ANT 2140 – Introduction to World Archeology

About the Course

The global study of human culture from its origins to the present through the recovery, description, and analysis of archaeological remains. This course explores the totality of human experience on earth, as known through archaeology, from the beginnings of humankind into the present. Course content is not organized chronologically or regionally, but thematically, focusing on how humans have made themselves and their worlds in the past and continue to do so today. 

Course Goals 

1. Identify significant turning points in the history of archaeology as a humanities discipline, beginning with its origins in Renaissance antiquarianism and the emergence of a “past” as different from the present, into the 21^st century. 
2. Define themes, fundamental principles, and basic terminology and methods essential to the discipline of archaeology. 
3. Recognize the diversity of experiences, formations, adaptations, and histories of human societies since the beginning of humankind on a global scale. 
4. Identify major changes in culture and technology in human history and explain their material and historical impacts and legacies into the present, especially those that have resulted in cross-cultural commonalities and differences. 
5. Explain how cultural heritage is an important resource and source of identity among virtually all peoples at the national, subnational, ethnic, and local levels. 
6. Identify ongoing threats to global tangible and intangible heritage and the challenges of its preservation. 
7. Recognize that the contemporary world results from a long history of separate developments and interdependencies, of continuities, connections, and transformations many of which are still in process. 

Satisfied High School Graduation Requirement Subject: Elective 

High School Credit: 0.5