UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON
HISP 471H: ANALYTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
Prof. Douglas W. Sanford
Fall 2009
Combs 012
MWF: 10:00-10:50 AM
COURSE DESCRIPTION & OBJECTIVES
This course has two primary purposes. One is to study particular archaeological topics, issues, and methods at a more intensive and analytical level than occurs in either our Department’s introductory archeological course (HISP 207) or the laboratory methods class (HISP 462). The second purpose is to provide a seminar experience in which student-based discussion and shared learning forms the essential basis of the class. The course is intended for students who wish to focus on archaeology and see themselves as likely to continue that interest after college with respect to employment, graduate school, and perhaps, a long range career.
Archaeologists constantly invoke an analytical approach and process, in that they must take evidence – such as artifacts, documentary information, geographical and environmental data – and determine how it will recognized, organized, manipulated, and interpreted with respect to broader anthropological issues. In other words, the analysis of archaeological data partly depends upon such seemingly straightforward tasks as artifact identification, classification, and dating; and the spatial and temporal ordering of field information (stratigraphy, features, architectural remains, artifact distributions). At the same time, analysis stems from research objectives, theoretical concepts, and desired interpretations for social, economic, historical, and cultural issues. Through advanced levels of reading and discussion this course offers training and experience in archaeology’s analytical methods and issues.
This course has two other objectives related to the nature of professional archaeology. One is to develop a personal “library” by finding, collecting, and organizing source materials, references, and examples of analytical approaches and methods. The second entails understanding how archaeologists’ conduct research. How it is accomplished? What is involved? What common components are present? How are research and analytical results conveyed to scholarly, specialized, and public audiences through different media and publication formats?
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Texts and Readings: Required texts include Annual Editions: Archaeology (9th edition, 2010), edited by Mari Pritchard Parker and Elvio Angeloni; and, Archaeology, by David Hurst Thomas and Robert L. Kelly (5th edition). Additional readings will consist of materials placed on reserve via Blackboard or as assigned in class. As a seminar course, students must participate in class and discuss readings on a regular basis. At scheduled times specific students will be responsible for particular readings or presentations. The structure for discussion will be addressed in the initial class meetings.
Tests: There is no mid-term examination. The final examination will occur on Monday, December 7th.
Assignments & Exercises: The following assignments provide the basis for gaining experience with archaeological analytical methods and approaches. Assignment requirements will be discussed in class and made available through handouts.
Assignment A: Analytical Comparison: compare and contrast two readings/authors as to analytical approaches to a given, common topic. Due September 21st.
Assignment B: Research Project: for an analytical topic of your choice (from the course topics or an acceptable alternative), develop a research project that incorporates a “status of the field” component, selects an analytical approach, and applies that approach to an initial data set. This assignment will have a limited self-scheduling arrangement, but will involve a series of deadlines for stages of the project.
Analytical Exercises: students will have to complete two out of three exercises that provide opportunities to conduct directed analyses. One concerns ceramic dating, another involves analyzing data from a mortuary context, and the third requires gathering, organizing, and interpreting information from online digital databases. Deadlines will be established for these exercises as we approach given topics.
N.B. No late papers will be accepted without penalty. All assignments must be completed to pass the course. All submitted work is bound by the provisions of the Honor Code.
COURSE INFORMATION
Grading: the following numerical divisions will be used to determine letter grades: A: 94-100; A-: 90-93; B+: 87-89; B: 83-86; B-: 80-82; C+: 77-79; C: 73-76; C-: 70-72; D+: 67-69; D: 60-66: F: <60%. Your final grade will be determined on the following basis: Assignment A – 15%; Assignment B – 25%; 2 Analytical Exercises – 20%; Class participation (discussions, presentations) – 30%; Final Examination – 10%.
Instructor Information: Office – Combs 133; Phone: 540-654-1314 (voice mail); home phone: 540-373-9747 (please call after 8 PM); I work best by e-mail: dsanford@umw.edu. Office hours: M: 1-2 PM; Tu.: 10-11 AM; W: 2-3 PM; Th.: 10-11 AM; F: 1-2 PM; and by appointment.
Class Schedule and Assignments
The two required texts will be abbreviated as follows: Annual Editions: Archaeology (AE) and Archaeology by Thomas and Kelly (T&K).
August 24 Course Introduction and Overview.
August 26 Archaeological Communication, Publication, and Public Outreach.
Reading: Sebastian 2002 (AE, article 1); Fagan 2006 (AE, article 2) OR Preston 1996 (AE, article 3) OR Sabloff 1998 (AE, article 6).
August 28 Archaeological Communication & Publication formats.
August 31 Archaeological Inquiry – Some Anthropological Basics & Some Theory.
Reading: T&K, Chpt. 3
Topic 1: Battlefield Archaeology, the Archaeology of Conflict, & an Anthropological Perspective on War
September 2 Opening Dialogue: An Analytical Structure for Understanding War.
September 4 Defining and Expanding the Field: Research Objectives & Methods.
Reading: http://bravo_nj.tripod.com/id9.html Battlefield Restoration and Archaeological Volunteer Organization.
http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/battlefieldarchaeology/ University of Glasgow graduate program.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/404876/BATTLEFIELD-ARCHAEOLOGY-THE-ARCHAEOLOGY-OF-CONFLICT British manual.
September 7 More on Methods.
Reading: http://www.archaeology.org/online/interviews/scott.html Interview with Douglas Scott.
September 9 Looking at Conflict and War through Time.
Reading: LeBlanc 2003 (AE, article 7) OR Scham 2002 (AE, article 26)
September 11 Cannibalism – A Tactic of Conflict or War?
Reading: Gibbons 1997 (AE, article 11) OR Reinhard 2006 (AE, article 12)
September 14 Archaeology of the Civil War.
Reading: “No Maneuvering and Very Little Tactics”: Archaeology and the Battle of Brawner Farm (Stephen R. Potter et al. 2000) OR “The Archaeology of Retreat: Systematic Metal Detector Survey and Information System Analysis as the Battlefield of Chickamauga, September 1863 (John E. Cornelison, Jr. 2000)
September 16 Archaeology of the Civil War.
Guest Speaker or Field Trip.
September 18 Archaeology of World War I.
Reading: Silberman 2004 (AE, article 31); http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7246038.stm “Belgian Soil Hides Battle Scars”
September 21 World War I on film.
Assignment A due.
Topic 2: Ceramics (& Analytical Exercise)
September 23 Ceramics: A Review of Basic Principles, Categories, Types.
September 25 Ceramics by the Book.
Reading: “Ceramic Analysis,” T. Douglas Price (2006) from Principles of Archaeology.
September 28 Ceramic Workshop: Guest Speaker.
Reading: Ivor Noel Hume, Guide to Colonial American Artifacts (selected passages).
September 30 Ceramic Attributes and Analysis.
Reading: Patricia Samford, “Responses to a Market: Dating English Underglaze Transfer-Printed Wares.” Historical Archaeology 31(2):1-30 (1997)
October 2 Issues of Typology and Classification.
Reading: Mary Beaudry et al., “A Vessel Typology for Early Chesapeake Ceramics: The Potomac Typological System.” Historical Archaeology 17(1): 18-43 (1983).
October 5 Finish discussion of typology. What Ceramics Infer as to Social Organization.
Reading: Lloyd 2004 (AE, article 30)
October 7 Student PowerPoint Presentations (with listed references).
October 9 No Class – COVA meeting & Archeological Society of Virginia conference
October 12 No Class – Fall Break
Topic 3: Ghost Towns of the American West
October 14 Popular Perceptions of Ghost Towns.
Reading: http://www.legendsofamerica.com/LA-Ghosttowns.html
October 16 Defining An Analytical Context for Ghost Towns.
Reading: Donald Hardesty, “Historical Archaeology in the American West” Historical Archaeology 25(3): 3-6; and “Toward an Historical Archaeology of the Intermountain West.” Historical Archaeology 25(3): 29-35.
October 19 Frontiers and Pioneers.
Reading: D’Alio 2007 (AE, article 28).
October 21 Industry and Mining – Survey, Research, and Assessment.
Reading: “Industrial Sites and Monuments” from Assessing Site Significance: A Guide for Archaeologists and Historians, by Donald L. Hardesty and Barbara J. Little (2000).
October 23 Boom Town Sin: Brothels and Saloons.
Reading: “Opening Saloon Doors,” from Boomtown Saloons: Archaeology and History in Virginia City, by Kelly J. Dixon (2005).
October 26 Complete discussion of Saloons.
Reading: Kelly Dixon (2005), “A Toast to the Artifacts: Saloon Serving Ware” OR “Desires for Diversion: Saloon Vices and Amusements.”
Topic 4: Cemeteries, Death, and Osteology (& Analytical Exercise)
October 28 Introduction: An Initial Perspective on Cemeteries & Funerary Rituals.
Sources: www.forensicanthro.com/resources.html (see the “online skeleton”)
http://www.spoilheap.co.uk/burial.htm
October 30 Looking to Scientific Methods.
Reading: T. Douglas Price, “Bioarchaeology,” from Principles of Archaeology (2006)
November 2 Forensic Anthropology as Applied.
Reading: Brier 2006 (AE, article 8); Huyghe 1988 (AE, article 22) OR Hublin 2005 (AE, article 34); Klein 2003 (AE, article 35).
November 4 Methodological Review & Comparison.
Reading: “Bioarchaeological Approaches to the Past” (T&K, Chpt. 12)
November 6 No Class in Exchange for Field Trip to Smithsonian Institution Exhibition
Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th-Century Chesapeake
http://anthropology.si.edu/writteninbone/
November 9 Discussion of field trip & further background.
Reading: Julia A. King and Douglas H. Ubelaker, “Living and Dying at Patuxent Point,” from Living and Dying on the 17th Century Patuxent Frontier (1996).
November 11 Look to Another Case Study: Freedmen’s Cemetery Site.
Reading: http://oha.alexandriava.gov/archaeology/ar-freedmens_archaeology.html
November 13 Interpretive and Political Contexts for Burial Evidence.
Reading: http://www.africanburialground.gov/ABG_Main.htm (see “Reports”)
Interview with Michael Blakey: http://www.archaeology.org/online/interviews/blakey/
November 16 Video on the African Burial Ground.
Topic 5: Archaeology of the Inca
November 18 Setting a Regional Context for a State-Level Society.
Background information: see Inca Empire on http://archaeology.about.com/od/incaarchaeology/Inca_Empire.htm http://incas.perucultural.org.pe/English/
November 20 Theories of Evolution & State Formation.
Reading: “Understanding Key Transitions in World Prehistory” (T&K, Chpt. 15).
November 23 Incan Civilization.
Reading: Brian M. Fagan, “Andean Civilizations,” from Ancient Lives: An Introduction to Archaeology and Prehistory (2004).
November 25, 27 No Class – Thanksgiving
November 30 Back to Conflict: Incan Warfare
Reading: Elizabeth Arkush and Charles Stanish, “Interpreting Conflict in the Ancient Andes: Implications for the Archaeology of Warfare.” Current Anthropology 46(1): 3-28.
December 2 Incan architecture & Power.
Reading: Sonia Alconini, “Dis-Embedded Centers and Architecture of Power on the fringes of the Inka Empire: New Perspectives on Territorial and Hegemonic Strategies of Domination.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 27(1), 2008.
December 4 A Parallel for the Inca?: The Mayan Collapse.
Reading: Diamond 2005 (AE, article 18).
Final Examination: Monday, December 7th, 8:30 – 11:00 AM