Material Correlates: Comparing Archaeological Evidence and Interpretation in the Near East and Mesoa

Undergraduate / Graduate

Fundamentally, this course examines how archaeological knowledge of the past is a reflection of both the physical traces of former times and the epistemic and institutional traditions by which it is understood. This seminar is a comparative exploration of archaeological evidence and the interpretative frameworks used to investigate it. We will examine how archaeologists from different disciplinary and regional traditions identify and explain the past, highlighting shared tools and techniques alongside points of departure and contestation. Drawing primarily from the instructors' regions of expertise in the Near East and Mesoamerica, the course is structured around a series of thematic comparisons. What do archaeologists working in different parts of the world consider robust material evidence of the past? What factors influence how archaeologists categorize, analyze, and explain that evidence? Do archaeologists working in different regions approach bones, stones, metals, and ceramics in the same ways? How does an approach rooted in anthropological analogies differ from one grounded in historical sources? What traditional explanations and tropes might be accepted in one archaeological context, but seem entirely out of place in another?