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The development of high civilizations in Andean S. America from hunter-gatherer origins to the powerful, expansive Inca empire. The contrasting ecologies of coast, sierra, and jungle areas of early Peruvian societies from 12,000 to 2,000 B.C.E. The domestication of indigenous plants which provided the economic foundation for monumental cities, ceramics, and textiles. Cultural evolution, and why and how major transformations occurred.

This course investigates the field of environmental archaeology. Its goals are twofold: 1) to critically consider the intellectual histories of environmental archaeology, and, 2) to survey the various techniques and methods by which archaeologists assess historical environmental conditions through material proxies. The course will include lab activities.

Eight or nine important ethnographies, including their construction, their impact, and their faults and virtues.

Archaeologists rely on an understanding of stone tools to trace much of what we know about prehistoric societies. How to make, illustrate, and analyze stone tools, revealing the method and theory intrinsic to these artifacts.

Never before have humans been engulfed by so much stuff. Stuff is needed to survive giving us the basics of food, clothing, and shelter. But stuff does so much more. Smart phones rule our social interactions. Louis Vuitton handbags display status. Air conditioning masters nature. Picassos inspire beauty. Wedding bands promise eternal love. Crosses connect believers to God. Is stuff really who we are? This seminar explores the science of stuff, past, present and future, investigating deeply-held beliefs about the meaning, value, and purpose of objects. Because our stuff has become such a popular obsession, this course embraces the eclectic intersection of popular and academic knowledge. Students will seek to answer the complex whys of our relationship with objects and understand our future human condition made by the material world.

As regularly noted, whether historic or pre-historic, animal bones are often the most commonly occurring artefacts on archaeological sites. As bioarchaeological samples, they offer the archaeologist an insight into food culture, provisioning, trade and the social aspects of human-animal interactions. The course will be taught through both practical and lecture sessions: the `hands-on¿ component is an essential complement to the lectures. The lectures will offer grounding in the main methodological approaches developed, as well as provide case-studies to illustrate where and how the methods have been applied. The practical session will walk students through the skeletal anatomy of a range of species. It will guide students on the identification of different parts of the animal, how to age / sex individuals, as well as recognize taphonomic indicators and what these mean to reconstructing post-depositional modifications.

The debates over the return of cultural property have raged for centuries. At stake are key questions about the rights of Indigenous peoples, intellectual freedom, nationalism, globalization, heritage management, the meaning of history, and the purpose of museums in the world. This seminar examines these vital discussions that intersect law and morality, science and religion, culture and politics. Discussions will be informed by cross-cultural, legal, ethical perspectives, exploring both the philosophical and practical implications of the repatriation debates. This course will provide students with a nuanced historical viewpoint of museum collections, heritage policies, and legal dimensions that underpin contests over cultural property.

The past is never dead, William Faulkner once wrote. It's not even past. This seminar explores the contested meanings of history in the political present. It particularly focuses on how archaeological work and heritage becomes entangled in larger questions of identity, belonging, belief, economics, and the stories we tell about ourselves. Students will gain an expansive and in-depth perspective on why humans so value what has come before us, and why making meaning from the past is a process suffused with power.

The course explores archaeological GIS and the techniques adopted to acquire, evaluate and manage spatial data. The students will be provided both with theoretical and practical principles of GIS for archaeological use and site management.nnStudents will learn a complete GIS workflow, from data acquisition to decision making. They will use Venice, a multilayered site, as a test case. The course will examine practical evaluation processes in consideration of current and future development projects in the Venetian lagoon, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.