Introduction to Archaeology

Course Content

TOPIC 1: Overview and Introduction
• Why study or practice Archaeology?
• Defining the discipline: its nature, scope and key concepts
• Its space among other disciplines (Anthropology, History, Prehistory) and in the contemporary world
TOPIC 2: Theoretical development
• Antiquarianism to Culture-Historical approach
• Paradigms of Processual and Post-Processual Archaeology
• Controversies, current and future trends
• Archaeology in India
TOPIC 3: Archaeological methods through case studies
• Pre-excavation strategy, excavation and post- excavation techniques and analyses
• Data and contexts
• Contribution of Sciences in Archaeology
TOPIC 4: Cultures and Chronologies
• Human origins and Evolution (Africa, Europe and Asia)
• Culture (Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic) vs material culture (artifacts and ecofacts)
• Simple to complex societies to civilizations
• Explaining cultural change/adaptation through case studies
• Cultural heritage (tangible and intangible), cultural resource management
• Laws and legislations
TOPIC 5: Branches/Types of Archaeology
• Social archaeology
• Environmental archaeology
• Public archaeology
• Underwater archaeology etc.

Texts/References

Hodder, I. 1995. Interpreting Archaeology: Finding Meaning in the Past. New York: Routledge.
Greene, K. 2002. Archaeology: An Introduction. London: Routledge
Murray, T. 2007. Milestones in archaeology: a chronological encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.
Johnson, Matthew. 2010. Archaeological theory: an introduction, 2nd edition. New York: Wiley.
Renfrew, C. and Bahn, P. 2012. Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice, 6th edition, London: Thames & Hudson.
Paddayya, K. 2014. Multiple Approaches to the Study of India's Early Past: Essays in Theoretical Archaeology. Aryan Books International.
Childe, V. G. 2015. Piecing together the past the interpretation of archeological data.