  Please consult the University Bulletin’s academic misconduct policy or me if you have any questions.

The Office of Adaptive Educational Services (AES) ensures that students with disabilities receive appropriate accommodations from the University and their professors.  Students must register with the AES office in order to receive such services.

Portable electronic devices, such as cell phones, pagers, two-ways, and PDA’s should be turned off before entering the classroom.  You can use a laptop in class for note-taking but should silence it; do not surf the web in class or listen to ITunes.  Let me know in advance if you carry around a communication device for familial reasons (e.g., pregnancy monitoring, disabled family, or contact with kids--not to stay in touch with a significant other who just loves your voice, buddies planning a pub crawl, and so on).  Anyone whose electronic device disturbs class repeatedly will be asked to meet with me after class if they continue to disturb the group.

The classroom is a safe speech situation in which it is your responsibility to treat other classmates fairly and with mutual respect, even if they have the audacity to disagree with you, champion an opinion that is inconsistent with your worldview, or simply bore you.  Anyone who talks when someone else is talking, is hostile, or otherwise violates classroom etiquette (e.g., does other homework, reads the newspaper) will be considered to be in violation of this policy.  Students who fail to adhere to these guidelines will be asked to meet with me before returning to class.

A basic requirement of this course is that you will participate in class and conscientiously complete writing and reading assignments.  If you miss more than half our class meetings within the first four weeks of the semester without contacting me, you will be administratively withdrawn from this section.  Our class meets twice per week, so if you miss more than four classes in the first four weeks, you may be withdrawn.  Administrative withdrawal may have academic, financial, and financial aid implications. Administrative withdrawal will take place after the full refund period, and if you are administratively withdrawn from the course you will not be eligible for a tuition refund.  If you have questions about the administrative withdrawal policy at any point during the semester, please contact me.

A single textbook is available for the course. It contains basic background information on all of the lecture material that will help you study, and some text material not covered in class will be included in the tests. Most exam material comes directly from the notes, and the textbook reviews the same material.  The book can be purchased at online retailers including campusi.com (which searches multiple online vendors--click on the Images of the Past title below to see what is on sale now). Used prices online often can start as low as $15, and it has been ordered at Indy's College Bookstore on West 11th Street (click on address for a map).  The book has also been ordered in the University Bookstore.  List price is $85 for a new version of the fifth edition, though online it goes about $20 cheaper.  The book's third and fourth editions are available used at some online book sellers; the fourth edition is substantively similar (and about $5 online!), so either could be used, however the page numbers are different.  If you do not buy the book yourself, you should be sure that you'll have access to a copy.

Price, T. Douglas and Gary M. Feinman 2005 Images of the Past. 5th edition. McGraw Hill.

Course Schedule (readings in italics, all page numbers refer to 5th edition)

NO CLASS WEDNESDAY JANUARY 9 SOCIETY FOR HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY CONFERENCE

EXERCISE 1 (DRAWING AN ARCHAEOLOGIST) DUE IN CLASS JANUARY 14

January 7, 14, 16

Introduction to course: what is archaeology? anthropology? culture? material culture? time? prehistory?

How do anthropologists decide what they want to know?: ideology and research questions

Indiana Jones and the Ivory Tower: who are archaeologists?

NO CLASS MONDAY JANUARY 21 MARTIN LUTHER KING HOLIDAY

EXERCISE 2 (MAPS AS MATERIAL CULTURE) DUE JANUARY 23

January 23, 28, 30

Ideology and innocuous objects: beer cans and the construction of modern identity

February 4, 6

What is an archaeological site? How are sites identified? (Images, pp.7-33)

How are sites examined?: trowels, screens, shovels, and squares

What is context?: stratigraphy and archaeological association

EXERCISE 3 (CAR ANALYSIS) DUE  FEBRUARY 6

February 11, 13

What do archaeologists find?: bones, pottery, stone tools, art, space, and other artifacts

How are artifacts and sites dated?: relative and absolute dating (Images, pp.48-49, 144-146)

February 18, 20

What is evolution? Science and narrative in evolutionary research

Archaeology of human originations: Where did humans come from? (Images, pp.35-47, 50-69)

February 25

Exam Study Session

EXAM 1 FEBRUARY 27

March 3, 5

European vacation: Homo erectus and migration from Africa (Images, pp.71-103)

SPRING BREAK MARCH 10-14

EXERCISE 4 (SERIATION) DUE MARCH 19

March 17, 19

The history of Neanderthal archaeology: why did archaeologists assume Neanderthals were brutes? (Images, pp.105-129)

March 24, 26

Art, religion, and cosmology in the Paleolithic (Images, pp.130-141)

March 31, April 2

Migration to the New World: how? when? why? (Images, pp.147-159)

Paleoindians in the Americas: Clovis and Folsom cultures

April 7

Exam Study Session

EXAM 2 APRIL 9

April 14, 16

Social organization: hunters and gatherers, chiefdoms, and states

The Neolithic Revolution: sedentism, agriculture and the emergence of states in the Near East (Images, pp.197-263)

EXERCISE 5 (GARBAGE ANALYSIS) DUE  APRIL 21

April 21, 23

Otzi: the body of a Neolithic traveler (Images, pp.508-514)

Lindow Man: the life and death of a Celtic prince

April 28

The archaeology of us: garbology and the modern material world

FINAL EXAM WEDNESDAY APRIL 30 1:00-3:00

Last updated April 15, 2008