ANTH 290A: Archaeology of the Body
Spring 2014
Monday Wednesday, 8:20 - 9:50 AM
Asbury Hall 007
Dr. Lydia Wilson Marshall
Office: Asbury Hall 223
Email: lydiamarshall@depauw.edu
Phone: 765-658-4508
Office Hours: 2:30-4 PM Monday and Thursday or by appointment.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course examines archaeological and physical anthropological research on the human body.
The course considers how such research is carried out, what it contributes to our understanding
of ancient societies, and the ethical issues unique to the study of human remains. Topics
discussed include mortuary ritual, the relationship between the living and the dead, prehistoric
warfare, and skeletal markers of disease.
COURSE TEXTBOOKS
Mays, Simon
2010 The Archaeology of Human Bones. 2nd Edition. London: Routledge.
Parker Pearson, Michael
1999 The Archaeology of Death and Burial. College Station, TX: Texas A&M
University Press.
All other assigned readings will be posted as pdfs in Moodle or put on reserve in the library.
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SUMMARY OF ASSIGNMENT DUE DATES, QUIZZES, AND TESTS
2/17:
2/24:
3/3:
3/12:
3/21:
4/2:
4/14:
4/16:
4/23:
4/28:
5/5:
5/5:
5/7:
5/10:
Skeletal exercise #1 due
Skeletal exercise #2 due
Human skeletal anatomy quiz
Midterm
Cemetery demography lab assignment due (note: not a class day)
Research paper title, two-page proposal, and bibliography (6 sources minimum) due
Research paper outline due
Social identity and death exercise due
Rough draft of research paper due
Peer-review of rough draft of research paper due
Final draft of research paper due
Student research presentations
Student research presentations, continued
Final exam
CLASS SCHEDULE AND READINGS
Monday, 1/27: Course Introduction and Overview of Expectations and Goals
Wednesday, 1/29: Why Archaeology of the Body?
Parker Pearson, Michael
1999 Chapter 1: Learning from the Dead. In The Archaeology of Death and Burial. Pp.
1-20. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press.
Turner, Terrence S.
1980 The Social Skin. In Not Work Alone: A Cross-Cultural View of Activities.
Jeremy Cherfas and Roger Lewin, eds. Pp. 112-140. Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE.
Monday, 2/3: Archaeological Perspectives on the Body
Hamilakis, Yannis, Mark Pluciennik, and Sarah Tarlow
2002 Introduction: Thinking through the Body. In Thinking through the Body:
Archaeologies of Corporeality. Yannis Hamilakis, Mark Pluciennik, and Sarah Tarlow,
eds. Pp. 1-21. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Tarlow, Sarah
2008 The Extraordinary History of Oliver Cromwell’s Head. In Past Bodies: BodyCentered Research in Archaeology. Dušan Borić and John Robb, eds. Pp. 69-78. Oxford:
Oxbow Books.
Monday 2/3 – Last day of adjustment period
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THEME 1: UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN BODY
Wednesday, 2/5: Understanding Human Skeletal Anatomy: Determining Sex
Mays, Simon
2010 Chapter 1: The Nature of Bones and Teeth and Chapter 3: The Determination of
Age and Sex (excerpt). In The Archaeology of Human Bones. 2nd Edition. Pp.1-14, 4050. London: Routledge.
Monday, 2/10: Understanding Human Skeletal Anatomy: Determining Age
Mays, Simon
2010 Chapter 2: The Determination of Age and Sex (excerpt). In The Archaeology of
Human Bones. 2nd Edition. Pp.51-76. London: Routledge.
Skeletal exercise #1 handed out
Wednesday, 2/12: The Interpretive Value of Age and Sex Determination
Mays, Simon
2010 Chapter 2: The Determination of Age and Sex (excerpt). In The Archaeology of
Human Bones. 2nd Edition. Pp.76-89. London: Routledge.
Perry, Megan
2005 Redefining Childhood through Bioarchaeology: Toward an Archaeological and
Biological Understanding of Children in Antiquity. Archeological Papers of the
American Anthropological Association 15(1): 89-111.
Monday, 2/17: The Human Skull
Mays, Simon
2010 Chapter 4: Metric Variation in the Human Skull. In The Archaeology of Human
Bones. 2nd Edition. Pp. 91-125. London: Routledge.
Skeletal exercise #1 due
Skeletal exercise #2 handed out
Wednesday, 2/19: Bone Disease
Mays, Simon
2010 Chapter 7: Bone Disease. In The Archaeology of Human Bones. 2nd Edition. Pp.
177-216. London: Routledge.
Monday, 2/24: Dental Disease
Mays, Simon
2010 Chapter 8: Dental Disease. In The Archaeology of Human Bones. 2nd Edition.
Pp. 217-235. London: Routledge.
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Seiler, Roger, Andrew Spielman, Albert Zink, and Frank Rühli
2013 Oral Pathologies of the Neolithic Iceman. European Journal of Oral Sciences
121(3): 137-141.
Skeletal exercise #2 due
Wednesday, 2/26: Skeletal Injury
Mays, Simon
2010 Chapter 9: Traces of Injury on the Skeleton. In The Archaeology of Human
Bones. 2nd Edition. Pp. 236-264. London: Routledge.
Monday, 3/3: Human skeletal anatomy quiz, in-class film Skeletons of the Sahara (excerpt),
and film discussion.
No reading
Wednesday, 3/5: The Interpretive Value of Identifying Violence
Martin, Debra
2008 Ripped Flesh and Torn Souls: Skeletal Evidence for Captivity and Slavery from
La Plata Valley, New Mexico, AD 1100-1300. In Invisible Citizens: Captives and Their
Consequences. Catherine M. Cameron, ed. Pp. 159-180. Salt Lake City: University of
Utah Press.
Milner, George R.
1995 An Osteological Perspective on Prehistoric Warfare. In Regional Approaches to
Mortuary Analysis. Lane A. Beck, ed. Pp. 221-244. New York: Plenum Press
Monday, 3/10: Isotope Analysis
Mays, Simon
2010 Chapter 10: Stable Isotope Analysis. In The Archaeology of Human Bones. 2nd
Edition. Pp. 265-289. London: Routledge.
Price, T. Douglas, Joachim Wahl, and R. Alexander Bentley
2006 Isotopic Evidence for Mobility and Group Organization among Neolithic Farmers
at Talheim, Germany, 5000 BC. European Journal of Archaeology 9(2-3):259-284.
Wednesday, 3/12: Midterm
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Monday, 3/17: Cemetery Demography Lab
Chamberlain, Andrew
2006 The Life Table. In Demography in Archaeology. Pp.27-31. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Cemetery demography lab assignment handed out
THEME 2: DEATH, BURIAL, AND BODIES
Wednesday, 3/19: The Human Body as a Cultural Construct
Fowler, Chris
2002 Body Parts: Personhood and Materiality in the Earlier Manx Neolithic. In
Thinking through the Body: Archaeologies of Corporeality. Yannis Hamilakis, Mark
Pluciennik, and Sarah Tarlow, eds. Pp. 47-69. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum
Publishers.
Malafouris, Lambroa
2008 Is It “Me” or Is It “Mine”? The Mycenaean Sword as Body-Part. In Past Bodies:
Body-Centered Research in Archaeology. Dušan Borić and John Robb, eds. Pp. 115-123.
Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Friday, 3/21 – Cemetery demography lab assignment due by 4 PM
Friday, 3/21 – Last day to withdraw from a course with grade of W
Monday, 3/24-Friday 3/28: SPRING RECESS
Monday, 3/31: Understanding the Body through Iconography
Alberti, Benjamin
2001 Faience Goddesses and Ivory Bull-Leapers: The Aesthetics of Sexual Difference
at Late Bronze Age Knossos. World Archaeology 33:189-205
Mina, Maria
2007 Figurines without Sex: People without Gender? In Archaeology and Women:
Ancient and Modern Issues. Sue Hamilton, Ruth D. Whitehouse, and Katherine I. Wright,
eds. Pp. 263-282. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
Wednesday, 4/2: The Human Experience of Death
Hertz, Robert
2004 [1907] A Contribution to the Study of the Collective Representation of Death
(excerpt). In Death, Mourning, and Burial: A Cross-Cultural Reader. Antonius C.G. M.
Robben, ed. Pp. 207-212. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
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Parker Pearson, Michael
1999 Chapter 7: The Human Experience of Death. In The Archaeology of Death and
Burial. Pp. 142-170. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press.
Research paper title, two-page proposal, and bibliography (6 sources) due
Monday, 4/7: The Social Archaeology of Death: Analogy and Context
Parker Pearson, Michael
1999 Chapter 2: From Now to Then: Ethnoarchaeology and Analogy. In The
Archaeology of Death and Burial. Pp. 21-71. College Station, TX: Texas A&M
University Press.
Wednesday, 4/9: Burial and Status
Burchell, Meghan
2006 Gender, Grave Goods and Status in British Columbia Burials. Canadian Journal
of Archaeology 30(2):251-271.
Parker Pearson, Michael
1999 Chapter 4: Status, Rank, and Power. In The Archaeology of Death and Burial.
Pp. 72-94. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press.
Social identity and death exercise handed out
Monday, 4/14: Mortuary Ritual and Social Identity
Chesson, Meredith S.
1999 Libraries of the Dead: Early Bronze Age Charnel Houses and Social Identity at
Urban Bab edh-Dhra’, Jordan. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 18:137-164.
Joyce, Rosemary
2001 Burying the Dead at Tlatilco: Social Memory and Social Identities. In Social
Memory, Identity, and Death: Anthropological Perspectives on Mortuary Rituals.
Meredeith S. Chesson, ed. Pp. 12-26. Archaeological Papers of the American
Anthropological Association. Arlington, VA: American Anthropological Association.
Research paper outline due
Wednesday, 4/16: The Relationship between the Living and the Dead
Arnold, Bettina
2002 A Landscape of Ancestors: The Space and Place of Death in Iron Age WestCentral Europe. In The Space and Place of Death. Helaine Silverman and David B.
Small, eds. Pp. 129-143. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological
Association. Arlington, VA: American Anthropological Association.
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Gillespie, Susan D.
2002 Body and Soul among the Maya: Keeping the Spirits in Place. In The Space and
Place of Death. Helaine Silverman and David B. Small, eds. Pp. 67-78. Archaeological
Papers of the American Anthropological Association. Arlington, VA: American
Anthropological Association.
Social identity and death exercise due
Monday, 4/21: Territoriality and Ancestors
Parker Pearson, Michael
1999 Chapter 6: Placing the Dead. In The Archaeology of Death and Burial. Pp. 124141. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press.
Morris, Ian
1991 The Archaeology of Ancestors: The Saxe/Goldstein Hypothesis Revisited.
Cambridge Archaeological Journal 1:147-169.
Wednesday, 4/23: Post-Mortem Modification
Forgey, Kathleen and Sloan R. Williams
2005 Were Nasca Trophy Heads War Trophies or Revered Ancestors?: Insights from
the Kroeber Collection. In Interacting with the Dead: Perspectives on Mortuary
Archaeology for the New Millennium. Gordon F.M. Rakita, Jane E. Buikstra, Lane A.
Beck. And Sloan R. Williams. Pp. Pp. 251-276. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Verano, John W.
2005 Human Sacrifice and Postmortem Modification at the Pyramid of the Moon,
Moche Valley, Peru. In Interacting with the Dead: Perspectives on Mortuary
Archaeology for the New Millennium. Gordon F.M. Rakita, Jane E. Buikstra, Lane A.
Beck. And Sloan R. Williams. Pp. 277-289. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Research paper rough draft due
Monday, 4/28: Are Grief and Other Emotions Archaeologically Accessible?
Rosaldo, Renato
2004 [1989] Grief and a Headhunter’s Rage. In Death, Mourning, and Burial: A CrossCultural Reader. Antonius C.G. M. Robben, ed. Pp. 167-178. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Williams, Howard
2007 The Emotive Force of Early Medieval Mortuary Practices. Archaeological
Review from Cambridge 22(1):107-123.
In-class peer review of research papers
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Wednesday, 4/30: The Ethics and Politics of Body-Centered Archaeology
Atalay, Sonya
2013 Naming, Claiming, and Epistemologies of Power. Paper presented at the Annual
Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago, November 21.
Blakey, Michael L.
2010 African Burial Ground Project: Paradigm for Cooperation? Museum International
62 (1-2):61-68.
Smith, Julian
2011 Who Owns the Dead? Archaeology 64(1): 16, 58, 60, 62.
Monday, 5/5: Student Research Presentations
Final research paper due
Wednesday, 5/7: Student Research Presentations
Saturday, 5/10: Final Exam, 8:30 – 11:30 AM
COURSE EXPECTATIONS
Class Participation
This course will include both lecture and discussion components, and class participation is
essential. Class participation means attending all classes, arriving on time, volunteering to speak
when you have a chance, demonstrating that you are well prepared for class by offering
thoughtful comments/questions, and sometimes pushing yourself to make more rigorous,
analytical, or imaginative points. I expect everyone to be respectful of other people’s ideas and
opinions. While we can and should debate issues, we should not attack other people personally
for the ideas they express in class. Class participation accounts for 10% of the final course
grade.
NOTE ON PARTICIPATION: Participation and attendance are very important to your success
in this course. Remember, you cannot participate if you are not there! If you are going to be
absent, contact me before class. It is your responsibility to get all information you missed on any
days you were absent. Acceptable reasons for an excused absence include family emergency,
serious illness, religious holiday, and participation in college athletic competitions. Please note
that excessive absences, even when excused, will negatively impact your participation grade and
your final course grade at the professor’s discretion. Students with unexcused absences will
receive no participation credit for the days they are absent. Typically, no more than two excused
absences are permitted over the course of the semester. If you have more than four absences,
you may not be eligible to continue in the course whether these absences are excused or
unexcused.
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Reading Comprehension Checks
This course includes a large discussion component. Close reading of assigned texts is essential
for quality class discussion. To encourage active and careful reading, I will give unannounced
short reading comprehension checks (“one minute papers”) at the beginning of class several
times throughout the semester. I will drop each student’s lowest score at the end of the semester.
If you read carefully and consistently throughout the semester, these one-minute papers should
not be difficult. Together, they account for 2.5% of the final course grade.
Weekly Moodle Questions
Students will be expected to submit at least one discussion question via Moodle that
demonstrates a careful reading of the text 1.5 hours before class (7 AM) at least once during the
week. Submitted questions will help me structure class discussion and identify areas of
confusion in the reading. These questions are graded credit/no credit and are worth 2.5% of the
final course grade. Full credit is given for all questions that demonstrate a close reading of the
assigned texts.
Skeletal Exercises
Two take-home, open-book, open-notes skeletal worksheets, based on material from the reading
and class discussion, will be handed out in the first half of the semester. These exercises, which
should be completed individually by each student, account for 5% of the course grade.
Human Skeletal Anatomy Quiz
This in-class, closed-book quiz on human skeletal anatomy will account for 7.5% of the course
grade.
Course Exercises
Two take-home course exercises (Cemetery Demography Lab and Social Identity and Death
Exercise) will ask students to analyze a raw set of data and write up their conclusions in a 2- to
4-page paper. Each assignment is worth 6.25% of the course grade.
Term Research Paper
You will develop an 8-10 page paper on a topic relevant to the course topic. The project has
multiple parts including (1) research appointment with librarian (0%), (2) paper title, two-page
proposal, and preliminary bibliography (0%), (3) paper outline (0%), (4) rough draft (0%), (5)
peer-review of another classmate’s rough draft (0%), (6) final research paper (15%), and (7)
class presentation (5%). Although no points are awarded for the first five parts of the
assignment, failure to do them thoughtfully will cause points to be deducted from your research
paper grade. No library consultation: -3 points. No proposal/preliminary bibliography: -5
points. No paper outline: -5 points. No rough draft: -7 points. No peer-review: -7 points. All of
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these assignments are designed to improve your research project, therefore it is to your
advantage to do them. I reserve the right to reject an unauthorized term paper topic.
Exams
This course includes a mid-term and a final. Both are closed book and will take place in class.
The midterm is worth 17.5% of the course grade. The final, which is cumulative, is worth
22.5%.
GRADING SUMMARY:
Class Participation: 10%
Reading Comprehension Checks: 2.5%
Weekly Moodle Questions: 2.5%
Skeletal Exercises: 5%
Human Skeletal Anatomy Quiz: 7.5%
Cemetery Demography Lab: 6.25%
Social Identity and Death Exercise: 6.25%
Term Research Paper: 15%
Term Research Paper Presentation: 5%
Midterm: 17.5%
Final Exam: 22.5%
GRADING POLICIES
A 93+; A- 90-92.999; B+ 87-89.999; B 83-86.999; B- 80-82.999; C+ 77-79.999; C 73-76.999;
C- 70-72.999; D+ 67-69.999; D 63-66.999; D- 60-62.999; F <60
At Depauw, A and A- grades reflect “achievement of exceptionally high merit.” B+, B, and Bgrades indicate “achievement at a level SUPERIOR to the basic level.” C+, C, and C- grades
reflect “basic achievement,” and D+, D, D- grades reflect “minimum achievement that warrants
credit.” Please realize that B grades in this course reflect very good work; a “B” is not a poor
grade in this or any other course at DePauw. C grades also indicate basic mastery of the material.
COURSE POLICIES
Academic Misconduct
Please familiarize yourself with DePauw’s Academic Integrity Policy. I take academic
dishonesty, including plagiarism, very seriously, and at DePauw such misconduct can have a
variety of serious consequences. If you are at all unsure what constitutes plagiarism, please ask.
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If you get behind or overwhelmed, please talk to me. Students in this course will include the
following pledge on all assignments and exams: "On my honor, I pledge that I have neither given
nor received unauthorized help on this assignment."
Late Assignments
All course exercises are due in class on the due dates listed. After its due date, an assignment’s
value drops 10 percentage points for each day it is late. For example, if an assignment were one
day late, a perfect score would give you only 90%. If it were two days late, an otherwise perfect
assignment would be given 80%. I will not accept assignments more than three days late. If you
have an emergency, contact me before class.
Missed Exams
I will not provide make-up examinations for the midterm or final unless a serious illness or
family emergency prevents a student from taking the exam at the scheduled time. Otherwise,
any missed exam will result in a grade of 0%. If a religious holiday or college athletic
competition conflicts with either exam time, please let me know in the first two weeks of class so
that we can plan for your accommodation. If you miss the exam unexpectedly because of serious
illness or family emergency, let me know within 24 hours of the missed exam time.
Laptops and cell phones
Laptop and cell phone use is generally prohibited during class sessions. If you like to take notes
on your laptop, talk to me and we can arrange for your accommodation.
Learning and Other Disabilities
If you have a documented disability, please contact Mrs. Pamela Roberts, Coordinator of Student
Disabilities Services, to arrange for any needed accommodations, such as extended test-taking
time or the right to take tests in an environment with fewer distractions. Also, if you suspect that
you have a disability but don’t yet have documentation, please contact Mrs. Roberts for help. She
can be reached at 765-658-6267 or pamelaroberts@depauw.edu. Disabilities entitled to
accommodation include mobility impairments, hearing or vision issues, speech impairments,
learning disabilities, ADD, ADHD, psychological disabilities, neurological impairments,
traumatic brain injury, and chronic medical conditions such as AIDS, cancer, and diabetes. I
cannot accommodate any student without first receiving proper documentation from the Student
Disabilities Services, so plan ahead. It is the student’s responsibility to bring the SDS memo to
me and discuss the implementation of accommodations. Please note that accommodations are
not retroactive.