World Archaeology

Undergraduate / Graduate

The aim of this course is to provide students with a broad overview of the development of human societies around the world from the first emergence of hominins to the industrial period, with a particular emphasis on an archaeological perspective for the historical periods. The course aims to cover a number of key developments, times and places (e.g. the Neolithic revolution, the first cities, Egypt, Buddhism, the Chinese empires) from a wide range of parts of the globe (South Asia, China, Western Asia, Europe, the Americas). Within the context of these topics, the course also aims to introduce to students a range of theoretical and methodological approaches or current debates. The course will be taught through 27, 50-min lecture and discussion classes by 19 different instructors from UChicago and beyond. The course has the value of providing students with a broad framework that will help them contextualize their learning throughout their time in Chicago. This course is one of the four required introductory courses in the archaeology major. There are no prerequisites.