Great Discoveries in Archaeology ANTH 7a Monday/Wednesday/Thursday 10:00 AM - 10:50 Professor Charles Golden Office Hours: M-W, 11am 12pm, and by appointment, Brown 206 – Email: Telephone: 781-736-2217 TA: George Van Kollias, III Office Hours: TBD, and by appointment Email: This course delves into the origins of civilizations some deeply ancient, some quite – recent providing a basis for understanding for how those cultures set the stage for the – world as we know it today. We will explore the history and prehistory of politics, culture, economy, warfare, art, literature, and science through the lens of archaeological discoveries. Through a series of case studies, this course explores major transitions in the human condition over time. We begin with the earliest semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer communities at the end of the Pleistocene period. Anatomically modern humans spent nearly 200,000 years living a largely mobile, hunter-gatherer lifestyle. As we moved out of Africa in the past 100,000 years and spread across the continents, we intermingled with and replaced older human populations, and began to settle down into villages with dramatic implications for our social organization, health, and technological development. Our reliance on wild plants and animals gave way to a complex relationship with domesticates, the advent of agriculture, pastoralism, and eventually the growth of political hierarchies and urbanism from Mesopotamia to Egypt, China to Africa, and across the Americas. Stonehenge, Troy, Great Zimbabwe, the fort at Jamestown, Inka Cusco, and Aztec Tenochtitlan among other sites will give us insights into past cultures, archaeological
Great Discoveries in Archaeology ANTH 7a Monday/Wednesday/Thursday 10:00 AM - 10:50 Professor Charles Golden Office Hours: M-W, 11am – 12pm, and by appointment, Brown 206 Email: Telephone: 781-736-2217 TA: George Van Kollias, III Office Hours: TBD, and by appointment Email: This course delves into the origins of civilizations – some deeply ancient, some quite recent – providing a basis for understanding for how those cultures set the stage for the world as we know it today. We will explore the history and prehistory of politics, culture, economy, warfare, art, literature, and science through the lens of archaeological discoveries. Through a series of case studies, this course explores major transitions in the human condition over time. We begin with the earliest semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer communities at the end of the Pleistocene period. Anatomically modern humans spent nearly 200,000 years living a largely mobile, hunter-gatherer lifestyle. As we moved out of Africa in the past 100,000 years and spread across the continents, we intermingled with and replaced older human populations, and began to settle down into villages with dramatic implications for our social organization, health, and technological development. Our reliance on wild plants and animals gave way to a complex relationship with domesticates, the advent of agriculture, pastoralism, and eventually the growth of political hierarchies and urbanism from Mesopotamia to Egypt, China to Africa, and across the Americas. Stonehenge, Troy, Great Zimbabwe, the fort at Jamestown, Inka Cusco, and Aztec Tenochtitlan among other sites will give us insights into past cultures, archaeological
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