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.

Catalog Distribution: (HA-AS, HST-AS, SSC-AS)

Full details for ARKEO 1200 - Ancient Peoples and Places

This introductory course surveys the archaeology of the ancient Greek and Roman world. Each week, we will explore a different archaeological discovery that transformed scholars' understanding of the ancient world. From early excavations at sites such as Pompeii and Troy, to modern field projects across the Mediterranean, we will discover the rich cultures of ancient Greece and Rome while also exploring the history, methods, and major intellectual goals of archaeology.

Catalog Distribution: (HA-AS, HST-AS)

Full details for ARKEO 1702 - Great Discoveries in Greek and Roman Archaeology

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.

Catalog Distribution: (HA-AS, HST-AS, SCD-AS)

Full details for ARKEO 2235 - Archaeology of Indigenous North America

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.

Catalog Distribution: (HA-AS, HST-AS, SCD-AS)

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

The course surveys the history and culture of pharaonic Egypt from its prehistoric origins down to the early first millennium bce. Within a chronological framework, the following themes or topics will be considered: the development of the Egyptian state (monarchy, administration, ideology), social organization (class, gender and family, slavery), economic factors, and empire and international relations.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS, HA-AS, HST-AS)

Full details for ARKEO 2668 - Ancient Egyptian Civilization

This course offers a survey of the art and culture of China from the Neolithic period to the twenty-first century to students who have no previous background in Chinese studies. The course begins with an inquiry into the meaning of national boundaries and the controversial definition of the Han Chinese people, which will help us understand and define the scope of Chinese culture. Pre-dynastic (or prehistoric) Chinese culture will be presented based both on legends about the origins of the Chinese and on scientifically excavated artifacts. Art of the dynastic periods will be presented in light of contemporaneous social, political, geographical, philosophical and religious contexts. This course emphasizes hands-on experience using the Chinese art collection at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art for teaching and assignments. In addition to regular sections conducted in the museum, students are strongly encouraged to visit the museum often to appreciate and study artworks directly.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS, HST-AS, LA-AS)

Full details for ARKEO 2800 - Introduction to the Arts of China

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

This course takes an interdisciplinary, multi-scalar approach to the study and conceptualization of plantations and the everyday experiences of people who live and work within plantation landscapes. We consider the implications of plantations as a space that encapsulates the legacies of settler colonialism, labor exploitation, migration, systemic racism, monoculture ecologies, industrialism, agrarian lifeways, and capitalism, and the ways in which plantation systems disrupted and displaced local relationalities. We will bring together the works of archaeologists and ethnographers who have been examining plantations at various theoretical and methodological scales, but who often talk past each other within anthropology and adjacent disciplines.

Catalog Distribution: (CA-AS, SCD-AS, SSC-AS)

Full details for ARKEO 4152 - Plantations

Community-engaged archaeology brings together knowledgeable communities located within and beyond academic institutions who collaborate to produce higher-quality accounts of the past. In this course, students will build their archaeological fieldwork and laboratory skills while contributing to strong university-community relationships in the local area. Drawing on historical documents, previous scholarship, expert collaborators, and archaeological investigation, students in this course contribute to the understanding of regional sites and landmarks. The topic for Fall 2022 addresses the Underground Railroad through a partnership between Ithaca's historic St. James AME Church, the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies, and local schools. Students in this course will study archaeological evidence related to the everyday experiences of people who formed part of a congregation active in the Underground Railroad during the early- to mid-19th century.

Catalog Distribution: (HA-AS, HST-AS)

Full details for ARKEO 4200 - Field Methods in Community-Engaged Archaeology

What is authenticity and why does it matter? Connoisseurship—the expertise required to make discerning judgments—involves assessments of quality,authenticity, historical and cultural significance, and many other issues. This course focuses on connoisseurship in the fine arts, archaeology, and ethnography in both academic contexts and the art world. Emphasis is on developing a nuanced understanding of authentication, at the core of the art market and an important determinant of relevant data for academic art historians and archaeologists. Topics include the role of authenticity in assigning value; looting and faking in relation to antiquities markets; technical analysis and forgery detection.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS, HST-AS, LA-AS)

Full details for ARKEO 4231 - Fakes and the Authentic: Connoisseurship, Value, and Judgement

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.

Catalog Distribution: (BIO-AS, HST-AS, PBSS-AS)

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. 

Catalog Distribution: (HA-AS, HST-AS, SSC-AS)

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 faculty member(s).

Full details for ARKEO 6000 - Graduate Independent Study in Archaeology

Introduction to the theory, history, and practice of Historic Preservation Planning in America, with an emphasis on understanding the development and implementation of a preservation project. The course discusses projects ranging in scale and character from individual buildings to districts to cultural landscapes; as well as topics such as preservation economics, government regulations, significance and authenticity, and the politics of identifying and conserving cultural and natural resources.

Full details for ARKEO 6620 - Perspectives on Preservation

Archaeology studies the past through its material remains. In doing so, it builds on wide-ranging theories and methods to develop its own disciplinary toolbox. This graduate seminar explores this toolbox, treating a topic of broad theoretical and/or methodological interest such as emerging topics in archaeological thought, the history of archaeological theory, key archaeological methods, themes that tie archaeology to the wider domain of the humanities and social sciences, or some combination of the above. The seminar is taught by various members of the Archaeology faculty, each of whom offers their own version of the seminar. The seminar is required for incoming CIAMS M.A. students, and needed for CIAMS membership for Ph.D. students.

Full details for ARKEO 7000 - CIAMS Core Seminar in Archaeological Theory and Method

This course takes an interdisciplinary, multi-scalar approach to the study and conceptualization of plantations and the everyday experiences of people who live and work within plantation landscapes. We consider the implications of plantations as a space that encapsulates the legacies of settler colonialism, labor exploitation, migration, systemic racism, monoculture ecologies, industrialism, agrarian lifeways, and capitalism, and the ways in which plantation systems disrupted and displaced local relationalities. We will bring together the works of archaeologists and ethnographers who have been examining plantations at various theoretical and methodological scales, but who often talk past each other within anthropology and adjacent disciplines.

Full details for ARKEO 7152 - Plantations

Community-engaged archaeology brings together knowledgeable communities located within and beyond academic institutions who collaborate to produce higher-quality accounts of the past. In this course, students will build their archaeological fieldwork and laboratory skills while contributing to strong university-community relationships in the local area. Drawing on historical documents, previous scholarship, expert collaborators, and archaeological investigation, students in this course contribute to the understanding of regional sites and landmarks. The topic for Fall 2022 addresses the Underground Railroad through a partnership between Ithaca's historic St. James AME Church, the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies, and local schools. Students in this course will study archaeological evidence related to the everyday experiences of people who formed part of a congregation active in the Underground Railroad during the early- to mid-19th century.

Full details for ARKEO 7200 - Field Methods in Community-Engaged Archaeology

What is authenticity and why does it matter? Connoisseurship—the expertise required to make discerning judgments—involves assessments of quality,authenticity, historical and cultural significance, and many other issues. This course focuses on connoisseurship in the fine arts, archaeology, and ethnography in both academic contexts and the art world. Emphasis is on developing a nuanced understanding of authentication, at the core of the art market and an important determinant of relevant data for academic art historians and archaeologists. Topics include the role of authenticity in assigning value; looting and faking in relation to antiquities markets; technical analysis and forgery detection.

Full details for ARKEO 7231 - Fakes and the Authentic: Connoisseurship, Value, and Judgement

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

What is "religion," and how can we use material culture to investigate ancient beliefs and rituals? This course (1) explores major themes and problems in the archaeology of ancient Greek religion, and (2) compares and critiques selected theoretical and methodological approaches to the "archaeology of cult" more generally. Students will consider and analyze ritual artifacts, cult sites, and other aspects of religious material culture, as well as primary textual sources (in translation). 

Full details for ARKEO 7758 - Archaeology of Greek Religion: Theory, Methods, and Practice

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

Full details for ARKEO 8901 - Master's Thesis