- Built Environments: Archaeology of Architecture

Catalog description

An examination of the ways in which cultural values and belief systems are encoded in architecture and the problems that exist in interpreting these patterns. Students will use various sources of evidence (e.g., site plans, maps, artifacts, texts) to explore architecture and what it can tell us about different aspects of human society. Students will examine topics that include both practical and symbolic perspectives on the selection of building materials, the relation of activities and social roles to spatial constructions, the interplay between environment and architecture, the destruction and/or abandonment of spaces, and constructions for the supernatural and the afterlife.