Department of Anthropology College of Arts and Sciences The University of Alabama

SURVEY OF THE HISTORY OF ARCHAEOLOGY

ANTHROPOLOGY 525
FALL, 1996

PROFESSOR RICHARD A. DIEHL

OFFICE: ROOM 24-b, TEN HOOR
OFFICE HOURS: TUESDAY AND THURSDAY 2-3 PM, OTHER TIMES AS NECESSARY.
E-MAIL: RDIEHL@TENHOOR.AS.UA.EDU

 

Course Web Pages

General Information

This course is designed to introduce graduate students to the history of archaeology. It proceeds more or less chronologically, beginning with the seventeenth and eighteenth century antiquarians and concluding with modern, and perhaps even postmodern ( POMO) archaeological method and theory.

The primary emphasis in the class is on student reading assignments and discussion of the readings in class. Weekly reading assignments normally consist of five to seven articles or selections. Each Tuesday prior to the beginning of class you are expected to submit a short typed paper on that week's set of readings. The papers should not exceed four pages single spaced. Ideally, they should strive to (a) summarize the most important aspects of the assigned readings, (b) synthesize these into a coherent discussion, and (c) offer personal commentary or critique as appropriate. They will be graded on organization, content, writing style, clarity, and originality. Late papers will not be accepted and a grade of 0 will be assigned to any not handed in prior to the beginning of class.

The Tuesday classes will serve as an introduction to the week's topic and will include lectures by me; the Thursday classes will emphasize group discussion led by a different student each week. Course grades will be based upon three factors; (1) the average of the grades on the weekly papers (50% of the total grade), (2) class participation, including leadership of the Thursday sessions (25%), and a term paper (25%). The term papers must assess the life and work of an archaeologist who is NOT directly relevant to the individual students particular field of interest. Think of them as an expanded version of the weekly paper, not to exceed twenty pages single spaced. They are due on Friday October 25. Late submissions will not be accepted.

Texts

Readings

All the readings are on reserve at the Reserve Desk in Gorgas Library. Feel free to copy them if you wish. Full citations for each week's readings can be found in the Class Bibliography.

Class Outline

Introduction and Organization: August 22

Topic 1. Scandinavian and British Antiquarianism, August 27-29

Topic 2. The Three Age System, September 3-5

Topic 3. Nineteenth Century Near Eastern and Classical Archaeology, September 10-12

Topic 4. Origins of Paleolithic Archaeology, September 17-19

Topic 5. American Natural History, September 24-26

Topic 6. The Mound Builders (I), October 1 and 3

Topic 7. The Mound Builders (II), October 8-10

Topic 8. Americanist Archaeology: Classification and Chronology, October 15-17

Topic 9. The Amateur, October 22-24

TERM PAPERS DUE: OCTOBER 25

Topic 10. Americanist Archaeology: Theory and Practice, 1930s- 1950s, October 29-31

Topic 11. Childe and his Contemporaries, November 5-7

Topic 12. The New Archaeology (I), November 12-14

Topic 13. The New Archaeology (II), November 19-21

Topic 14. Post-Processual Archaeology>, November 26, December 3-5

Last updated: October 16, 2002