Ancient Technologies and Materials

Archaeology stopped being just trowels and typology a long time ago, and this course is where you learn the lab side of the discipline: how isotopes, residues, ancient DNA, peptides, and micromorphology turn dirt and bones into evidence about diet, mobility, environment, and chronology. Expect lectures paired with seminars and presentations, quizzes, a homework project, and enough engagement with each method that you can read a scientific archaeology paper without glazing over the methods section. As a senior spring requirement it ties together the field and material-culture training from earlier years, and it is the bridge you need before any thesis or graduate work involving archaeometry.