Environmental Archaeology

Catalog description

Class Hours: 3 Lab/Discussion: 0 Credits: 3 Description: Explores past human interactions with the natural environment, including plants, animals, climate, and geologic landscapes. Incorporates hands-on practice in the scientific techniques used to reconstruct ancient environ­ments, including analysis of pollen, sediments and soils, and microfauna. Uses computer software to graph and interpret data sets. Illustrates archaeological case studies designed to illustrate both how environmental conditions and natural hazards (e.g., volcanoes, tsunamis) impacted past human populations, as well as how people have altered and modified their environment through time. Examines these interactions using a diachronic and comparative perspective, from the evolution of hominins millions of years ago to the recent phenomenon of the Anthropocene.