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General Information

Course ID (CB01A and CB01B)
ANTHD003.
Course Title (CB02)
Introduction to Archaeology
Course Credit Status
Credit - Degree Applicable
Effective Term
Fall 2023
Course Description
Introduction to the field of archaeology within the discipline of anthropology including discussion of scientific methods, the history of archaeology, field and laboratory methods used in the analysis of archaeological data, and theories used to interpret the past. This course explores how archaeologists recover, analyze material and reconstruct ancient cultures and societies. Archaeological ethics and real-world issues concerning looting, collecting, preservation, and the role of indigenous peoples will be examined.
Faculty Requirements
Course Family
Not Applicable

Course Justification

This course is a major preparation requirement in the discipline of anthropology for at least one CSU or UC. It meets a general education requirement for °®¶¹´«Ã½, CSUGE and IGETC. Anthropology is subdivided into four subfields, and this course is an introduction to one of the subfields which is archaeology.

Foothill Equivalency

Does the course have a Foothill equivalent?
No
Foothill Course ID

Course Philosophy

Formerly Statement

Course Development Options

Basic Skill Status (CB08)
Course is not a basic skills course.
Grade Options
  • Letter Grade
  • Pass/No Pass
Repeat Limit
0

Transferability & Gen. Ed. Options

Transferability
Transferable to both UC and CSU
°®¶¹´«Ã½ GEArea(s)StatusDetails
2GDX°®¶¹´«Ã½ GE Area D - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved
CSU GEArea(s)StatusDetails
CGDYCSU GE Area D - Social SciencesApproved
IGETCArea(s)StatusDetails
IG4XIGETC Area 4 - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved
C-IDArea(s)StatusDetails
ANTHAnthropologyApprovedC-ID ANTH 150

Units and Hours

Summary

Minimum Credit Units
4.0
Maximum Credit Units
4.0

Weekly Student Hours

TypeIn ClassOut of Class
Lecture Hours4.08.0
Laboratory Hours0.00.0

Course Student Hours

Course Duration (Weeks)
12.0
Hours per unit divisor
36.0
Course In-Class (Contact) Hours
Lecture
48.0
Laboratory
0.0
Total
48.0
Course Out-of-Class Hours
Lecture
96.0
Laboratory
0.0
NA
0.0
Total
96.0

Prerequisite(s)

Corequisite(s)

Advisory(ies)

EWRT D001A or EWRT D01AH or ESL D005.

Limitation(s) on Enrollment

Entrance Skill(s)

General Course Statement(s)

(See general education pages for the requirements this course meets.)

Methods of Instruction

Lecture and multimedia aids

Discussion of assigned reading

Field observation and field trips

Guest speakers

Collaborative learning and small group exercises

Collaborative projects

Laboratory and field research experience which involve students in formal exercises of data collection, analysis and interpretation

Discussion and problem solving performed in class

In-class exploration of Internet and digital sites

Extended research projects resulting in production of a final paper

Quiz and examination review performed in class

Assignments

  1. Verbal
    1. Small group discussion of course content
    2. Individual and/or small group presentations on selected topics of course material
    3. In-class debates on topical controversies, at instructor's option
    4. Buddy system to help self-teach classifications, computer assignments, mapping, methods linking research questions to field work.
  2. Reading
    1. Assigned readings from text and those posted on catalyst, articles from the internet
    2. Library research for supplemental readings and research projects
    3. Internet research for journal articles as a support for laboratory and library research.
  3. Activities
    1. Application of typological principles to assembled materials such as but not limited to:
      1. lithics - mineral identification, measurements, organizing assemblage
      2. bone - animal identification and anatomy identification, measurements, organizing assemblage. Identification of cut marks as opposed to scrapes from natural circumstances.
      3. shell - type identification, salt water or fresh water, measurement, identification of human modification for cultural use such as beads, gorgets, bracelets, and pendants. Quantification of all types
      4. ceramic - type identification based on exterior slip, paint combinations. Body of the ceramics - temper type, mineral identification, measurements, rim size, type.
    2. Curation methods for storing and exhibiting artifacts.
  4. Written analytical research paper on course material selected by student and approved by instructor which will require them to use logic, critical thinking, problem solving skills, and collaborative learning.
  5. Fieldwork: Students will engage in fieldwork and go on field trips to acquire various skills and anthropological data.
  6. Preparation of exhibit material: Students will develop an educational exhibit to share findings with other students and communities about aspects of archaeology.

Methods of Evaluation

  1. Objective and/or essay examinations composed of concept-based questions that will require the student to demonstrate the ability to integrate and summarize information from textbook, class activities and lab exercises.
  2. Final examination composed of concept-based questions that will require the student to demonstrate the ability to integrate and summarize facts and translate them into fundamental units of knowledge
  3. Fieldwork based writing assignment: a preliminary proposal, outline of the project, detailed field notes; a final paper that contextualizes, presents and analyses field data. Completed project demonstrates the student's growth in synthesizing and analyzing archeological data.
  4. Individual and group presentations that demonstrate ability to present data and data analysis in a logical engaging oral and visual format.
  5. Writing assignments involving summary, synthesis, and critical analysis of data
  6. Display and exhibit material: Students will develop an educational exhibit to share with other students and communities aspects of archeological data and analysis. Assess the exhibits using questionnaires, surveys, interviews and or conversations with the attendees.

Essential Student Materials/Essential College Facilities

Essential Student Materials: 
  • None.
Essential College Facilities:
  • Artifacts, illustrations of archaeological sites and mapping, computers for storing field data, GPS-GIS data, and for statistical analysis
  • Programs for learning mapping techniques such as USGS topographic maps and GPS-GIS

Examples of Primary Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisherDate/EditionISBN
Fagan, Brian M. and Durrani, Nadia. Archaeology. 12th ed Routledge. 2016
Renfrew, Collin and Paul Bahn, Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice, 7th edition, Thames and Hudson, London. 2016
Kelly, Robert L. and Thomas, David H. Archaeology, 7th ed. Cengage, 2017
Parker, M.P and Angeloni, E. Annual Editions: Archaeology 12th ed. McGraw Hill. 2017
Price, D. and Feinman, G. Images of the Past. 7th ed. McGraw Hill Education. 2013

Examples of Supporting Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisher
Ashmore, Wendy and Robert J Sharer, Discovering Our Past: A Brief Introduction to Archaeology, (6th ed.), McGraw Hill: NY, 2013
Bahn, Paul (ed) "The Penguin Archaeology Guide Penguin": London; 2001
Dirlik, Arif (ed), Pedagogies of the Global, Paradigm Publishers, Boulder CO 2006
Dobres, Marcia-Anne and Christopher R. Hoffman, eds., The Social Dynamics of Technology: Practice, Politics and World Views, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. 1999
Dongoske, K.E., M. Aldenderfer and K. Koehner (eds), Working Together: Native Americans and Archaeologists, Society of American Archaeology, Washington D.C. 1998
Ellis, Linda (ed). Archaeological Method and theory: An Encyclopedia. Garland Publishing: New York, 2000.
Fagan, Brian "People of the Earth." Prentice Hall (14th ed.), 2014
Feder, Kenneth "Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries Mayfield": Mountain View, CA; 1998
Feinman, Gary and T. Douglas Price "Archaeology at the Millennium" Kluwer Academic: NY; 2001
Flannery, Kent and Joyce Marcus, (eds), The Creation of Inequality: How Our Prehistoric Ancestors Set the Stage for Monarchy, Slavery, and Empire, Harvard, 2012
Hester, T. R., H. J. Shafer, and K. L. Feder "Field Methods in Archaeology." (7th ed.) Mayfield: Mountain View, CA; 1997
Hodder, Ian. Archaeology Beyond Dialogue. University of Utah Press: Utah; 2004.
Jones, Terry L and Kathryn A. Klar (eds). California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity, AltaMira Press, 2010
Justice, Noel D., Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of California and the Great Basin, Indiana University Press, 2002
Larsen, Clark S. and P.L. Walker, "The Ethics or Bioarchaeology," in T.R. Turner (ed)., Biological Anthropology and Ethics: From Repatriation to Genetic Identity, State University of New York Press, Albany 2005, Pp 111-119
Lightfoot, Kent G., Indians, Missionaries, and Merchants: The Legacy of Colonial Encounters on California Frontiers, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2005.
Morato, Michael, California Archaeology, Coyote Press, 2004
O'Brien, Michael J. (eds) "Cultural Transmission in Archaeology: Issues and Case Studies". SAA Press, Washington D.C, 2008.
Praetzellis, Adrian. Dug to Death: A Tale of Archaeological Method and Mayhem. Altamira Press: Walnut Creek, California. 2003
Renfrew, C. (ed) "America Past, America Present: Genes and Languages in the Americas and Beyond" Mc Donald Institute for Archaeological Research: Cambridge; 2000
Scarre, Chris and Brian Fagan "Ancient Civilizations" Prentice hall, New Jersey; 2003
Schiffer, M. B. (ed.) "Archaeological Method and Theory." Vol. 5. University of Arizona Press: Tuscon; 1995
Sutton, MQ, Robert M. Yohe, Archaeology: The Science of the Human Past, 4rth ed. Prentice Hall, 2013
Thomas, D.H. "Archaeology: Down to Earth" Holt, Rinehart, Winston (3rd ed.), 2003
Zeder, Melinda A. et al. "Documenting Domestication: New Genetic and Archaeological Paradigms" Smithsonian Institution Press : Washington DC; 2002

Learning Outcomes and Objectives

Course Objectives

  • Recognize archaeology as part of the multifaceted discipline of anthropology and differentiate the American from Classic archaeological approach in interpreting the past
  • Evaluate the ongoing ethical issues in archaeology, such as indigenous peoples' heritage rights, cultural resource management, curation and conservation of artifacts , looting in the past and at present, locally, regionally and globally.
  • Examine the various methods employed by archaeologists studying the past, including field techniques and how these techniques and paradigms have changed through time.
  • Evaluate and differentiate between absolute and relative dating techniques, applying utility and limits of both categories to field and laboratory contexts to build chronologies.
  • Develop familiarity with differences between prehistoric site distribution patterns and historic settlements relative to adaptation to the local environmental conditions and trade networks available.
  • Examine archaeological analysis of prehistoric technologies (e.g. lithic, bone, shell, clay, wood, and fiber tool traditions of manufacturing, use- wear, and disposal). Assess their use in reconstruction of human interaction with environment, other social groups of people, and the degree to which social organization or ethnic identification can be identified.
  • Develop an understanding of site formation processes through the study of geological processes and through the reconstruction of past environments from analyses of pollen and phytolith sampling, soil and climate data, and zoological, marine, and botanical data.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of archaeological survey and excavation methods in the field, access archival information from prior field work and demonstrate a knowledge of using them appropriately.

CSLOs

  • Develop an understanding of the scientific method as it applies to archaeological investigation of past societies, lives and modes of production.

  • Develop an understanding of how theoretical paradigms are (and were) applied to the data acquired from archaeological sites as a frame of reference for interpretation of the human dynamics that took place intra-site and inter-site, by region and by mode of adaptation and production.

  • Demonstrate an ability to investigate the relationship between material culture and physical remains, including how to hypothesize and build a model of past behavior from archeological evidence.

Outline

  1. Recognize archaeology as part of the multifaceted discipline of anthropology and differentiate the American from Classic archaeological approach in interpreting the past
    1. Examine Old World (Classic) theoretical approach by establishing chronologies based on inscriptions, forms of writing and documents, and monumental architecture such as tombs, temples, palaces, arches and monuments with their associated artifacts and stratigraphy.
    2. Assess New World (American) theoretical approaches through theoretical paradigms that explain adaptation to an environment, site distribution, artifact distribution and variability, and climate change.
    3. Introduce theoretical concepts that guide research and interpretation such as cultural history, processual (Middle Range Theory), ethnoarchaeology, post-processual, Marxist, gender and agency views of the past.
    4. Examine levels of public interest in archaeology such as World Archaeological Congress, Society of American Archaeology, Society of California Archaeology and the Santa Clara Valley Archeological Society.
    5. Understand the place of museums in the curation process of archaeological artifacts for display and education of the general public.
  2. Evaluate the ongoing ethical issues in archaeology, such as indigenous peoples' heritage rights, cultural resource management, curation and conservation of artifacts , looting in the past and at present, locally, regionally and globally.
    1. Evaluate Native American assistance and cooperation, NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act), curation and final disposal of the artifacts recovered.
    2. Examine the preservation ethic and the importance of "context" in the archaeological record.
    3. Assess issues of looting archaeological sites and selling/collecting artifacts.
    4. Examine national and international ethical issues concerning archaeological data
    5. Evaluate Archaeology as a destructive process.
  3. Examine the various methods employed by archaeologists studying the past, including field techniques and how these techniques and paradigms have changed through time.
    1. Understand research design construction and modeling.
    2. Analyze archival research in public archives and government records for earlier reports of investigations conducted in the area of interest.
    3. Understand field techniques such as pre-excavation research, survey strategies, preparation for excavation through sampling, remote sensing, flotation, digital imaging, and GPS/GIS.
    4. Examine excavation techniques, soil sampling, strategies for determining statistical sampling and distribution of features and sites
    5. Evaluate Antiquarianism, Culture History, Processual archaeology with Middle Range Research, Post-processual Landscape archaeology and Agency, Cultural Ecology, Marxist archaeology, Gender Archaeology, Archaeology of the Mind, Historical Archaeology, Underwater Archaeology and Cultural Resource Management views discussed.
    6. Examine theoretical developments in archaeology and their major proponents(e.g. W.W. Taylor, Lewis Binford, Ian Hodder, Jane Buikstra, Mark Leone, Marcia-Ann Dobres, Margaret Conkey, Colin Renfrew, J. David Lewis-Williams, James Deetz, Noel Hume, William Rathje, David Hurst Thomas).
  4. Evaluate and differentiate between absolute and relative dating techniques, applying utility and limits of both categories to field and laboratory contexts to build chronologies.
    1. Examine relative dating techniques (e.g., seriation and battleship curves, association, Stratigraphy).
    2. Apply absolute dating techniques (e.g., radiocarbon, potassium-argon, dendrochronology, thermoluminescence, obsidian hydration, electron pin resonance)to archeological data.
    3. Assess the use of these dating techniques based on the materials they can date, time span for which each is applicable, and the limitations of each method.
  5. Develop familiarity with differences between prehistoric site distribution patterns and historic settlements relative to adaptation to the local environmental conditions and trade networks available.
    1. Examine the adaptations of settlements to surrounding environment and resources available within the landscape.
    2. Defining and recognizing occupation by a household, cultural communities, and activity areas and economic relationships within and across settlements.
    3. Assess methods for determining changes in occupation through time and archaeological interpretation of these changes relative to putative cultures that they represent.
    4. Analyze site taphonomy and deposition events leading to condition of site at the time of study.
    5. Evaluate human use of the landscape using GIS, understanding hydrolic, soil, climate, flora and fauna distribution on the map.
  6. Examine archaeological analysis of prehistoric technologies (e.g. lithic, bone, shell, clay, wood, and fiber tool traditions of manufacturing, use- wear, and disposal). Assess their use in reconstruction of human interaction with environment, other social groups of people, and the degree to which social organization or ethnic identification can be identified.
    1. Identify the typologies of tool traditions (e.g., stone, bone, shell, ceramic). classification of prehistoric artifacts, Pecos conference and material identification.
    2. Analyzing prehistoric manufacturing techniques and appreciating the ways in which experimental archaeology (or Middle Range Theory) can be used to re-create the complexity of past technologies
    3. Examine wear pattern, residue analysis and material sourcing of artifacts in order to explain modes of production and adaptation to the environment.
    4. Evaluate prehistoric art in relation to its association with nearby human occupation; its social significance and mnemonic function in the studies of social complexity.
  7. Develop an understanding of site formation processes through the study of geological processes and through the reconstruction of past environments from analyses of pollen and phytolith sampling, soil and climate data, and zoological, marine, and botanical data.
    1. Understand botanical analysis of archeological data including palynology and phytolith analysis, plant identification from seeds and charcoal acquired from excavation or coring.
    2. Examine geological site formation processes such as erosion or N-transformation by wind blowing, water eroding or running, or gravity pulling roof-fall, spalling in rock shelters or artifacts sliding downhill. Topography, depositional layers and soil sample analysis are additional
    3. Analyze zooarchaeological data to reconstruct human hunting/butchering strategies using animal bones and discarded shells.
    4. Identify cultural formation processes (C-transformations) through building, burying, domestication of animals and plants, quarrying, and other types of modification of an environment to serve economic ends.
  8. Demonstrate an understanding of archaeological survey and excavation methods in the field, access archival information from prior field work and demonstrate a knowledge of using them appropriately.
    1. Discuss research accomplished in the area of study that the field work will cover.
    2. Understand the practical application and use of field documents, survey, testing, and/or excavation methods and the proper use of tools such as line level, screening, bagging with correct identification, compass, datum point, and mapping.
    3. Analyze the ecofacts and artifacts collected from the field and site reconstruction in the laboratory; and how the botanical and zoological remains, geological data link human behavior to the activities that produced the site.
    4. Proper curation of artifacts based on their materials and site preservation. Sensitive presentation of materials to the public to be educational.
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