Anthro 411

ANTHROPOLOGY 411 - Archaeology of Europe

This course presents a survey of European prehistory through the study of archaeological remains from the early Paleolithic period until the Roman Conquest. The goal of the course is to introduce students to the geographic distribution of major sites, chronological sequences, and most prominent material remains. Also, the course is designed to discuss possible relationships of subsistence patterns to environment of prehistoric peoples in Europe, and to compare them with general trends in the Old World. The coverage will not be comprehensive, given the time span and geographical variability of Europe. Therefore, the focus of the course will be comparitively analyzing sites from different regions and discussing a number of outstanding theoretical issues. The subject matter of the course is divided into four chronological units:

Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Metal Ages.

Some examples of the archaeological sites we will examine:

The Ritual Temples of Malta

Terra Amata, a site in southern France occupied some 380,000 years ago

Borremose, a Danish settlement that dates to Roman times

The haunting cave paintings of Lascaux, France

Neolithic stone circles and ritual complexes of Avebury, England

Stonehenge

Bronze Age Tombs of Italy