Overview
Description
Topics selected from paleoecology, taphonomy, geoarchaeology, and dating methods; lectures, readings, and field trips cover advanced principles, method and theory, and practical applications.
Units
Lecture3
Catalog Details
Offering
Offered: Every Spring - Odd Years
Terms
spring
Attributes
Standard
Learning Outcomes
- describe the natural and cultural mechanisms driving environmental and climatic change.
- interpret the results of various archaeological dating methods, calibrate radiocarbon dates using industry-standard calibration software, and explain how various dating methods and their calibrations work.
- describe the processes that lead to different sedimentological structures, soil formation and landform evolution.
- use zooarchaeological, macrobotanical and palynological datasets to reconstruct past environmental conditions and past human diet.
- critically evaluate and model the way changes in human culture correspond to and operate within ecological contexts by specifically addressing: (a) the effects of climatic and environmental change on technology, social organization and politics; and conversely (b) how technology, social organization and politics affect climate and environment.