Archaeology (1 Viewer)

[DeepDarkRose]

Anyone done it at usyd? Is it interesting? I'm majoring in ancient history, considering to complement it with some archaeology.

 

[Iheartpaulfrank]

Well there was this BoSer called Seryn who's doing it. I have him on my msn list. Want?

 

[Triangulum]

I did first-year archaeology this year. Basically junior archaeology is split into two parts - a generic introduction to the processes and techniques of archaeology and the key issues of the discipline (which this year was ARPH1001) and more specialised units about the archaeology of particular areas (ARNE1001 - near east - and ARCL1001 - classical world). However, they've now changed the first year, and the specialised courses have been combined into one generic course called 'Ancient Civilisations', which covers Mesoamerican and - I think - Southeast Asian cultures as well. Next year is the first time that course will run, so I can't tell anything about it. Presumably it'll focus on the broad history of the development of those cultures, their art, architecture, pottery, subsistence methods and so on.

As to Introduction to Archaeology: it's reasonably interesting, but fairly basic. Covers in a brief fashion stuff like excavation theory (law of superposition, strata, etc.), site survey, artefact classification and so on before moving on to themes in archaeology, stuff like the development of agriculture and writing, archaeology of gender, archaeology of religion, environmental archaeology, ethnoarchaeology. Some of it is pretty interesting. Pretty easy as well, I got an HD without enormous effort. The tutes are actually workshop sessions where you do stratigraphy, artefact classification, sorting through rubbish and that sort of thing in the archaeology labs. Some of them are pretty fun.

Now that they've got rid of ARCL1001, I'm not sure to what extent junior archaeology would complement ancient history, except on a very broad scale. The units which focus on the classical world (ARCA2613 Athenian Art Architecture and Society, and ARCA2615 Etruscans and Romans) aren't available until senior level. It's a reasonably interesting topic though, and I'd recommend having a go at it if you have units free. (I'd advise you to avoid ARNE1001 like the plague, but they've cancelled it, thank god.)

 

[DeepDarkRose]

thanx for the depth of your response, it's much appreciated

 

[Seryn]

Well there was this BoSer called Seryn who's doing it. I have him on my msn list. Want?

Heh, good to see someone round these parts actually remembers me

As for archaeology, as Trianglulum points out, the system is actually changing this year so i'm not sure how much help I can offer. The Classical civilisations in semester 1 I know nothing about but looking up the unit, the lecturer I know to be rather boring. I once attempted one of his courses and gave up after 2 weeks when i'd fall asleep, wake up and find half the rest of the class asleep as well...though admitedly there's not a lot anyone can do to make archaeology of Iran interesting...
The Introduction to Archaeology (semester 2) course on the other hand is run by the best archaeology lecturer around, Martin Gibbs. I'm actually submitting myself to the torture of an 'archaeology of sydney' course this year, purely because Martin is taking it! I'm not sure how much the intro course has changed but it's quite broad, looking more at the techniques and concepts behind archaeology rather than specific cultures. Plus you can basically fit any culture/period that interests you into the essays involved.

Hope this helps. If you have any more specific questions, feel free to ask

 

[Iheartpaulfrank]

Heh, good to see someone round these parts actually remembers me

Course I do! You made me feel welcome and helped me out with my questions when starting out at usyd. How could I ever forget that? Long time no see.