1. Introduction
Introduction to the disciplines of anthropology and archaeology.
Introduction to world prehistory.
2. How We Know What Happened in Human Prehistory
The basics of archaeological method and theory.
Archaeological survey and excavation.
Archaeological dating methods.
Methods of material culture analysis
3. Becoming Human
Introduction to human evolution: earliest hominins, Australopithecines, Early Homo, Homo erectus, Premodern Homo sapiens, Neandertals and Homo floresiensis
The origin and evolution of premodern hominins.
The origin of stone tool production and lifeways of premodern hominins.
The dispersal of premodern hominins outside of Africa.
4. Becoming Modern
The emergence of modern humans: Homo sapiens sapiens
The genetic, anatomical and behavioural origin of modern humans.
The global migration of modern humans out of Africa.
Pleistocene hunting, gathering and foraging cultures around the world.
5. The Holocene: After the Ice
The Mesolithic and Archaic Periods.
Complex hunters, gatherers and foragers.
Early sedentism and the roots of food production.
6. The Origins of Agriculture
The process of domestication of plants and animals.
The beginnings of agriculture and its spread.
The consequences of agriculture.
Earlier agricultural cultures in places such as Southwest Asia, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas.
Anthropological explanations and theories for the origins of agriculture.
7. Civilization: The Origins of Complex Societies
The definition of social and political complexity, cities, states and empires and their identification in the archaeological record.
Anthropological explanations and theories of social and political complexity, urbanism and state formation.
Anthropological explanations and theories of social and political collapse.
8. The Archaeology of Complex Cultures
The archaeology of complex societies such as Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Shang China, the Indus Civilization, Ancient Mesoamerica, the Central Andean Inka and their ancestors, the North American Southwest, Mississippian cultures of Eastern North America, Bronze and Iron Age Europe and Neolithic Africa.
Each semester the instructor will choose a selection from among these examples to focus as a series of more in-depth case studies.
9. The Power of the Human Past
Understanding the changing representations of the past and why these changes occur.
The influence of the human past on contemporary societies.
The political use of the human past.
The human past as represented in popular culture and the media.