Course syllabus

Jump to today
Instructor: Dr Joshua Emmitt (josh.emmitt@auckland.ac.nz)
Josh’s office hours: Wednesday 10:00 – 11:00, or by appointment. HSB 836.
Meeting time: Wednesday 12:00 – 2:00 (Human Sciences - East, Rm 807)

 

The aims of the course are to teach you how to: (A) critically assess the ways in which people have investigated and interpreted archaeological landscapes, (B) examine the application of GIS and related technologies by archaeologists, and (C) become proficient in the use of GIS software. The course includes a combination of seminar discussions and use of computer software.

The ESRI GIS program ArcGIS will be learnt through a series of lectures, lab practicum, and hours spent in front of a computer. There will be readings that will give you a basic understanding of GIS in general and the ArcGIS program in specific, and you will work through a series of exercises.

 

There are several components to the course:

  • About 40% of the course is organized around seminar discussions that focus on the theoretical underpinnings of landscape archaeology and substantive GIS applications (such as viewshed analysis or predictive modelling). Students will be assigned TWO seminar topics, one theoretical and one substantive. For each presentation the student will read 8 to 10 key articles about each topic. ONE WEEK BEFORE the theoretical seminar presentation, the student assigned the topic will assign 2 articles for the other students to read (providing PDF files of the articles to Josh for distribution), and will email Josh as an attachment an EndNote bibliography file listing the 8 or 10 articles they have read (and PDF files of these additional articles if possible). On the day of the theoretical seminar the person who has been assigned that topic will present a 20 minute summary. The presentation should be PowerPoint based, and a PDF of the PowerPoint should be emailed to me after the presentation. I will distribute these to the other students. After the presentation, we will have a 20 minute discussion. This discussion will be led by the presenter, with other students each asking a minimum of two questions. It is obviously very important that both the student giving the presentation and the rest of us are well prepared. Please do all of the assigned readings before the class, prepare some notes, and come to class ready to discuss the fascinating topic of the day. The format for the substantive seminar presentations will be the same, with the exception that the presenter will only assign 1 article for the other students to read, and will only give a 10 to 15 minute presentation followed by a 10 to 15 minute discussion of the topic. Each seminar presentation is worth 5% of your final grade. I will assess the presentation based on the quality of assigned readings, your understanding and critical analysis of those readings, your oral presentation and ability to lead the discussion, and your PowerPoint presentation.

 

  • Students will take short READING QUIZZES at the beginning of lectures during the first semester in weeks 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. Each quiz will be a series of questions that will be easily answered if you have done the weekly readings before the lecture. Students will be marked on their top 8 quizzes (worth 1.25% each) for the semester.

 

  • Students will write a 3500 word essay comparing and contrasting current theoretical and methodological approaches to spatial analysis within landscape archaeology. This paper should be based on all the seminar readings that you have done throughout the course, the additional readings in the distributed bibliographies, and the PowerPoint presentations given by students. This essay should not be a “laundry list” of what you have read, rather a critical review of the current state of landscape archaeology and likely future developments. This essay is due July 15th and is worth 30% of your final grade. No late papers will be accepted without prior discussion with Josh, or a medical certificate.

 

  • Students will complete a series of GIS exercises and labs. These will teach students the basics of GIS data structure, data entry, analysis, and outputs (maps and charts). It is essential that you attend each lecture, as you will not be able to complete your second essay unless you have come to all the lectures and completed all the labs.

 

  • In the second half of the year students will conduct an original GIS based analysis. The analysis could be a pilot study for a larger thesis research project, or preferably a discrete, focused, analysis of an archaeological data set.  The first phase of this assignment is worth 10% of your final grade and is due September 14th, and is a short 750-1000 word ODD (Overview, Design concepts, and Details) of your proposed research. This ODD will include a contextulization of the problem within the framework of past research, and the specification of the necessary data and general methodology that you will use to address the problem. It is very important that you discuss potential topics with Josh. The final essay will be ca. 5000 words, and can incorporate some of the elements of the ODD. The final 5000 word essay should be formatted as a manuscript that could be submitted for publication in a referred journal. It should contextualize the research problem within past research, and specify the data that are analyzed, the GIS analytical methods, results, discussion and conclusions. On October 17th students will present a 10 minute summary of the results of their research. You should think of this presentation as akin to giving a conference paper, and should prepare appropriate visual material to keep us all amused. This is worth 5% of your final grade. The essay is due October 27th and is worth 35% of your final grade. No late papers will be accepted without prior discussion with Josh, or a medical certificate.

 

SEMESTER 1

 Week 1: February 28th

  • Introduction to the course

 

Week 2: March 7th

  • Landscape Archaeology and GIS

 

Week 3: March 14th 

  • Landscape Archaeology and GIS

 

Week 4: March 21st (Dr Gerard O’Regan)

  • The Maori rock art landscape

 

Week 5: March 28th

  • Phenomenological Archaeology (Tara)
  • Archaeology of memory (a.k.a. structuralism) (Tom)

 

Week 6: April 18th

  • Historical ecology (Patricia)
  • Political economy (Carrisa)

 

Week 7: April 25th ANZAC DAY - NO CLASS

 

Week 8: May 2nd

  • Praxis and agency archaeology (Liam)
  • Time perspectivism (Carrie)

 

Week 9: May 10th

  • Heritage management and museumology (Andrea)
  • Sites, distributional, and land unit archaeology (Patricia)

 

Week 10: May 16th

  • Social network analysis (Liam)
  • Cost-surface and viewshed analysis (Tom)

 

Week 11: May 23rd

  • Remote sensing (Carrisa)
  • Resource characterization, locational analysis, and predictive modeling (Andrea)

 

Week 12: May 30th

  • 3-D modeling and Virtual reality (Carrie)
  • Agent-based modeling and simulations (Tara)

 

 SEMESTER 2

 Week 1: July 18th

  • Intro to ArcGIS: ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcTools, ArcScene
  • ArcGIS: Geodatabases, spatial, and attribute data

 

Week 2: July 25th

  • ArcGIS: Geodatabases, spatial and attribute data
  • ArcGIS: Creating and editing data

 

Week 3: August 1st

  •  ArcGIS: Spatial analysis and statistics

 

Week 4: August 8th

  • ArcGIS: Raster analysis

 

Week 5: August 15th

  • ArcGIS: Map design and GIS outputs

 

Week 6: August 22nd

  • ArcGIS: ArcScene and 3D data

 

Week 7: September 12th

  • Student presentations about projects

 

Week 8: September 19th

  • Presentation TBA

 

Week 9: September 26th

  • Individual meetings with students

 

Week 10: October 3rd

  • Open GIS Lab

 

Week 11: October 10th

  • Methods for examining past landscape use in the Fayum, Egypt

 

Week 12: October 17th

  • Student presentations of research projects

 

Course summary:

Date Details Due