The Stone Age Meets the Information Age:
an introduction to archaeology
IFS 1998
Professor Jeanne Sept
Anthropology Department
Student Building 038 (office)
855-5395; sept@indiana.edu
Lisa Maiorino (intern)
Teter Hall room xxx
Exploring Historical Archaeology
Society for Historical Archaeology
"Historical archaeology is the study of the material remains of past societies that also left behind some other form of historical evidence. This field of research embraces the interests of a diverse group of scholars representing the disciplines of anthropology, history, geography, and folklore. In the New World, historical archaeologists work on a broad range of sites preserved on land and underwater. These sites document early European settlement and its effects on Native American peoples, as well the subsequent spread of the frontier and later urbanization and industrialization. By examining the physical and documentary record of these sites, historical archaeologists attempt to discover the fabric of common everyday life in the past and seek to understand the broader historical development of their own and other societies. "
We will look at two examples of historical archaeology.
- In class we will do some research at the Five Points site in New York City, an example of "urban archaeology."
- Your first essay is related to readings and WWW materials about historical archaeology at Monticello.
Search the online contents of Archaeology Magazine for "Five Points" to learn how archaeologists are investigating the life (Or you can find the same article in the library in the March/April 1997 issue.)
Jeanne Sept does field research related to the archaeology of human origins in East Africa,
and teaches in the Anthropology Department at Indiana University, Bloomington.
visit her main web page Human Origins and Evolution in Africa or the following topical pages:
Africa | Primates | Human Evolution | Paleoecology | Archaeology
IU Anthropology | Sept teaching interests | Sept research | Sept Personal Home PageLast updated: 5 August, 1998
URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~origins/index.html
Comments: sept@indiana.edu
Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 Jeanne Sept