brigdh

Hey, so, like, school started two weeks ago! I guess I should post about my classes, huh? In my defense, I was SICK last weekend. Like, dying. I could not even live journal.

Prehistoric Europe 2 (with the professor I TA'd for last semester)
Wednesday, 5:00 - 7:35
Prehistoric Europe II provides a comprehensive overview of the archaeology of Europe from the beginnings of the Mesolithic (ca. 8000 BCE) through the end of the pre-Roman Iron Age. The topics to be covered include 1. changing subsistence, settlement, and technology after the end of the Pleistocene, 2. the beginnings of agriculture in Europe, 3. the "consequent Neolithic", 4. the beginnings of metallurgy, and 5. the emergence of complex societies during the later Bronze and Iron Ages. The course will also examine the effects that
changing theoretical perspectives have had on our interpretation of changes in European prehistory.

Technology in Pre-Industrial Societies (with my advisor!)
Tuesday, 5:00-7:35
This course examines the intersection of archaeology, anthropology and conservation through the study of technology and material culture. Its primary emphasis is on the transformation of natural materials into cultural objects, the alterations of materials once discarded, their subsequent recovery in the ground and as curated objects. These alterations from the natural to the cultural are discussed in the context of interpretive frameworks that anthropologists and archaeologists employ in reconstructing the value and
use of materials within a given culture and research problem. Finally, this course provides an overview of the study of technology in anthropology, archaeology and conservation to establish a dialogue among specialists in the three fields and to identify points of intersection and collaboration.
This course should be of interest to students working on material culture, repatriation issues, ethics, and museum studies.

Experimental Archaeology (with the professor I am TA'ing for this semester!)
Monday, 5:00-7:35
Archaeology by experiment is one of the methodological keystones of a modern, scientific archaeology. It relies on the use of relevant, systematic and precise observations in the present to inform our understanding of the archaeological record. This methodology is most often applied to elucidating the dynamics of past technologies, but is more broadly applicable to taphonomic processes, site formation and forensic analysis. Experimental archaeology usually focuses on the replication of some past structure, architectural feature,
artifact class, or depositional context in order to illuminate hypotheses about raw material choice, function, fabrication techniques and embedded knowledge, efficiency, post- depositional deterioration, etc.
This course is an advanced workshop focusing on the formulation and accomplishment of semester-long student projects. It is intended to provide hands-on experimental and analytical skills tailored to individual participants’ graduate and undergraduate (senior and honors) theses. As such, the course will involve a considerable investment of laboratory time and readings will be focused around specific projects and
experimental materials.

And the course for which I am TA'ing:
Archaeology: Early Societies and Cultures
Archaeology: Early Societies and Cultures provides a solid grounding in the objectives, theories, methods and historical development of modern anthropological archaeology, as well as an overview of significant transformations in human culture over the past 2.5 million years. These latter topics include the origins of tool-making, the first hunters, the emergence of bioculturally modern humans, the origins of symbolism, the advent of plantand animal domestication, and the development of cities and states. These
transformations in various parts of the world serve as case studies to illustrate the process by which archaeologists recover and study the archaeological record, and then infer from that record the vivid details of ancient societies (climate and landscape, settlement patterns, trade and exchange, technology, symbolic and cognitive systems, religion and social organization).

It all looks very exciting. I'm particularly excited about the Experimental Class; I get to burn things, hee.