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Learning Objectives

Chapter 1

The student should be able to:

1. Define archaeology
2. Relate archaeology to the other three sub-disciplines of American anthropology
3. Give examples of how archaeology draws on other sciences
4. Describe the basic goals of archaeology
5. Name and describe the five major branches of archaeology
6. Demonstrate an understanding of the key concepts in archaeology
7. Explain the nature of the practice of science, including: the structure of scientific knowledge; the scientific method; and research design
8. Outline the importance of archaeology to the world today

Chapter 2

The students should be able to:

1. Describe the earliest evidence for interest in the past among ancient civilizations
2. Define antiquarianism, and its role in the history of archaeology
3. Outline the events and theories that led to the acceptance of the idea of prehistory
4. Discuss the earliest research of the Classical civilizations
5. Understand the factors which led to the emergence of professional archaeology
6. Define and discuss the influence of the concepts of unilinear cultural evolution and diffusion on archaeological interpretation
7. Identify recent improvement in archaeological field methods.
8. Explain seminal research in major world areas.
9. Understand political influences in the history of archaeology, including colonialism, nationalism, and other general biases.

Chapter 3

The student should be able to:

1. Describe the main objectives of processual archaeology, and know how and why it differs from the archaeology that came before World War II
2. Outline the basic tenets of Middle Range Theory, and how experimental archaeology and ethnoarchaeology can contribute to it
3. Know some of the critiques of processual archaeology, and the variety of positions that postprocessual archaeologists take

Chapter 4

The student should be able to:

1. Define archaeological sites
2. Describe the nature of archaeological evidence
3. Distinguish among artifacts, ecofacts, geofacts, and features
4. Recognize the various artifact types found in the archaeological record
5. Describe the contexts in which human remains are found in the archaeological record
6. Discuss the various site formation and transformation processes
7. Be aware of human impacts on archaeological resources
8. Describe the conditions under which materials preserve (or not) in the archaeological record

Chapter 5

The student should be able to:

1. Discuss how archaeologists find and record sites
2. Define the methods of archaeological survey, including geophysical, remote sensing, sampling, and site recording
3. Be familiar with methods of excavation, including: mapping, digging, and cataloguing
4. Discuss practical aspects of archaeological fieldwork
5. Explore ethical issues that arise within archaeological fieldwork, both legal and humanistic
6. Be familiar with professional obligations of the archaeologist

Chapter 6

The student should be able to:

1. Differentiate between temporal and other sorts of artifact assemblages, and identify the utility of organizing artifacts into various assemblages
2. Define and evaluate the use value the various types of artifacts, including lithics, ceramics, glass, metal, and perishables
3. Discuss the issues that lie behind the process of artifact classification
4. Describe the procedures of artifact analysis and explain what sorts of information those analyses can and cannot yield

Chapter 7

The student should be able to:

1. Remember the importance of dating and chronology in archaeology
2. Understand the different kinds of relative dating techniques
3. Understand with the ways relative dating has been used in archaeology
4. Recognize the different kinds of absolute dating techniques
5. Understand the history and technology behind radiocarbon dating
6. Theoretically apply absolute and chronometric dating methods to examples of sites

Chapter 8

The student should be able to:

1. Define bioarchaeology
2. Recognize the variety of ways that human soft-tissue remains can be preserved, and know what kinds of information archaeologists can retrieve from those remains
3. Describe the ways, morphological and chemical, that archaeologists analyze human skeletal remains so as to produce osteobiographies
4. Know the limitations of osteological techniques in determining age, sex, and race of individuals
5. Be familiar with the kinds of information on diet, disease, and lifeways that archaeologists can glean from skeletal remains

Chapter 9

The student should be able to:

1. Define environmental archaeology
2. Describe the various methods archaeologists can use to reconstruct past environments
3. Discuss the forms of human adaptation, both biological and cultural
4. Give examples of environmental manipulation by past cultures
5. Be familiar with the various theories concerning domestication and the agricultural revolution

Chapter 10

The student should be able to:

1. Describe the four primary subsistence systems, and what kinds of archaeological evidence are possible for those systems
2. Describe the processes involved in analyzing subsistence data
3. Examine the different measures of quantification used in archaeology
4. Discuss the practice of settlement pattern archaeology, and in particular be familiar with the potential kinds of impacts on sites and settlement pattern caused by varying levels of human mobility
5. Recognize and discuss the interrelationship between subsistence and settlement, and the archaeological significance of that interrelationship

Chapter 11

The students should be able to:

1. Discuss how archaeologists answer anthropological questions
2. Relate the ways of approaching past social structures, in terms of gender, ethnicity, political systems, etc.
3. Define and differentiate among bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states
4. Analyze the possible reasons behind the development of early states
5. Examine the archaeological methods and evidence used to discover and interpret past belief systems

Chapter 12

The student should be able to:

1. Discuss the different kinds of theoretical approaches archaeologists employ regarding cultural change
2. Define and distinguish between synchronic and diachronic views
3. Analyze the role that invention and innovation, diffusion, and migration play in long and short-term patterns of cultural change
4. Describe the concepts of migration and diaspora, trade, and warfare and examine the potential impact on the archaeological record of culture contact
5. Examine the ways archaeologists can detect cultural change in the archaeological record

Chapter 13

The student should be able to:

1. Recognize the potential and ongoing impact of human activity on the archaeological record
2. Distinguish amongst the various legislative acts that have been enacted to protect cultural resources in the United States, and be able to identify which agencies have responsibility for that protection
3. Describe ways that individuals can learn more about and participate in the conservation of archaeological resources
4. Examine the history of the involvement of indigenous peoples in archaeological research and cultural resource management
5. Analyze the ethical obligations of archaeologists

Chapter 14

The student should be able to:

1. Discuss the broader significance of archaeology to “the Real World”
2. Discuss both the cognitive and affective responses for what is at stake in discussions of who owns the past, and be able to use examples like the Kennewick Man controversy to illustrate their points
3. Examine some of the political complications in the practice of archaeology today
4. Describe some of the applied uses for archaeology, e.g., forensic archaeology