ANT 3101:141
Archaeology
(by
distance learning)
offered
at least once per year in a regular semester, usually in an intense
summer session as well
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COURSE OBJECTIVES AND EMPHASES
This course combines an introduction to archaeological methods with a
survey of world prehistory. We begin with our earliest human ancestors,
and eventually move on to cover the well-known cultures of Mesopotamia,
Egypt, the Indus Valley, China, the Inca, Maya, and Aztecs, as well as
complex societies in Africa and North America. The latest
archaeological methods and theories used for investigating,
reconstructing, and interpreting the ancient past will be a central
part of each week’s class. The course will deal not only with the
material remains of ancient cultures, but also with important social
and economic questions such as the origins of humans, the development
of village societies, the adoption of agriculture, the invention of
writing, and the rise of civilization. This course fulfills the General
Education Requirement in Social Sciences and is specifically required
of all Anthropology majors.
PREREQUISITES
ANT 2000 or consent of the instructor. A considerable amount of
material will be covered in this course, including the important
characteristics of prehistoric cultures in different times and places,
as well as the methods archaeologists use to reconstruct the past.
Students who do not keep up with the reading and assignments have not
done well in the past.
GETTING STARTED
Purchase the textbook (see below). Using Netscape or Internet Explorer,
go to the course website (https://my.usf.edu). All students are
automatically assigned a NetID upon admission to USF; if you have not
activated it yet, go to https://una.acomp.usf.edu/ and activate it. The
instructor has no control over user IDs and passwords, so please direct
any login problems to the help desk (email: help-ac@usf.edu; live chat
and other services are also available from the main academic computing
page: http://www.acomp.usf.edu/). Once you have logged in, explore the
system by clicking on the various buttons on the course homepage.
Weekly instructions will be found under ‘Assignments’, while course
files and on-line readings will be found under ‘Course Material’.
TEXTBOOK
Required text: Images
of the Past, by T. Douglas Price and Gary M. Feinman,
McGraw-Hill, 2005 (4th edition).
GRADES
Each week students are assigned to (1) read a chapter in the Images of
the Past textbook and/or any supplemental material posted by the
instructor; (2) to respond to discussion questions posted in the course
website; and (3) to participate in a live chatroom discussion. About
every other week students must (4) take a short open-book quiz. Quizzes
are available on-line within a restricted time frame.
Each student will also be responsible for creating a website on an
archaeological topic (to be approved by the instructor) and hosting a
chatroom discussion based on that topic. The website should at least be
functional - and the chat session scheduled - the same week the topic
is listed in the course syllabus. You may then use feedback from other
students to revise your site before it is evaluated by the instructor.
Discussion questions - 15% (about 1% per week)
Chatrooms - 15% (about 1% per week)
Quizzes - 45% (6 at 6% each, 1 at 9%)
Website project - 25%
Course letter grades will be based as follows: An A will be based on a
curved standardized score between 93.4-100; A- for 89.5-93.3; B+ for
86.7-89.4; B for 83.4-86.6; B- for 79.5-83.3; C+ for 76.7-79.4; C for
73.4-76.6; C- for 69.5-73.3; D+ for 66.7-69.4; D for 63.4-66.6; and D-
for 60-63.3. Anthropology concentrators may not take the course S/U.
Other students who wish to take the course S/U must submit an S/U
contract to the instructor within the first two weeks of the semester.
EXTRA CREDIT
Extra credit is available by attending one or more public lectures on
archaeology and then posting a critical summary in the appropriate
forum (2 points per lecture). Lectures in the Tampa area will be listed
on the anthropology department website
(http://www.cas.usf.edu/anthropology/index.html). Extra credit may also
be obtained by reporting (within one week of publication) on daily
newspaper articles relevant to archaeology (send me an email with the
name of the newspaper, the date and section/page number of the article,
its title and author, a summary of the article itself, and some brief
comments on how it relates to material presented in this course (is it
a new discovery, does it support or deny particular theories, etc.) (1
point per article).
FILMS
A number of films have been placed on reserve for viewing at the USF
library (duplicate copies at Tampa campus, 6th floor; Lakeland; St.
Petersburg) during the appropriate week of the course. The films will
be the subject of some of the on-line discussions, and are a visual
supplement to the assigned readings. Quiz questions, however, will not
be drawn directly from the films. Other relevant films often are shown
on cable TV channels including A&E, Discovery and History
Channels, etc.
MISCELLANY
Course notes are not permitted for sale without the express written
consent of the instructor. The on-line content of the course is
proprietary copyrighted material of the instructor and may not be
copied, distributed, or reproduced in any form.
University and College of Arts & Sciences policies regarding
absence due to religious preference, incompletes, and academic
dishonesty will be followed. Please see the Undergraduate Catalog for
further details.
SYLLABUS
You can view and print the complete syllabus too (if
you have
Adobe Acrobat Reader): ANT3101syllabus. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat you can download it for
free by clicking here.