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: (HST-AS, SSC-AS) (HA-AG, SBA-AG)

Full details for ARKEO 1200 - Ancient Peoples and Places

Full details for ARKEO 2666 - Apocalypse!

These seminars offer an introduction to the humanities by exploring historical, cultural, social, and political themes. Students will explore themes in critical dialogue with a range of texts and media drawn from the arts, humanities, and/or humanistic social sciences. Guest speakers, including Cornell faculty and Society for the Humanities Fellows, will present from different disciplines and points of view. Students will make field trips to relevant local sites and visit Cornell special collections and archives. Students enrolled in these seminars will have the opportunity to participate in additional programming related to the annual focus theme of Cornell's Society for the Humanities and the Humanities Scholars Program for undergraduate humanities research.

Full details for ARKEO 2750 - Introduction to Humanities

Full details for ARKEO 2772 - Body and Spirit in Ancient Egypt

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 (tree-ring dating) and its applications in archaeology, art history, climate and environment through lab work and participation in ongoing research projects using ancient to modern wood samples from around the world. Supervised reading and laboratory/project work. Possibilities exists for summer fieldwork in the Mediterranean, Mexico, and New York State.

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

Full details for ARKEO 3090 - Introduction to Dendrochronology

This course uses artifacts, spaces, and texts to examine the emergence of the modern world in the 500-plus years since Columbus.  This is a distinctive sub-field of archaeology, not least because modern attitudes toward economic systems, race relations, and gender roles emerged during this period.  We will read classic and contemporary texts to unearth the physical histories of contemporary ideas, including coverage of the archaeologies of capitalism, colonialism, gender relations, the African diaspora, ethnogenesis, and conflicts over the use of the past in the present.

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

Full details for ARKEO 3210 - Historical Archaeology: Capitalism, Colonialism, Race, Gender

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.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS)

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

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) (CA-AG, HA-AG, LA-AG)

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

This seminar provides a higher-level general introduction to, and survey of, contemporary theories, methods, and approaches in the archaeology of the Mediterranean world. Rather than focusing on a specific geographical sub-region or chronological period, this course examines and critically assesses the practice and distinctive character of Mediterranean archaeology more broadly.

Catalog Distribution: (HST-AS)

Full details for ARKEO 4254 - Themes in Mediterranean Archaeology

How can a small sculpture produce monumental effects? Recent shifts in metal-detecting and excavation practices have transformed our understanding of the scope of figural art after the Roman empire's collapse; the field is newly flooded with evidence of toys, puppets, and other tiny bodies. Working across the disciplines of anthropology, archaeology, art history, philosophy, and gender studies, this course investigates how figurines shaped space, ritual, and concepts of personhood in the early medieval world.

Full details for ARKEO 4706 - The Poetics of Embodiment: Figurines in the Early Middle Ages

Full details for ARKEO 4712 - Staffage: Figures for Scale, 1500-1850

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

This course uses artifacts, spaces, and texts to examine the emergence of the modern world in the 500-plus years since Columbus.  This is a distinctive sub-field of archaeology, not least because modern attitudes toward economic systems, race relations, and gender roles emerged during this period.  We will read classic and contemporary texts to unearth the physical histories of contemporary ideas, including coverage of the archaeologies of capitalism, colonialism, gender relations, the African diaspora, ethnogenesis, and conflicts over the use of the past in the present.

Full details for ARKEO 6210 - Historical Archaeology: Capitalism, Colonialism, Race, Gender

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

How can a small sculpture produce monumental effects? Recent shifts in metal-detecting and excavation practices have transformed our understanding of the scope of figural art after the Roman empire's collapse; the field is newly flooded with evidence of toys, puppets, and other tiny bodies. Working across the disciplines of anthropology, archaeology, art history, philosophy, and gender studies, this course investigates how figurines shaped space, ritual, and concepts of personhood in the early medieval world.

Full details for ARKEO 6706 - The Poetics of Embodiment: Figurines in the Early Middle Ages

Full details for ARKEO 6712 - Staffage: Figures for Scale, 1500-1850

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

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

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

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

Full details for ARKEO 8901 - Master's Thesis