Check out these interactive activities for archaeology. This area will offer more and more in the coming months as we prepare to publish a new text for introductory archaeology on our © 2003 list: Archaeology: The Science of the Past by Mark Q. Sutton and Robert Yohe.

This accessible introduction to doing archaeology uses exciting examples to convey the adventure of archaeological discovery. It takes a traditional processual approach while explaining contemporary issues and perspectives in archaeology. This book is getting rave reviews so be on the lookout for it!

Activities

1. Explore current archaeological research projects and sites. Do any projects also involve linguistic, physical, and cultural anthropology? How? Why might it be important to study the linkages between the four fields of anthropology?

2. Participate in an interactive dig by clicking on the word "interactive" on the sidebar of this archaeology web page. What kinds of data are provided? Which data are quantitative and which are qualitative? From an anthropological perspective, what conclusions can be drawn from the evidence provided?

3. Learn about archeological sampling strategies. What are the benefits and potential disadvantages of systematic, random, and judgmental sampling techniques? How could knowledge of archeological sampling techniques be useful to a cultural anthropologist in the field?

4. Explore this richly illustrated site on ancient civilizations of Mexico and Central America. How does archaeology contribute to the understanding of prehistoric and ancient food production and other economic activities? How were the economies of the Maya, Mixtec, Zapotec, and Aztec civilizations similar and different?

5. Learn more about the Garbage Project. How have "garbage studies" affected anthropology as a discipline? Do you consider applied anthropology to be a "fifth field"? Why or why not? Use evidence gathered from this site to make your argument.

6. Use links to see a map and images of Copan and other Mayan sites in Honduras and Guatemala. Then read about the discovery of the tomb of a female Mayan chief, Margarita, also called "the Red Lady," in the necropolis of Copan. How were her treasures looted in 1997 and later returned? Why has the National Geographic Society had to revise its web feature, "The Lords of Copan"?

7. Visit the American Anthropological Association home page and follow links to information about research ethics in the social sciences. What provisions were contained in the 1970 standard code of ethics? What is meant by informed consent? What other ethical principles are included in the code? Today, how does the American Anthropological Association address issues of contemporary research, research standards, and issues of fieldwork safety in politically volatile regions?

8. Explore the studies conducted by the Applied Ethnography Program of the U.S. National Parks Service to preserve, protect, and interpret park resources. What are the advantages and drawbacks of each data collection method presented? List some of the Program's goals. Why are so many different types of studies required?

9. Read a Career Monograph on Anthropology, which describes career opportunities in anthropology. Which, if any, careers might interest you most? Which anthropologists might you encounter or work with in your other chosen career? How do you think an anthropologist might help you to do a better job?

10. Read a story on a 1999 panel discussion about language origins and the brain basis of language. How do linguists, archaeologists, neuropsychologists, geneticists, and other experts try to explain language origins by pooling their information? Then visit the Linguasphere Observatory and follow the links. What is meant by a linguasphere, and what is being observed there? What is a language, and how is it different from a dialect? How can kinship and marriage patterns be inferred from dialects and languages? How do linguistic taboos suggest rules for exogamy? Why do experts think there are fewer languages in the world today than existed during the Upper Paleolithic? Then read a 1999 news article, "Last Rites for Secret Women's Language." Why did rural women in a region of China develop their own secret written language ages ago, and why is it disappearing today? As a cultural anthropologist how might you interpret relationships between language and gender? Between language and development?

11. Survey Scripts of the Ancient World and compare and contrast early writing systems. What are some nonalphabetic systems of writing that can be read? Then explore a fun site on the Mayan hieroglyphic syllabary, in which specific forms or designs stand for certain syllables, combinations of sounds. Follow the instructions to write (draw) your name in Mayan glyphs. Links at this site lead to more information on ancient scripts.

12. View rongorongo writing from Easter Island and study its components. Is this writing more pictographic or script-like? On what objects does this writing appear? Then read Sergei V. Rjabchikov's analysis of Polynesian cultural symbols in the writing. What Polynesian cultural symbols are prominent in rongorongo? Read an essay by Stephen Fischer on the challenges and joys of deciphering rongorongo. What was the breakthrough in decoding this writing? What are some specific examples of logograms and semasiograms?

13. View examples of Upper Paleolithic Venus figurines, and read interpretations of Venus figures as secular art and as sacred objects. What do the figures all have in common despite great geographic distribution? Then read LeRoy McDermot's paper in which he interprets Venus figures as women's self-representations. Are you persuaded by his arguments? Why or why not? How does this example suggest other issues in art and gender?

14. View this photo gallery at Rock Art, an organization dedicated to the preservation of rock paintings and petroglyphs. Then view Texas Rock Art in the Cultural History Division of the Texas Memorial Museum. How are these pictographs related to religion? What qualities do rock paintings share?

15. In 1999 early prehistoric flutes were discovered in an archaeological excavation in China. See and hear these flutes online and read how they were discovered. Then read about an even older Neanderthal flute.

16. View Mayan and Aztec art. How did artists represent Quetzalcoatl and other figures in Mayan mythology? How do these representations compare with mythology in Western Art?

17. For images and information on ancient and classical Chinese art, view also Chinese Antiquities and The Chinese Fine Arts Society Web Site. What patterns and trends characterize Chinese art history? What kinds of objects are available to collectors at Han Palace Fine Arts?

18. View prehistoric and early historic architectural styles worldwide at the Digital Archive of Architecture. Follow links to narrow your investigation. Also visit the Center for Architectural Preservation in Israel, one of many organizations worldwide concerned with the preservation and restoration of antiquities. In this instance, what challenges do art and architecture conservators face in Israel?

19. Take the virtual tour of the Great Kiva at Chetro Ketl, a prime example of Mesoamerican architecture. How was the Great Kiva ornamented, and how can those ornamentations be interpreted? Follow related links. For example, how are Mesoamerican pyramids like and unlike the Egyptian pyramids? What technologies does pyramid-building require?

20. Explore this rich site on the agricultural revolution, which presents archaeological, anthropological, and socioeconomic information, to understand the complex events surrounding the Neolithic Revolution and the rise of civilizations. What combination of conditions and circumstances and resources enabled people to use farming, and later intensive agriculture, as a mode of production? What were some consequences of agriculture for people's quality of life? What were some consequences for global economic and social stratification? Would you say the invention of agriculture was a mistake? Why or why not?

21. Explore the illustrations and text at this Annenberg/CPB site about the collapse of ancient civilizations. What economic and ecological factors seem to be common denominators in the decline and fall of the ancient civilizations? Are those factors still operating in the same way in the world today?

22. View Mayan archaeological sites of the Chiapas Highlands. On what food production and methods was the highland economy based? What were some consequences of slash and burn agriculture there? Explore in greater depth the Mayan economy in Zincantan. What essential natural resource did the Maya control? What trading network shaped the economy of the highlands? How did the Maya also develop a monopoly of trade in textiles made of woven feathers?

23. Survey the online Bibliography of Foraging Peoples. How could you use this bibliography to study the cultural ecology of foragers cross-culturally? What group might you select to compare with the Inuit, and why? What other bibliographies are linked to this site?

24. Learn about the cultural ecology of the Navajo Nation at this Natural Heritage Program site. How does the present-day geography and biology of the land affect the economic resources of the Navajo people? What changes have occurred in the ways people interact with those resources?

25. Human migration patterns are an example of cultural adaptation and change. Read this article on the populating of Oceania by the Polynesians. How did Polynesians get to Easter Island? How could Polynesian voluntary migration be explained using the push-pull theory? Then follow links at a site on Hawaiian Sovereignty. How did Hawaiians become displaced persons on their own islands as a result of contact and annexation by the U.S.?

26. Lewis Henry Morgan, Claude Levi-Strauss, and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown were important contributors to anthropological theories of social structure and social organization, including the complex relationships among social status, political power, and wealth. Using this databank on theories in anthropology, how would you summarize their contributions? Visit the National Anthropological Archives (NAA). What is in these archives? Sample the "Guide to Anthropological Fieldnotes and Manuscripts in Other Archives." Where would you find Lewis Henry Morgan's field notes? Where would you find A. R. Radcliffe-Brown's and E. E. Evans-Pritchard's papers?

27. Survey links at the Smithsonian Institution's Migrations in History. See, for example, the story of Africans in Mexico. Why have Mexicans not officially recognized the impact of Africans on Mexican populations and cultures?

28. Read the classifieds for arranged marriages in the English edition of the Hindustan Times of New Delhi, India. What qualities of their daughters do families advertise for "Grooms Wanted"? What qualities are highlighted in ads of men looking for brides? Compare these ads with linked information at Yahoo's page on "Romance." In your analysis what are the cultural correlates of courtship and romantic love versus arranged marriages?

29. View linked sample historical documents, such as the marriage certificate of Rufus Wright and Elisabeth Turner, dated to near the end of the Civil War. How do these historical documents suggest impacts of slavery on African kinship, marriage, and family in the United States? See also marriage rituals in African-Amercian weddings today. Read a Washington Post article reviewing Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson's study of changes in black family structure. According to Patterson, what are those changes and how do they influence domestic groupings and family dynamics?

30. Read about the Aztecs (Mexica) at this comprehensive site and view photographs of the archaeological evidence for human sacrifice. What and where is the Wall of Skulls? Why did the Aztec religion and world view require human sacrifice? Then read about the structure and organization of the Aztec priesthood and the sacrificial rite. How did the Mexica describe warrior sacrifice to the Spanish conquistadors? What explanations are there for the sites with child sacrifice? How many sacrifices were made at the dedication of the Great Temple and why? Do experts seem to favor the materialist interpretation or the symbolic interpretation of human sacrifice and cannibalism?

31. View photos and text describing the religion and mythology of the Huarochiri, contemporary Quechua-speaking peoples of Peru. What is a khipu? How and by whom are sacred regalia preserved in Huarochiri villages? How might an anthropologist compare this example with Sumerian mythology? Sample information and images of clay tables with cuneiform writing. Who was Gilgamesh? Why do experts hypothesize direct links between the ancient Sumerians and the origins of the Judeo-Christian tradition?

32. Trace the earliest history of coinage at this university site. What did early coins look like? In what contexts did the use of coins and other objects of permanent wealth arise? What noneconomic functions did coins also serve? How did the uses of coins change?

33. Click on the summary and project links at this site to learn about the Cultural Resource Management activities undertaken by the Navajo Nation Archaeology Department. How might these projects in applied anthropology benefit the Navajo Nation (Diné people)? What measures have been taken by this organization to minimize ethnocentrism in its research and decision-making processes?

34. A huge clearinghouse for information on social and economic development is PRAXIS. Sample some links at PRAXIS. For example, search for links on a particular country or group or topic that interests you--for instance, links on Botswana or cultural resource management. Also follow links to Develop Net News. What are the top 3 stories in social and economic development today?