Emory University



ARCHAEOLOGY: MODERN MYTHS, PSEUDO-SCIENCE, AND THE STUDY OF THE PASTCL 103/ ANT 185 Prof. Sandra Blakely Candler Library 221 Fsblakel@emory.eduOffice Hours: Wed. 4:30-6:30 or by appointment Course Overview:Why does archaeology inspire endless theories about aliens, lost civilizations, apocalyptic predictions, and mysterious technologies? While archaeological investigation is in many ways about solving ancient mysteries, archaeology is grounded in rigorous methodologies, careful accumulation and analysis of data, and scientific method.? This course explores where pseudoarcheology comes from and the cultural work it does, and introduces the foundations of archaeological methods and scientific inquiry. Students will develop critical thinking skills and analytical tools to evaluate evidence, ?and will engage with larger questions about uses of history and the evolution of political and religious ideologies that are built on historical and archaeological ideas. Along the way, we learn about who really did build the pyramids, what happened to Atlantis, and ?what the Fascists found in the Roman forum.Course requirements: All students are expected to attend class regularly, participate in class discussions, complete all of the readings and assignments by the dates outlined in the syllabus, and take exams on the dates they are given. Class attendance is especially important in a course like this—we will cover a weird and varied body of material drawn from a wide range of sources, which will be near impossible to reconstruct on your own. Evaluation and AssessmentClass participation and citizenship (16%). In addition to regular attendance and basic engagement in the course, students are expected to participate in class discussions and contribute to group projects. Texting or otherwise distracting yourselves or others in class with electronic devices will result in major deductions in your class participation grade. Writing assignments, 8 assignments at 3% each: 24%3 Midterm Exams, 20% each: 60%Student learning outcomes: by the end of this course, you should: Be familiar with, and be able to explain to others, basic archaeological methods and modes of inquiry.Have working knowledge of several ancient cultures, their historical contexts, and major archaeological questions about them.Be able to critically evaluate both scholarly and non-scholarly arguments about the history of the ancient world and articulate well-reasoned responses to them.COURSE CALENDAR (Subject to change: all readings should be done before the class for which they are assigned.) WEEK 1: Launching the argument: who’s calling who wackadoo? January 19: Fagan, “Far-Out Television”Holtorf, “Beyond crusades: how (not) to engage with alternative archaeologies”Fagan and Feder, “Crusading against straw men”WEEK 2: Introduction: Cult Archaeology in context: the view from 30,000 feetJanuary 22: Stiebing, W.H., Jr. “The Nature and Dangers of Cult Archaeology,” in Cult Archaeology and Creationism. (Iowa 1998), p. 1-10.Renfrew, C. and P. Bahn, Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice, Introduction, p. 11-14; overview of the field, 19-48. January 24: Schick and Vaughn, “Informal Fallacies”January 26: WRITING ASSIGNMENT #1: finding and exposing pseudoarchaeology on the webWEEK 3: Lost cities, Lost minds? The many lives of Atlantis – and other missing cities.January 29: Feder, K. “Lost: One Continent—Reward,” from Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries, 193-209, 217-223.Balch, E.S. “Atlantis or Minoan Crete”, Geographical Review 3 (1917): 388-392. Babcock, W.H. “Atlantis and Antillia”, Geographical Review 3 (1917): 392-395.January 31:Selections from Plato’s Timaeus and Critias: Friedrich, W.L., et al. “Santorini Eruption Radiocarbon Dated to 1627–1600 B.C.,” Science 312 (28 April 2006): 548.Marinatos, N. Akrotiri, 5-15 and 44-62 February 2: Begley, “The Lost White City of the Honduras: Discovered Again (and Again)”Preston. “Exclusive: Lost City Discovered in Honduran Rain Forest.” National Geographic, 2 March, 2015 WEEK 4: Coming to America: Who came before Columbus, what did they find, and what did they leave behind? February 5 Feder, K. “Who Discovered America?” p. 89-132.February 7Feder, K. “The Myth of the Moundbuilders” p.133-160.Hughey, Michael W. and Michael G. Michlovic, “‘Making’ History: The Vikings in the American Heartland,” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 2 (1989): 338-360.February 9: pseudo archaeology and sociogenesisLewis, “Excavating Tradition”Coe, “Mormon Archaeology” Reviews from American Antiquity 80.3 (2015): Zimmerman, “Lost Colonies of Ancient America”; Auerbach, Ancient Giants who Ruled America; Cooper, Iron Age America; Quinlan, “Asiatic Echoes”WRITING ASSIGNMENT #2: compare and contrast Mormon Lamanites and American Vikings WEEK 5: Boldly going where no one has gone before…..Aliens, Astronauts and Ancient AstronomersFebruary 12Van D?niken, E. Chariots of the Gods? Chapters 1-4.Kilgannon, Corey. “Origin of the Species, From an Alien View,” New York Times, 10 January 2010. Peruse , on the Antikythera mechanism: , February 14Aveni, Anthony. The end of time: The Maya Mystery of 2012. Chapters 4-5 (p. 65-116; available online, Emory library).February 16 MIDTERM #1WEEK 6: Stonehenge, Physics, and Space: Archaeology about and near the starsFebruary 19Ruggles, C. “Astronomy and Stonehenge.” in Science & Stonehenge, eds. B. Cunliffe and C. Renfrew, (British Academy/Oxford University Press 1997), p. 203–229.Lekson, review of Star shrines and earthworks, American Antiquity 80.3 Odling-Smee, Lucy. “Dig Links Stonehenge to Circle of Life,” Nature 445 (Published on line 7 February 2007): 21McKusick, M. “Psychic Archaeology: Theory, Method, and Mythology,” Journal of Field Archaeology 9 (1982): 99-118.Gorman, A.C., “The archaeology of space exploration,” in Space Travel and Culture: From Apollo to Space Tourism. (Blackwell 2009), pp. 132-145.February 23Leerssen, J. “Gods, Heroes and Mythologists: Romantic scholars and the Pagan Roots of Europe’s Nations”, History of Humanities 1.1 (2016): Cunliffe, B. Druids: A Very Short Introduction, , B. “Romanticism, Nationalism and Archaeology”, in Nationalism, Politics nad the Practice of Archaeology, ed Kohl and Fawcett, 262-79 (Cambridge) WRITING ASSIGNMENT #3: Compare and contrast the Romantic and the Psychic approaches to pseudoarchaeologyWEEK 7: Indiana Jones was on to something: Nazis, Fascists, and the politics of archaeology February 26Arnold, B. “Pseudoarchaeology and Nationalism: Essentializing Difference,” in Archaeological Fantasies: How pseudoarchaeology misrepresents the past and misleads the public. (2006), p. 154-179. Arnold, B. “Arierd?mmerung”: Race and Archaeology in Nazi Germany,” World Archaeology 38.1 (2006): 8-31 February 28Scott, K. “Mussolini and the Roman Empire,” The Classical Journal 27 (1932): 645-657.Hibbert, C. “Roma Fascista,” in Rome: Biography of a City (New York/London 1985), p. 286-303. March 2Munzi, M. “Italian archaeologists in colonial Tripolitania”, Libyan Studies 43 (2012): 81-110Arthurs, J. “The Third Rome and its Discontents, 1848-1922”, in Excavating Modernity: The Roman Past in Fascist Italy, 9-28WRITING ASSIGNMENT #4: Five critical points comparing Fascist excavations inside and outside of Italy WEEK 8: “I’m not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens”: pyramid power and hyperdiffusion March 5Jordan, Paul. “Esoteric Egypt,” in Archaeological Fantasies: How pseudoarchaeology misrepresents the past and misleads the public, p. 109-128.For aliens and other theories about building the pyramids, see…endless stuff on the internet. But you can start with: (mathematical!) and (aliens) and (pyramid power)On Omm Sety: Akhenaten as alien: ; Burridge, Alwyn. “Did Akhenaten Suffer from Marfan's Syndrome?” The Biblical Archaeologist 59 (1996): 127-128.March 7: CLASS CANCELLED March 9: WEEK 9: SPRING BREAK! March 12-16WEEK 10: March 19 Inside and outside the academy: Pyramidologies, Pyramidiots Derricourt, R. “Pyramidologies of Egypt: A Typological Review”, Cambridge Archaeological Journal 22.3 (2012): 353-363Hancock, G. Fingerprints of the Gods: Selections (1995)Reviews from American Antiquity 80.3 (2015) Card, Ancient Aliens; Feder, Fingerprints of the Gods; Cline, Gobekli Tepe; Holly, Talking to the Guy on the Airplane.DUE MARCH 20: WRITING ASSIGNMENT #5: Find two additional online sources for space-invading pharaohs –and offer five points of discussion vis-à-vis archaeological conversations. March 21: Right place, Wrong Time; Right people, Wrong Place…Losing civilizations and finding people. How archaeologists do and don’t “look for” ancient societies, what they find, and how they know. Rose, C. Brian. “Troy and the Historical Imagination,”Schliemann, Heinrich. “Homeric Troy,” in Eyewitness to Discovery. B. Fagan, ed., p. 176-185.Korfmann, “Was there a Trojan War” Archaeology 57.3 (2004): March 23 : Thompson, D. “Transmission of Troy Stories to the Middle Ages,” in The Trojan War: Literature and Legends from the Bronze Age to the Present (Chapter 8). p. 126-137.Have a look at two or three of these post-antique sources on the war; you can get to the etexts through links at: WEEK 11: March 26 - MIDTERM #2March 28 By the Book: Archaeology and the Bible, part ICline, E.H. Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction, Chapters 7-8 (p. 71-88). March 30Batuman, E. “The Sanctuary: The World’s Oldest Temple and the Dawn of Civilization,” The New Yorker, Dec 19 & 26, 2011.Renfrew and Bahn, “The Origins of Farming: A Processual Explanation,” in Archaeology, p. 413.WEEK 12: Buy the book! Archaeology and the Bible, Part II April 2 Bielo, “Creationist History-Making: Producing a Heterodox Past”, 81-101WRITING ASSIGNMENT #6: Seek out reviews of the controversial Museum of the Bible in Washington DC: identify four to five factors relevant to pseudoarchaeology in these collectionsApril 4Cline, E.H. Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction, Chapters 10 & 12 (p. 71-88; 115-129).Vaughan, C. “The Shroud of Turin is Fake,” Science News 134 (1988): 229.Silberman, N.A. and Y. Goren. “Faking Biblical History,” in Archaeological Ethics, Second Edition. K.D. Vitelli and C. Colwell-Chanthaphonh, eds. (2006), p. 49-62.April 6Meyers and Meyers, Archaeology, Bible, Politics and the Media (2012): chapters by Gerstenblith, “The Media and Archaeological Preservation in Iraq”, 15-39; Kersel, “The Power of the Press”, 73-83; Wharton, “Comments on Morag Kersel”, 84-88WEEK 13: Making Mother Cultures: Racism and the Victorians, revisitedApril 9Anderson, “Black Olmecs and White Egyptians: A Parable for Professional Archaeological Responses to Pseudoarchaeology”Gosden, C. “Race and Racism in archaeology: Introduction,” WA 38.1 (2006): 1-7April 11Lorimer, D. “Theoretical Racism in Late Victorian Anthropology, 1870-1900”, Victorian Studies 31.3 (1988): 405-430Curtoni and Politis, “Race and Racism in South American Archaeology”, WA 38.1 (2006): 93-108April 13Siapkas, “Skulls from the Past: Archaeological Negotiation of Scientific Racism”, Bulletin of the History of Archaelogy 26(1): 1-9WRITING ASSIGNMENT #7: compare and contrast the racisms brought to bear in the archaeologies two different cultural contextsWEEK 14: Excavating religion identity: Ritual uses of alternative pasts April 16Dunn, “Witches, Shamans and Looters: Alternative Uses and Contemporary Ritual Reuse of Archaeological Remains in the North-Central Coast of Peru”Taussig and Wachtel, Pathways of Memory and Power: Ethnography and History among an Andean People, selections.April 18Blain, “Neo-Shamanism: Pagan and ‘Neo-Shamanic’ Interactions with Archaeology, in Insoll, ed., The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion, 1017-1031April 20Pruitt, Creating Pyramids: Participation, Performance, and Pseudoarchaeology in Bosnia-Herzegovina,Rose, “The Bosnia-Atlantis Connection”, Archaeology, 27 April 2006 Rose, “More of Bosnian “Pyramids”, Archaeology, 27 June 2006 WEEK 15: How archaeologists should or should not engage with Pseudoarchaeology April 23Gojak, The Central Australian Face: A Study of Archaeological Responses to Pseudoarchaeological ClaimsApril 25 Parker, “The Proliferation of Pseudoarchaeology through “Reality” Television Programming”Clack and Brittain, Archaeology and the Media, selectionsApril 27Feder, Barnhart, Bolnick and Lepper: Lessons Learned from Lost CivilizationsWRITING ASSIGNMENT #8: Attack and defense of the History channel WEEK 16: Still lookingApril 30, Last day of class: real mysteries in archaeology today, and the future of science and pseudo-science.FINAL EXAM: Monday May 7 8:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. ................
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