HIS 489KE Applied Archaeology for CRM Careers, Illinois, US
This program is a four-week, intensive field school experience designed to provide students with job-ready skills to enter the workforce as archaeological field technicians at the Cultural Resource Management (CRM) industry. Students will learn key skills necessary for CRM jobs, including survey, surface collection, shovel testing, excavation, laboratory techniques, relevant laws, and reporting. Students will learn the entire process of CRM practices, from data collection to data reporting and mitigation. Practical field and laboratory activities are supplemented by relevant readings and formal lectures. 8 Credit Hours
HIST 489HE Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Archaeological Project, Canada: A UNESCO World Heritage Site
The major objectives of the course fit into the following general categories: 1) exposure to history and theory of North American archaeology, including Indigenous ways of knowing; 2) survey, excavation, recording techniques; and 3) knowledge acquisition and interpretation in Plains Archaeology. To achieve these objectives, students will receive lectures, participate in hands-on workshops, and complete assignments. They will develop their survey, excavation, and laboratory skills throughout the field school. Students will also participate in field trips that will further expose them to the region’s natural and human history. At the end of the field school the students will have practical working knowledge of archaeological field methods, including surveying, shovel testing, auguring, and excavation. They will also gain experience in laboratory analysis, including artifact classification, cleaning, cataloguing, and attribute analysis. The students will be exposed to the intellectual challenges presented by archaeological research, including research design, the interpretation of data, and the continual readjustment of hypotheses and field strategies with regard to information recovered in the field. Moreover, the students will be taught the field and laboratory documentation procedures in accordance with laws and regulations designed to protect and curate cultural resources in Alberta, Canada. 8 Credit Hours
HIS 489IN The Incoronata Project, Italy
Incoronata is located in southern Italy, near the coast of the Gulf of Taranto (the ‘arch’ of the boot), in today’s Basilicata region. The site is distributed across a vast plateau overlooking the valley where the river Basento flows. In the 7th century BC its prominence likely served to attract travelers from the Aegean, who settled alongside the local community during the earliest phase of the Greek colonization, arguably the most consequential migration event of the ancient Mediterranean. The site offers a superb opportunity to investigate the development of an Early Iron Age Italic community and the culture contact dynamics they established with Greek newcomers at the outset of this historical water-shed. Occupation at Incoronata began at the end of the 10th century BC, the start of the Italian Early Iron Age. A vast cemetery, in use from the 9th to the middle of the 8th century BC, was excavated along the northern edge of the plateau, while remains of a contemporaneous settlement were uncovered nearby. Further evidence of occupation dating to the Early Iron Age was also found on the highest part of the plateau. While the rest of the plateau seems to have been deserted by the middle of the 8th century, this area continued to be used until the beginning of the 6th century, when Incoronata was abandoned. During the last century of its life, this area provides evidence of coexistence between local people and Aegean newcomers. This period corresponds to the early phase of the Greek colonization, which cast Greek settlers from the Black Sea to Spain and was a key catalyst for the creation of the interconnected, urbanized Mediterranean of the Classical period. At this time, along the Ionian Gulf coast and a few miles sea-ward from Incoronata, the colony of Metaponto also flourished, alongside Taranto to the southeast and Siris and Sybaris to the west, making this region the heart of what eventually became Magna Graecia or Greater Greece. Although the site of Incoronata has been under investigation since the 1970s, there remains much to be discovered. The highest part of the plateau itself was the object of numerous excavations throughout the years, most recently by the Université de Rennes 2 (France). The latter, directed by Prof. Mario Denti, began in 2002 and has been running as a field school ever since. To date, the excavation has brought to light several features belonging to the indigenous Early Iron Age phase and the 7th century BC ‘mixed’ indigenous-Greek phase. These point to a public function of the area under investigation, with evidence of both artisanal production and extensive ritual activities. Among the findings are two paved terraces, a large wall, several ritual pits likely linked to an ancestor cult, an apsidal building with the remains of a ritual, a pottery kiln used to fire both local and Greek-style pottery, and two small furnaces. 8 Credit Hours
HIST 489PM Investigating the Archaeology of Death in Pompeii (Italy): Porta Sarno Necroplois Research Project
The Porta Sarno Necropolis project offers an exceptional opportunity to investigate Roman society and its unique views of life and the afterlife. The study of the necropolis monuments, tombs, roads, walls, material culture and biological remains provide contextual understanding of how the funerary space was managed by the ancient inhabitants of Pompeii. Both the human biological evidence and associated artifacts and features are studied to understand context, stratigraphy and cultural evolution. The program uses traditional excavation techniques – trowels and shovels, sifting and sorting – as well at advanced analytical instruments, such as Total Stations and Portable energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (pXRF). The program provides students with practical working knowledge of archaeological and anthropological field methods, including excavation, laboratory analysis, artifact cataloguing, topography, archaeological drawing and conservation. 8 Credit Hours
HIST 489PR The Disappearance of the Nuragic Culture on the Island of Sardinia: Landscape Archaeology at Progetto Pran’e Siddi, Italy
Pran’e Siddi, or the Siddi Plateau, is a high basaltic plateau located in the south-central part of the island of Sardinia (Italy), near the modern town of Siddi. The area around Siddi was inhabited by prehistoric villagers beginning in the Neolithic period (ca. 4000-3200 BCE). During the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1700-1450 BCE), these previously egalitarian people began to develop a hierarchical social system with an elite who expressed their power and prestige through the building of monumental stone towers called nuraghi. The elites of the Nuragic community on the Siddi Plateau built sixteen nuraghi, which they lived in and added onto for three centuries. By 1450 BCE, however, the elite sites on the Siddi Plateau seem to have been abandoned, and the population moved away. Progetto Pran’e Siddi was formed to conduct a thorough investigation of Nuragic climate, environment, land use, and economic practices in the Siddi region. We are interested in finding out what kinds of pressures – social, environmental, and/or economic – made the Nuragic people abandon their towers on the plateau. We are answering these questions through a combination of archaeological excavation and survey. Excavation takes place at the site of Sa Conca ‘e sa Cresia, one of the largest nuraghi on the plateau. Survey focuses both on-site and off-site, addressing the other Nuragic structures on the plateau as well as the landscapes surrounding them. By participating in Progetto Pran’e Siddi, students will contribute to ongoing research while gaining professional skills in excavation methods, pedestrian survey, and artifact processing. 8 Credit Hours
HIST 489CV Neanderthals & Modern Human Adaptive Strategies at Cova Gran De Santa Linya, Spain
This program is an immersive, practical experience in archaeological fieldwork involving hands-on experiential learning: students will study how to conduct archaeological research. Archaeology involves physical work and exposure to the elements and thus requires a measure of acceptance that this will not be the typical university learning environment. You will get sweaty, tired and have to work in the outdoors. Students are required to come equipped with sufficient excitement and adequate understanding that the archaeological endeavor requires fieldwork experience. 8 Credit Hours
HIST 489RV: Interactions between Italy & the Aegean in the Ancient Mediterranean: The Site of Roca Vecchia (Southern Italy)
The main objective of the field school is to provide students with a well-rounded understanding of archaeological fieldwork practice in the context of the ancient Mediterranean, from how research is designed and planned, to its every-day routines on and off-site, to its ongoing scientific interpretation. Students will receive five days of preliminary lectures, where they will be provided with all the information they need to fully engage in the field activities. At the same time, students will help with opening the site. During the following three weeks of fieldwork, students will conduct excavation and laboratory work during weekdays, while weekends will be dedicated to on and off-site documentation, museum visits and field trips. 8 Credit Hours
HIST 489SH: Hippos Excavation Project, Israel
Students will take active part in all stages of the excavations process and finds processing, supervised by the area manager of the field or by a specialist in the field laboratory. Students will have the opportunity to use all tools and documentation instruments. Students interested in conservation will have the opportunity to join the field conservation efforts under the supervision of the project’s conservator. Students will take part in the weekly lectures organized in the evenings, where they will learn about regional history and various research threads connected to the works at the site, including tools that were used to carry out this research. 8 Credit Hours
HIST 489ZA Zooarchaeology in Theory & Practice: Analyzing Materials from Los Angeles Natural History Museum and Channel Islands, CA (US)
This zooarchaeology field school is a laboratory program that focuses on the identification and interpretation of archaeological faunal materials. In addition to covering theoretical approaches to faunal remain interpretations, laboratory course work will concentrate on developing proficiency in identifying mammal, fish, bird, and herptile specimens. Students will learn how to use comparative collections for actual research of materials excavated archaeologically. Students will be trained in both academic writing and public interpretation of faunal materials. 8 Credit Hours
