Course syllabus

Welcome to ANTHRO 353: Archaeology in Practice!

In this course we will explore the analysis of archaeological materials and how we make meaningful measurements and interpret our findings. This will involve hands-on, practical work in the lab and use of basic quantitative methods. In lectures, we will learn how theory guides measurement (and indeed, everything else we do in archaeology), as well as the background to the analysis of different archaeological artefacts.

Lecturer Details

Matthew Barrett  |  mbar221@aucklanduni.ac.nz 

Office Hour: By appointment

If you would like to meet please get in touch and we can arrange a time.

Class Contact Hours

Monday 2-4, Humanities Building, Room 201
Thursday 9-10, Humanities Building, Room 203

Lab Demonstrations: Archaeology Teaching Laboratory, Social Sciences Building, Room 707

Class Representative

Tamara Pavich | tpav032@aucklanduni.ac.nz

Course Overview and Structure

The course will cover several topics relating to archaeological materials analysis. In the first few lectures, we will focus on the interrelationship between theory, classification and measurement, measurement error and its inevitable presence and influence on precision and accuracy. We will then explore different classes of archaeological materials and artefacts in more detail. In most instances we will actually perform analysis on these materials, whereas other materials will be treated in lectures only. Examples we discuss in class and in the lab are mostly from New Zealand and the Pacific, with others from elsewhere around the world.

Lecture slides and lab handouts will be made available prior to class. These and any other associated resources can be found under the relevant Module.

Each week there will be required reading. The main text for the course is The Archaeologist's Laboratory: The Analysis of Archaeological Data by Edward Banning, but reading also includes relevant journal articles. Occasionally there will be additional recommended reading. Readings are chosen to supplement and reinforce content covered in lectures and will be tested on in quizzes. All readings are available online under Reading Lists or the relevant Module.

Click here to download the course overview.

Laboratory Component

In addition to lectures, there are six practical labs designed to give you hands-on exposure to a range of archaeological artefacts. In weeks where there is a lab, these will be in the second hour on the Monday and will take place in the archaeology laboratory in the Social Sciences Building (room 707). The first hour will be in the usual lecture room and will provide an overview of the material of focus, and what kinds of attributes we might measure, as well as how and why.

The lab demonstrations will consist of a short presentation of background information, followed by specific directions and demonstrations for executing the laboratory assignment. The labs form a bulk of the assessment for the course. While you will not write up all of them for credit, attendance at each lab session is compulsory to ensure you are exposed to the analysis of different archaeological materials.

There will be a short orientation and health and safety induction the first time we enter the lab.

Assessment

Assessment for the course consists of three lab reports (20% each, total 60%), ten online quizzes (2% each, total 20%), and a take-home test (20%). Further information about the course assessment as well as the late submission policy can be found here.