Archaeological Theory and Methods up to 1950

This course has a fourfold objective: first to impart knowledge of how archaeology emerged as part of classical and ancient philosophy about human antiquity. Second is to illustrate how our value into human history and antiquity led to the rise of the discipline we today call archaeology. Third is to demonstrate how archaeology emerged from a practice of looking for treasure, and hence destructive method to a sober method of studying and preserving the past cultural materials. The fourth objective is to show how the archaeological theories practiced today evolved from 1800 to 1950. The course traces the development of archaeological ideas and practice from the remotest known antiquity to about 1950. How Egyptian record keepers and Greek scholars came to see archaeology as an antiquity. The course goes to trace late Medieval European interest in antiquity and hence the rise of Renaissance Philosophy, the value in classical art and ancient civilization and how it triggered off collection of ancient and other prehistoric objects.