Description
Ever since my future mother in law gave me a special gift, I have been fascinated with Archaeology, including the gift, the famous book by C.W. Ceram, Gods, Graves, and Scholars. Yes, I am an Indiana Jones fan through and through, It is such a thrill to read about Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter unearthing the ruins of King Tut's tomb. Also, I am intrigued with the lost cities of the Olmec, Aztecs, Incas and Mayans. It is a special privilege to view the cable show, Expedition Unknown, and experience the Smithsonian and National Geographic as well as the Nova offerings on Archaeology. Over the years I am joined (in spirit) with the expeditions to find Nifertiti and Cleopatra tombs. Two of my favorite archaeologists and finders remain Schliemann and Elgin as well as the Leakeys. Their personalities left something to be desired, but they were men and women who preserved the past and presented to the world their findings. As an armchair archaeologist I have collected museum and excavation boardgames that have brought to life Mesopotamia, the Middle East, Far China, Atlantis, Teotihuacan, Machu Picchu and Cuzco. Two of my favorite "digging" films are Journey to the Center of the Earth and The Mummy (various versions) that have archaeological implications. What can we learn from Archaeology much more than digging up the past, scraping shards of dirt, or brushing an unearthed statue? It is a rewarding study of how scientists, fortune hunters, and collectors go to the ends of the Earth to find what other civilizations were like. Their unearthing, as tiresome and tedious as it may be, reveals worlds we thought could never be brought back to life.
Weekly Topics
Session 1. Theory & Methods of Archaeology: Lessons from King Tut's Tomb
Definitions of Archaeology: The Passive to Rubbish. Archaeology and Storytellers. "The Wondrous Things."
Session 2. Ashes to Ashes in Ancient Italy: What Pompeii and Herculaneum Meant.
Session 3. Digging Up Troy: Did It Exist?
Session 4. From Egypt to Eternity: Are You an Egyptologist?
Session 5. Mysteries in Mesopotamia: Were the Babylon Gardens Found?
Session 6. Discovering our Earliest Ancestors, First Farmers in the Fertile Crescent: Pre-Historic Africa
Session 7. Exploring the Jungles of Central America and Mexico: Tikal, Palenque, Uxmal, Copán, Teotihuacán
Session 8. Revealing the First Greeks: the Bronze Age
Session 9. Classical Greece: Discus Throwing to Democracy
Session 10. Finding Atlantis?: Did It Exist? Was it Santorini or Akrotiri?
Session 11. The Roman Eras: What did the Romans teach us about preservation?
Session 12. Cities of the Desert: Excavating Armageddon, Petra
Session 13. Unearthing the Bible: What Really Happened at Masada?
Session 14. Session 14. Do you keep what you find?: Museum Collections, Looting, New Advances with LiDAR and Other Technologies, Excavations (e.g. Submarine Hunley) and UNESCO Sites
Bibliography
Core Book
Cline, Eric H. Three Stones Create a Wall: The Story of Archaeology. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2017.
Selected Bibliography
Bahn, Paul, ed. The History of Archaeology: An Introduction. London and New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2014.
Carlsen, William. Jungle of Stone: The True Story of Two Men, Their Extraordinary Journey and The Discovery of the Lost Civilization of The Maya. New York: HarperCollins, 2016.
Ceram, C.W. Gods, Graves, & Scholars--The Story of Archaeology. Second, Revised, and Substantially Enlarged Edition.
Cambridge and New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968.
Down, David. The Archaeological Book. Green Forest, Arkansas.: MasterBooks, 2010.
Fagan, Brian A. Eyewitness to Discovery: First-Person Accounts of More Than Fifty of the World's Greatest Archaeological Discoveries. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
_________. Writing Archaeology: Telling Stories about the Past. Walnut Creek, California: Left Coast Press, Inc. 2006.
Magness, Jodi. The Archaeology of the Holy Land: from the Destruction of Solomon's Temple to the Moslem Conquest. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Parcak, Sarah. Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2019.
White, Nancy Marie. Archaeology for Dummies. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2008.
