Welcome to the SBS 224s and 324s sections of the “Archaeology: From Map to Museum” introductory archaeology course. This course offering was designed by your professor to serve a unique applied or active learning experience. By active learning we are referring to the addition of both lab and field project-based learning experiences in which you, the student, are offered the opportunity to engage an authentic research experience in a hands-on or applied lab or field setting.

Unlike most introductory archaeology courses, this applied learning experience will (a) offer weekly opportunities to collect, analyze, and interpret archaeological and other cultural materials and data, (b) provide training in the analysis and study of ceramics, stone tools, bones, and modern material cultures ranging from garbage samples to low rider automobile paraphernalia, (c) allow you to fulfill the lab portion of your Science ULR Lab requirement, (d) permit you to demonstrate your learning via written narratives and online journals as opposed to exams or tests, (e) empower you to self-select those lab projects and learning experiences that you wish to carry through to a final project report, and (f) provide you the opportunity to work with authentic archaeological collections and related artifacts.

In order to make possible a full-fledged lab experience in archaeology, you will be required to register for and participate in the weekly labs identified with the SBS 224L and SBS 324L Archaeology Lab offerings noted in the semester schedule. In these labs you will participate in the conduct of selected research and lab projects. Projects will vary from semester to semester, but range from the hands-on study and manufacture of stone tools through to a modern material cultures study or “garbology” project that will pit you against other teams searching through and studying the ultimate trash sample from a campus source. Other project labs include the hands-on analysis of ancient ceramics and bones recovered from archaeological sites and deposits, and weekly class labs that allow you to work in teams to interpret data and study problems in archaeology.

In a word, it is the intent of this applied learning experience (aka: lab class) to put you in the shoes of the archaeologist…all the while making learning come to life in each week’s lab offerings.