This course provides an introduction to how archaeology is used to tell stories about the past, especially that part of the human past beyond the scope of written history. Readings, lectures, and section discussions and lab activities explore the practical and social dimensions of archaeology. We study how American archaeology developed historically as a discipline, and the contrast between popular images of archaeology and its real social and political context today. We then explore how archaeologists gather data and how they reconstruct social behavior and cultural meaning from material remains. (ARKEO-COS)

Full details for ARKEO 1200 - Introduction to Archaeology

Throughout most of the human career, people survived by hunting and gathering wild foods. The advent of food production is one of the most profound changes in history and prehistory. This course examines the current evidence for the appearance and spread of agriculture - plant and animal domestication - around the world. We will consider definitions of agriculture and domestication, the conditions under which it arises, the consequences for those who adopt it, and why it has spread over most of the world. (ARKEO-COS)

Full details for ARKEO 2201 - Early Agriculture

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 Indigenous North America

In this class, students are introduced to the broad scope of the city of Jerusalem’s political and religious history from its origins until today. Some topics the class covers include: the Jebusite origins of the city; the rise of kings David and Solomon; the Second Temple and Temple Mount; the life of Jesus in and around Jerusalem; Byzantine Jerusalem; the life of Muhammad in Jerusalem; the Crusades; the Ottoman era; archaeological sites; and the status of Jerusalem today. In addition to reading several broad accounts of the history of the city, students perform close readings of a range of primary sources, from the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, the Qur’an, travelogues, pilgrimage narratives, geographers, letters, poetry and short stories, archaeological studies, among many others. Throughout the semester, students will discuss questions about identity-formation, sacred space, memory, myth, and pilgrimage.

Full details for ARKEO 2345 - Jerusalem: The Holy City

Why did the ancient Egyptians build pyramids, and why did they stop building them? Why did they depict things in ways that seem stiff and unnatural? Is ancient Egyptian art ?art?? These are some of the questions explored in this course, which spans late prehistory (c. 3500 BCE) to the Roman period (early centuries CE). We will take a thematic approach, progressing chronologically and introducing key genres where appropriate. First, we will explore central issues of symbolism, landscape, and materials through the architecture and furnishings of temples and royal tombs. Next come the social worlds of art. Can we speak of artists? How were gender, class, and ethnicity represented? Finally, we will survey the legacies of Egyptian visual culture in antiquity and the modern West. (ARKEO-RMNE)

Full details for ARKEO 2433 - The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt

This course examines the production and exchange of wine, beer, coffee and tea, and the social and ideological dynamics involved in their consumption. We start in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and end with tea and coffee in the Arab and Ottoman worlds. Archaeological and textual evidence will be used throughout to show the centrality of drinking in daily, ritual and political life. (ARKEO-RMNE)

Full details for ARKEO 2522 - Drinking through the Ages: Intoxicating Beverages in Near Eastern and World History

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. (ARKEO-RMNE)

Full details for ARKEO 2668 - Ancient Egyptian Civilization

An introduction to the story of how human history from the earliest times through to the recent period interrelates with changing climate conditions on Earth. The course explores the whole expanse of human history, but concentrates on the most recent 15,000 years through to the Little Ice Age (14th-19th centuries AD). Evidence from science, archaeology and history are brought together to assess how climate has shaped the human story. (ARKEO-COS)

Full details for ARKEO 2729 - Climate, Archaeology and History

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. (ASIAN-SC)

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

An introduction to the history and theory of writing systems from cuneiform to the alphabet, historical and new writing media, and the complex relationship of writing technologies to human language and culture. Through hands-on activities and collaborative work, students will explore the shifting definitions of writing and the diverse ways in which cultures through time have developed and used writing systems. We will also investigate the traditional divisions of oral vs. written and consider how digital technologies have affected how we use and think about writing in encoding systems from Morse code to emoji. (ARKEO-COS)

Full details for ARKEO 2812 - Hieroglyphs to HTML: History of Writing

This introductory course explores the roles of amulets, love potions, curse tablets, and many other magical practices in ancient Greek and Roman societies. In this course, you will learn how to invoke the powers of Abrasax, become successful and famous, get people to fall desperately in love with you, and cast horrible curses on your enemies! We will also examine a range of ancient and modern approaches to magic as a concept: what exactly do we mean by magic, and how does it relate to other spheres of activity, like religion, science, and philosophy? When people (in ancient times or today) label the activities of others as magic, what are the social and political consequences of that act? As we investigate the practices that Greeks and Romans considered magical, we will also explore what those practices can teach us about many other aspects of life in the past, such as social class, gender, religion, and ethnic and cultural identity. (ARKEO-RMNE)

Full details for ARKEO 2846 - Magic and Witchcraft in the Greco-Roman World

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 is a survey of the rise and decline of civilizations in the Andean region of western South America before the European invasion. We begin with a consideration of Andean environments and an overview of some of the common features of Andean societies, then examine the organization and interrelationships of social relations, economic patterns, political institutions, and ecology in the best understood precolumbian society in the Andes, the invasion-period Inka. We will then look at Andean prehistory in chronological sequence, with an eye to recognizing the emergence of these patterns in pre-Inka material remains. We will also consider issues of general theoretical interest - the use of invasion-period texts and ethnographic information to interpret precolumbian societies, the emergence of settled farming life, the development of cities and states - in comparative perspective. (ARKEO-RLAC)

Full details for ARKEO 3256 - Ancient Civilizations of the Andes

Museums are places where academic research meets the public. Though they remain among the most trusted types of institutions, they have increasingly come under critical scrutiny. Questions around museums' perceived neutrality, the ethics of collecting, displaying, and interpreting cultural heritage, and whether they are welcoming to all audiences have made headlines and led to new developing practices. This class offers an introduction to the field of museum studies, pairing interactive lectures on museum history and theory with site visits to local and campus museums where students will learn from a variety of professionals about practical challenges. (ARKEO-TM)

Full details for ARKEO 3490 - Museum Studies: Histories, Problems, and Practices

The purpose of the course is to place the Bible within the context of a larger ancient world that can be explored by systematic excavation of physical remains. Students will become familiar with archaeological excavations and finds from ancient Syria-Palestine from 10,000 bce to 586 bce. We will explore this archaeological evidence on its own terms, taking into consideration factors such as archaeological method and the interpretive frameworks in which the excavators themselves work, as well as the implications of this body of evidence for understanding the complexity and diversity of biblical Israel. (ARKEO-RMNE)

Full details for ARKEO 3588 - Archaeology and the Bible

(ARKEO-COS, ARKEO-RMNE)

Full details for ARKEO 3738 - Identity in the Ancient World

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 examine ritual artifacts, cult sites, and other aspects of religious material culture, as well as primary textual sources (in translation). (ARKEO-RMNE, ARKEO-TM)

Full details for ARKEO 3839 - Archaeology of Ancient Greek Religion

This course explores the methods and materials used by historical archaeologists to interpret historic sites and their artifact assemblages. It is organized around two primary themes: 1) the analysis of commonly recovered artifact types from historic sites, and 2) the identification and interpretation of archaeological patterns on historic sites over time and space. The first half of the course will introduce students to techniques used to identify artifacts such as ceramics, bottle glass, nails, pipes, and other artifacts. In the second half of the course, students will learn quantitative approaches to identify and interpret archaeological patterns over time and space.

Full details for ARKEO 4205 - Materials and Methods in Historical 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. (ARKEO-RLAC)

Full details for ARKEO 4216 - Maya History

This course follows from last semester's Zooarchaeological Method. We will shift our emphasis here from basic skills to interpretation, although you will continue to work with archaeological bones. We will begin by examining topics surrounding the basic interpretation of raw faunal data: sampling, quantification, taphonomy, seasonality. We will then explore how to use faunal data to reconstruct subsistence patterns, social structure, and human-animal relations. (ARKEO-TM)

Full details for ARKEO 4264 - Zooarchaeological Interpretation

This seminar explores the relationship between archaeology and modernity in its various dimensions. We examine how archaeological knowledge and practice have been tied to modern thought, including modernity’s conceptions of time, materiality, progress, and science. We explore how archaeology emerged as a discipline alongside colonialism and nationalism and consider the implications of these connections in the Middle East and beyond. The course also focuses on the archaeology of modernity—the growing field that investigates the material remains of the recent past. From the ruins and remnants of wars, genocides, and industrialization, to environmental crises and the waste of mass consumption, we consider how archaeological approaches to material traces offer unique insights into 20th and 21st century history and society. The course draws on case studies from southwest Asia and around the world. Through readings and discussions, we focus on critical questions about temporality, memory, and materiality, and consider how archaeological perspectives can defamiliarize the recent past.

Full details for ARKEO 4355 - Archaeology and Modernity

The Phoenicians have long been an enigma, a people defined by distant voices. Originating from present-day Lebanon, they were Semitic speakers, renowned seafarers and transmitters of an innovative alphabet that transformed how Mediterranean and Near Eastern folk wrote their languages. Having left us virtually no texts of their own, their history has resembled a patchwork of recollections from Old Testament and Hellenistic times. Recent archaeological discoveries, however, reveal patterns of trade, colonization and socioeconomic transformations that make the Phoenicians less enigmatic while raising new questions. Our class explores the third and second millennium Canaanite roots of the Phoenicians, as well as the Biblical and Greco-Roman perceptions of their early first millennium heyday. We will explore the Phoenician homeland and its colonies, and investigate their maritime economy, language, and religion through both archaeological and textual sources. Temporally the focus is on Phoenician rather than Carthaginian or Punic history, thus up to about 550 BCE. The class has a seminar format involving critical discussions and presentations of scholarly readings, and requires a research paper. (ARKEO-RMNE)

Full details for ARKEO 4550 - Archaeology of the Phoenicians

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 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 studio-style seminar provides an in-depth examination of the principles and practices of archaeological research design. We will examine all aspects of the research process, from concept formation, to methodology, to ethical practice and data management. Over the course of the semester, students will undertake a series of projects that will build incrementally into a research proposal. We will focus on developing the skills vital to designing archaeological research, starting with the formulation of a question and continuing through the exploratory process of defining proper sites, assemblages, analytical techniques, and presentation of findings. Class sessions will focus on designing research projects examining case studies drawn from world archaeology and student research projects.

Full details for ARKEO 6250 - Archaeological Research Design

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

Museums are places where academic research meets the public. Though they remain among the most trusted types of institutions, they have increasingly come under critical scrutiny. Questions around museums' perceived neutrality, the ethics of collecting, displaying, and interpreting cultural heritage, and whether they are welcoming to all audiences have made headlines and led to new developing practices. This class offers an introduction to the field of museum studies, pairing interactive lectures on museum history and theory with site visits to local and campus museums where students will learn from a variety of professionals about practical challenges.

Full details for ARKEO 6490 - Museum Studies: Histories, Problems, and Practices

An introduction to the story of how human history from the earliest times through to the recent period interrelates with changing climate conditions on Earth. The course explores the whole expanse of human history, but concentrates on the most recent 15,000 years through to the Little Ice Age (14th-19th centuries AD). Evidence from science, archaeology and history are brought together to assess how climate has shaped the human story.

Full details for ARKEO 6729 - Climate, Archaeology and History

Headline-making archaeological narratives using methods drawn from STEM fields have become increasingly common, yet how archaeological narratives are constructed from paleogenomics, organic residue analysis, or X-ray fluorescence spectrometry can often seem like an inscrutable ?black box.? This hands-on course unpacks the methods, theoretical frameworks, and contributions of STEM techniques to archaeology and the study of heritage materials. Through weekly readings, lectures, data analysis, labs, and a final science communication project, students will gain practical experience in chronometric dating, organic residue analysis and paleodiet reconstruction, and analysis of inorganic archaeological and heritage materials.

Full details for ARKEO 7201 - Scientific Analysis of Archaeological and Heritage Materials

This course explores the methods and materials used by historical archaeologists to interpret historic sites and their artifact assemblages. It is organized around two primary themes: 1) the analysis of commonly recovered artifact types from historic sites, and 2) the identification and interpretation of archaeological patterns on historic sites over time and space. The first half of the course will introduce students to techniques used to identify artifacts such as ceramics, bottle glass, nails, pipes, and other artifacts. In the second half of the course, students will learn quantitative approaches to identify and interpret archaeological patterns over time and space.

Full details for ARKEO 7205 - Materials and Methods in Historical Archaeology

This course asks how anthropologists articulate the relevance of our work in theoretical and political terms by staging an encounter between three disparate strands of scholarship: anthropology of the contemporary, engaged/public anthropology, and anthropology of everyday violence and ordinary affects. Designed to bring together pre-fieldwork and post-fieldwork graduate students, this seminar functions as a laboratory for expanding existing conversations and exploring further articulations of engaged anthropology of the contemporary. Participants will reflect on how their political commitments, ethnographic and other sensibilities, and theoretical perspectives inform each other, and will invigorate their research design, writing, and analytical frameworks in light of these reflections and engagement with course texts. The course is open to students from across the disciplines.

Full details for ARKEO 7256 - Ancient Civilizations of the Andes

This course follows from last semester's Zooarchaeological Method. We will shift our emphasis here from basic skills to interpretation, although you will continue to work with archaeological bones. We will begin by examining topics surrounding the basic interpretation of raw faunal data: sampling, quantification, taphonomy, seasonality. We will then explore how to use faunal data to reconstruct subsistence patterns, social structure, and human-animal relations.

Full details for ARKEO 7264 - Zooarchaeological Interpretation

This seminar explores the relationship between archaeology and modernity in its various dimensions. We examine how archaeological knowledge and practice have been tied to modern thought, including modernity’s conceptions of time, materiality, progress, and science. We explore how archaeology emerged as a discipline alongside colonialism and nationalism and consider the implications of these connections in the Middle East and beyond. The course also focuses on the archaeology of modernity—the growing field that investigates the material remains of the recent past. From the ruins and remnants of wars, genocides, and industrialization, to environmental crises and the waste of mass consumption, we consider how archaeological approaches to material traces offer unique insights into 20th and 21st century history and society. The course draws on case studies from southwest Asia and around the world. Through readings and discussions, we focus on critical questions about temporality, memory, and materiality, and consider how archaeological perspectives can defamiliarize the recent past.

Full details for ARKEO 7355 - Archaeology and Modernity

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 8902 - Master's Thesis