Archaeological Method and Theory

HART 436 steps back from digging and dating to ask how archaeologists actually *think* — how the discipline's interpretive frameworks, from 19th-century culture-history through processualism and post-processualism to current trends, shape what counts as evidence and explanation in the first place. You'll work through Trigger and Renfrew/Bahn alongside primary readings, write papers, and give oral presentations that trace how theoretical commitments play out when documenting place, time, and human remains. As a senior capstone, it pulls together the methods you've practiced in earlier fieldwork and material-culture courses and gives you the vocabulary to read — and argue with — the archaeological literature you'll meet in grad school or professional practice.