INTRODUCTION
     Archaeology is concerned with understanding past human cultures and why and how cultures change through time. This course deals with the methods archaeologists use to accomplish these goals. The first third of the course will include a discussion of the history of the discipline as a whole, how we go about locating and excavating archaeological sites, and how we know when people lived there them. This is the aspect of archaeology the public is most familiar with. The second part of the course delves into more sophisticated analyses, most of which are borrowed from the hard sciences. The final part of the course will discuss how archaeology fits more specifically into the wider discipline of Anthropology, looking at how we try to understand ancient peoples as social beings. Several specific case studies will be presented at this time. This will be followed by a discussion of how archaeology is presented to the public, and of careers in archaeology.
     This course will not discuss the sequence of world prehistory (try the department's World Prehistory course), but we will be using various case studies from around the world to illustrate archaeological approaches. A lab is required with this class, and all students must have registered for one of the two lab sessions per week. There is no prerequisite for this course.

EVALUATION OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE
     General policies and expectations – As with any course at UCD, there are certain basic policies with which students must comply. Do not bring pets, children, noisy laptops, or active cellphones/beepers to class. Students are responsible for making sure that they are actually enrolled in the course, and for completing coursework on time. In order to earn the credit that this course (or any other) is worth, you must be willing and able to invest the time that is required - everyone has outside commitments, jobs, and family life, so do not expect that academic standards will be relaxed just because you have overcommitted yourself. Assignments turned in late will be docked one letter grade for each day they are late, i.e. a paper due Tuesday that is turned in Thursday cannot get better than a "C". Incompletes are granted at the end of the term only for unfinished work, and only when a legitimate and proven excuse exists. Academic dishonesty is never tolerated, and students should familiarize themselves with the regulations on pages 31-38 of the current catalog. Students with special needs should contact the AHEC Disability Service Office immediately to make arrangements, and I should also be informed as soon as possible.
     There will be three examinations over the course of the semester, including the final. Each exam will be worth 20% of your grade. Exams are to be taken the day they are scheduled, and students cannot expect to miss exams and be able to make them up later at their leisure. Students will need to complete a 6-8 page paper analyzing a hypothetical archaeological site that will be presented later in the term. Students will be told the general character of the site and the artifacts recovered, and they will need to describe how they would go about answering a series of questions about the site. This paper will be worth 20% of the final grade, and will be due November 11. Note that I do not take attendance or grade you for participation in class discussion, but you will not do well on either exams or papers if you miss lectures or fail to do readings.
     Lab sessions - Students should have enrolled in one of the two discussion sections for this course. This will take up one hour and fifty minutes/week and will include lab activities, assignments, and quizzes that will help in clarifying the readings and class lectures. Active discussion, attendance and assignments within these sections will count for 20% of your course grade and earn you that 1 additional credit hour. REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS Kevin Greene. 1995. Archaeology: An Introduction. The History, Principles and Methods of Modern Archaeology. University of Pennsylvania Press. 4th edition. Michael Glassow. 1999. Purisimeno Chumash Prehsitory - Maritime Adaptations along the Southern California Coast. Wadsworth Publishing. 1st edition. David Webster, Anncorinne Freter, and Nancy Gonlin. 1999. Copan: The Rise and Fall of a Classic Maya Kingdom. Wadsworth Publishing. 1st edition. Archaeology Lab Notebook.

COURSE ORGANIZATION AND READINGS

Week	Date	Topic	Readings
1	Aug. 19 (T)	Introduction for future archaeologists
	Aug. 21 (R)	A history of archaeology	Greene Ch. 1
2	Aug. 26 (T)	Archaeological Data and Explanation	Webster Ch. 1,2,3
	Aug. 28 (R)	Research Design	Glassow Ch. 1,2,3
3	Sep. 2 (T)	Survey and Remote Sensing: How do we find sites?	Greene Ch. 2, Webster Ch. 5
	Sep. 4 (R)
4	Sep. 9 (T)	Excavations: How do we recover data?	Greene Ch. 3
	Sep. 11 (R)		Webster Ch. 4,7, Glassow Ch. 5
5	Sep. 16 (T)	Chronology: How do we know when it comes from?	Greene Ch. 4
	Sep. 18 (R)		Webster Ch. 10, Glassow Ch. 4
6	Sep. 23 (T)	Exam
	Sep. 25 (R)	Go over exam. Artifact Analysis: What is it?	Greene Ch. 5
7	Sep. 30 (T)
	Oct. 2 (R)
8	Oct. 7 (T)	Trade: Where did it come from?
	Oct. 9 (R)
9	Oct. 14 (T)	Environment and Subsistence: What did they eat and where did they live?	Webster Ch. 8
	Oct. 16 (R)		Glassow Ch. 6
10	Oct. 21 (T)		Webster Ch. 9,11
	Oct. 23 (R)	Exam
11	Oct. 28 (T)	Go over exam. Society: Who were these people and how did they interact with one another?
	Oct. 30 (R)
12	Nov. 4 (T)
	Nov. 6 (R)	Case Study: egalitarian society	Glassow Ch. 7
13	Nov. 11 (T)	Paper assignment due. Case Study: ranked society	Webster Ch. 12,13
	Nov. 13 (R)	Case Study: stratified society and the state
14	Nov. 18 (T)	Different schools of thought: How should we study the past?	Greene Ch. 6
	Nov. 20 (R)	Ethics, Public Education, and the Descendants of those we study
15	Nov. 25 (T)	Careers in Archaeology	Glassow Ch. 8
	Nov. 27 (R)	Thanksgiving Break - No class
16	Dec. 1-6	Dead week - no class
17	Dec. 8-13	FINAL EXAM WEEK

Comments to Chris Beekman