Courses

A broad introduction to archaeology-the study of material remains to answer questions about the human past. Case studies highlight the variability of ancient societies and illustrate the varied methods and interpretive frameworks archaeologists use to reconstruct them. This course can serve as a platform for both archaeology and anthropology undergraduate majors.

Full details for ARKEO 1200 - Ancient Peoples and Places

This introductory course surveys archaeology's contributions to the study of American Indian cultural diversity and change in North America north of Mexico. Lectures and readings will examine topics ranging from the debate over when the continent was first inhabited to present-day conflicts between Native Americans and archaeologists over excavation and the interpretation of the past. We will review important archaeological sites such as Chaco Canyon, Cahokia, Lamoka Lake, and the Little Bighorn battlefield. A principal focus will be on major transformations in lifeways such as the adoption of agriculture, the development of political-economic hierarchies, and the disruptions that accompanied the arrival of Europeans to the continent.

Full details for ARKEO 2235 - Archaeology of North American Indians

The history of humankind is also a history of health and disease; the rise of agricultural societies, ancient cities, and colonial empires had wide-ranging effects on diet and nutrition, the spread of infectious diseases, and occurrence of other health conditions. This history has also been shaped by complex interactions between environment, technology, and society. Using archaeological, environmental, textual, and skeletal evidence, we will survey major epidemiological transitions from the Paleolithic to the age of European conquest. We will also examine diverse cultural experiences of health, illness, and the body. How do medical practices from "pre-modern" societies, such as the medieval Islamic world and the Inca Empire, challenge dominant narratives of scientific development? The implications of past health patterns for modern-day communities will also be explored.

Full details for ARKEO 2245 - Health and Disease in the Ancient World

The emergence of what has come to be called "civilization" marks a profound transformation in human culture, society, politics, economy, and psychology. The first civlizations have been variously described as the point of origin for artistic achievement and the genesis of social struggle, a victory over the state of nature and the source of human neurosis, the genealogical root of social inequality and the foundation for the rule of law. In this course we will examine the rise and fall of ancient "civilizations" at the same time as we interrogate the rise and fall of the concept of civilization itself in modern historical thought. Our primary focus will be a comparative archaeological examination of five pivotal case studies of early civilization: Mesopotamia (Sumer), Egypt, China, the Indus Valley, and the Maya lowlands. Alongside our explorations of these early civilizations, we will undertake a critical examination of current key issues in political anthropology, including the nature of kingship, the origins of cities, and the role of coercion in the formation of early polities. The course will examine the spread of "civilization", including the development of "secondary states", early empires, and the first world systems. We will conclude the class wth an examination of the concept of civilization itself, its historical roots and its current prominence in geopolitical thinking and policy making. The goal of the class is to provide students with an understanding of the nature of the world's first civilizations and the potency of their contemporary legacy.

Full details for ARKEO 2430 - The Rise and Fall of Civilization

Urban archaeologists study American Indian, colonial, and 19th-century sties that now lie within the boundaries of modern cities. The course explores how urban centers evolve, what lies beneath today's cities, and how various cultures have altered the urban landscape. Students participate in a local, historical archaeological excavation.

Full details for ARKEO 2610 - Fieldwork in Urban Archaeology

Various American Indian civilizations and European cultures have altered the landscape to meet the needs of their cultures. Students learn how to interpret the Euro-American landscapes of a buried village excavated by Cornell students.  The students will identify and date artifacts, stud soil samples, and create site maps.

Full details for ARKEO 2620 - Laboratory in Landscape Archaeology

A survey of the history and development of ships and seafaring as revealed by shipwrecks, boat burials, texts, art, and other evidence. The role of nautical technology and seafaring among the maritime peoples of the ancient Mediterranean world-Canaanites, Minoans, Mycenaeans, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans-and the riverine cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt is addressed. The survey stretches from the earliest evidence for Mediterranean seafaring around 10,000 bce to the first transatlantic voyages in the 15th century, including Arab, Viking, and European explorers, and the birth of modern capitalism in the Italian Maritime Republics. Along the way, economics, war, exploration, cult, life at sea, and colonization are discussed.

Full details for ARKEO 2661 - Ancient Ships and Seafaring: Introduction to Nautical Archaeology

What is the origin of the Olympic games? Why are the most famous Greek vases found in Italy? What was the "worlds' first computer" used for? What can a brick tell us about still standing Roman buildings? This course on the art and archaeology of ancient Greece and Rome will address all these questions. Covering the time span from the Bronze Age (3rd millennium BCE) to the time of Constantine the Great (4th century CE), the class will focus on one object or monument per lecture and how it can be considered exemplary for its time. Students learn about and practice different ways of how to look at and analyze material evidence.

Full details for ARKEO 2700 - Introduction to the Classical World in 24 Objects

Undergraduate students pursue topics of particular interest under the guidance of a faculty member.

Full details for ARKEO 3000 - Undergraduate Independent Study in Archaeology and Related Fields

Introduction and training in dendrochronology and its application to archaeology, art history, and environment through participation in a research project dating ancient to modern tree-ring samples especially from the Mediterranean. Supervised reading and laboratory/project work. A possibility exists for summer fieldwork in the Mediterranean.

Full details for ARKEO 3090 - Introduction to Dendrochronology

This course introduces students to the arts of the ancient Americas from circa 2000 BC to the Spanish invasions of the 15th and 16th centuries. The inhabitants of the Americas produced outstanding works of art and architecture that showcased their diverse aesthetic contributions.  This course covers the arts of indigenous Mesoamerica (Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras), the Caribbean (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and the Greater and Lesser Antilles), and Andean South America (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile).  Students will become familiar with the history, archaeology, and visual arts of the earliest cultures that populated these regions up through the Inca, Aztec, and Maya cultures that encountered the Spaniards.  This course will also explore the legacies of pre-Columbian art in colonial, modern, and contemporary Latin America.

Full details for ARKEO 3566 - Art and Architecture of the Pre-Columbian Americas

This course examines the art and architecture of the Inca Empire (ca. 1438-1532), the largest indigenous empire in the Americas prior to the Spanish conquest. The first half of the course explores architecture, monuments, and portable arts from Cuzco, the capital of the empire, as well as smaller coastal and highland cities, to understand the complexities of Inca imperial aesthetics and their role in the administration of nearly 10 million inhabitants along the Andes mountain chain of South America. The second half of the course examines artistic production in modern-day Peru, Bolivia, and Chile during the period of Spanish colonial rule (1532-1824). Special attention will be given to the visual codification of collective memories of the Incas during the post-conquest era.

Full details for ARKEO 4162 - The Inca Empire and its Colonial Legacies

This course is an exploration of Maya understandings of their own history as it is reflected in ancient texts. We will begin by looking at episodes in Colonial and recent history to illustrate some of the ways Maya thinking about history may differ from more familiar genres. We will then review basic aspects of precolumbian Maya writing, but we will focus mainly on analyzing texts from one or more Classic period Maya cities.

Full details for ARKEO 4216 - Maya History

Critical approaches to embodiment compel bioarchaeologists to consider how social norms and institutional inequalities are enacted and materialized through the body. This course contributes a deep archaeological perspective on the lived experience of inequality and the historically contingent nature of sexuality, gender, and violence. Drawing upon the study of human skeletons, social theory, and a rich comparative literature in cultural anthropology, we will "put flesh on the bones" and explore topics such as body modification and mutilation; masculinity and performative violence; sexuality and 'third gender'; and sickness and suffering in past societies. We will not only consider privilege and marginalization in lived experience, but also in death, examining how unequal social relationships are reproduced when the dead body is colonized as an object of study.

Full details for ARKEO 4227 - Embodiment of Inequality: A Bioarchaeological Perspective

Fall 18 topic: Archaeology of the Roman Provinces: Art and Archaeology of the Roman provinces as a 'sub-field' of Roman Archaeology has only recently gained traction in US academia, whereas in many European countries it still provides master narratives for national(ist) histories. Yet, in the wake of post-colonialism, the Roman provinces have proven fertile ground for more critical and theoretically informed archaeologies and art histories. What still needs more attention is the connectivity across provinces. The seminar therefore adopts a deliberately decentralized perspective. In looking at landscapes; infra-structure; production sites; military camps; the country side; urban centers; the material culture of domestic life and of the funerary realm, of religion, of gender and ethnicity we will emphasize interaction beyond or evading Rome. Rather than offering a systematic overview, the seminar proposes several lines of inquiry. Their main purpose is to interrogate the validity of several boundaries (geographical, methodological, theoretical, historiographical and institutional) that continue to define the field.

Full details for ARKEO 4233 - Greek and Roman Art and Archaeology

This is a hands-on laboratory course in zooarchaeological method: the study of animal bones from archaeological sites. It is designed to provide students with a basic grounding in identification of body part and taxon, aging and sexing, pathologies, taphonomy, and human modification. We will deal only with mammals larger than squirrels. While we will work on animal bones from prehistoric Europe, most of these skills are easily transferable to the fauna of other areas, especially North America. This is an intensive course that emphasizes laboratory skills in a realistic setting. You will analyze an assemblage of actual archaeological bones. It is highly recommended that students also take the course in Zooarchaeological Interpretation (ANTHR 4264/ARKEO 4264) offered in the spring.

Full details for ARKEO 4263 - Zooarchaeological Method

This seminar uses archaeology to examine engagements between settlers and indigenous peoples throughout world history. Archaeology provides a perspective on settler-indigenous encounters that both supplements and challenges conventional models.  We will assess the strengths and weaknesses of various theories of cultural engagement, examine methodologies, and explore a series of archaeological case studies, using examples from both the ancient world and the European expansion over the past 600 years. The seminar provides a comparative perspective on indigenous-colonial relationships, in particular exploring the hard-fought spaces of relative autonomy created and sustained by indigenous peoples. 

Full details for ARKEO 4272 - Archaeology of Colonialism and Cultural Entanglement

Independent work under the close guidance of a faculty member.

Full details for ARKEO 4981 - Honors Thesis Research

The student, under faculty direction, will prepare a senior thesis.

Full details for ARKEO 4982 - Honors Thesis Write-Up

Graduate students pursue advanced topics of particular interest under the guidance of a faculty member(s).

Full details for ARKEO 6000 - Graduate Independent Study in Archaeology

This course engages students in Archaeology and related fields in a semester-long discussion of the craft of archaeology with the faculty of the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies. Each week, a different faculty member will moderate a conversation on the professional skills vital to the modern practice of archaeological research and the tools key to professionalization. Seminar topics include developing a research project and working with museum collections to matters of pedagogy and career development.

Full details for ARKEO 6100 - The Craft of Archaeology

This course examines the art and architecture of the Inca Empire (ca. 1438-1532), the largest indigenous empire in the Americas prior to the Spanish conquest. The first half of the course explores architecture, monuments, and portable arts from Cuzco, the capital of the empire, as well as smaller coastal and highland cities, to understand the complexities of Inca imperial aesthetics and their role in the administration of nearly 10 million inhabitants along the Andes mountain chain of South America. The second half of the course examines artistic production in modern-day Peru, Bolivia, and Chile during the period of Spanish colonial rule (1532-1824). Special attention will be given to the visual codification of collective memories of the Incas during the post-conquest era.

Full details for ARKEO 6162 - The Inca Empire and its Colonial Legacies

Topics rotate each semester.  Fall 18 topic: Archaeology of the Roman Provincs.

Full details for ARKEO 6233 - Greek and Roman Art and Archaeology

This course is an exploration of Maya understandings of their own history as it is reflected in ancient texts. We will begin by looking at episodes in Colonial and recent history to illustrate some of the ways Maya thinking about history may differ from more familiar genres. We will then review basic aspects of precolumbian Maya writing, but we will focus mainly on analyzing texts from one or more Classic period Maya cities.

Full details for ARKEO 6256 - Maya History

This course surveys recent developments and current debates in archaeological theory.  This includes the processual/postprocessual debate and contrasts between scientific and humanistic approaches more generally, as well as other approaches (Marxist, feminist, etc.)  We will examine epistemological issues (how do we know about the past?), and will explore how different theoretical approaches have shaped research on key archaeological topics.  We will also discuss ethical concerns and engagement with groups outside archaeology with interests in the past.

Full details for ARKEO 6267 - Contemporary Archaeological Theory

This course explores recent efforts to theorize the materiality of human social, political, and cultural life. We will draw broadly from contemporary works in archaeology, socio-cultural anthropology, art, social thought, media studies, and literary theory to piece together a sense of the conceptual possibilities afforded by analytical engagement with the world of things. We will take the historical dynamics of things as our central concern, navigating between classic and contemporary debates over the social location, physical constitution, and agency of object worlds. Along the way we will take in contemporary arguments for objects as constitutive elements of mind, affect, and order. The goal of the course is to juxtapose the experience, perception, and imagination of objects in order to address critical gaps in our understanding of social life past, present, and future. As the second course in a sequence focused on material theory, this seminar is part of a wider effort to train students to be astute analysts of the material world.

Full details for ARKEO 6402 - Material Theory II: Assemblage & Object

An introduction to the field of Dendrochronology and associated topics with an emphasis on their applications in the field of archaeology and related heritage-buildings fields. Course aimed at graduate level with a focus on critique of scholarship in the field and work on a project as part of the course.

Full details for ARKEO 6755 - Archaeological Dendrochronology

Critical approaches to embodiment compel bioarchaeologists to consider how social norms and institutional inequalities are enacted and materialized through the body. This course contributes a deep archaeological perspective on the lived experience of inequality and the historically contingent nature of sexuality, gender, and violence. Drawing upon the study of human skeletons, social theory, and a rich comparative literature in cultural anthropology, we will "put flesh on the bones" and explore topics such as body modification and mutilation; masculinity and performative violence; sexuality and 'third gender'; and sickness and suffering in past societies. We will not only consider privilege and marginalization in lived experience, but also in death, examining how unequal social relationships are reproduced when the dead body is colonized as an object of study.

Full details for ARKEO 7227 - Embodiment of Inequality: A Bioarchaeological Perspective

This is a hands-on laboratory course in zooarchaeological method: the study of animal bones from archaeological sites.  It is designed to provide students with a basic grounding in identification of body part and taxon, aging and sexing, pathologies, taphonomy, and human modification.  The course will deal only with mammals larger than squirrels.  While students will work on animal bones from prehistoric Europe, most of these skills are easily transferable to the fauna of other areas, especially North America.  This is an intensive course that emphasizes laboratory skills in a realistic setting.  Students will analyze an assemblage of actual archaeological bones.  It is highly recommended that students also take the course in Zooarchaeological Interpretation (ANTHR 7264/ARKEO 7264) offered in the spring.

Full details for ARKEO 7263 - Zooarchaeological Method

This seminar uses archaeology to examine engagements between settlers and indigenous peoples throughout world history. Archaeology provides a perspective on settler-indigenous encounters that both supplements and challenges conventional models.  We will assess the strengths and weaknesses of various theories of cultural engagement, examine methodologies, and explore a series of archaeological case studies, using examples from both the ancient world and the European expansion over the past 600 years. The seminar provides a comparative perspective on indigenous-colonial relationships, in particular exploring the hard-fought spaces of relative autonomy created and sustained by indigenous peoples. 

Full details for ARKEO 7272 - Archaeology of Colonialism and Cultural Entanglement

Students, working individually with faculty member(s), prepare a master's thesis in archaeology.

Full details for ARKEO 8901 - Master's Thesis