scroll symbol, Mississippian culture, Moundville, Alabama

Introduction to Archaeology

Anth. 220, Fall 2021

globe, hand and eye symbol, Mississippian culture, Moundville, Alabama

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Extra Credit Opportunities for
Archaeology Talks and Exhibits

Five final grade points of extra credit can be earned by visiting and participating in lectures, seminars, and exhibits listed below on this web page. A maximum of 2.5 final grade points can be earned per event. A maximum of 2 events can be used for credit. To receive credit for an event or exhibit listed on this page, you must (1) attend the lecture or visit the exhibit and (2) write a summary and critical discussion of the main issues raised by the speaker, tour leader, seminar facilitator, or the exhibit design and presentation. Each of these papers should be no more than two typed pages, double-spaced, one-inch margins, 12-point font, and proofread. Submit your extra credit paper by email to Emma Verstraete by 11:50am on Dec. 8, 2021.

The lectures, talks, and exhibits related to archaeology topics set out below are scheduled to be held on or near campus or within the broader region during this semester. These are listed here for your information, and are not required components of this course. We will update this list as events are announced. If you are aware of an upcoming event that is not listed here, please email the information to Chris Fennell. Thank you!

Extra Credit Opportunity on Interactive Hierakonpolis

An additional five final grade points of extra credit can be earned by engaging with the challenges faced by the archaeologists and conservators working over the years on the Hierakonpolis project in Egypt. To receive these credits, compose a five-page, double-spaced essay following the assignment guidelines. These five extra credit points are separate and independent of the five points of extra credit you can earn by writing essays about an archaeology talk or a museum exhibit.




Talks and Exhibit Events on or Near Campus (or Online)


Archaeological Institute of America Speaker Series

To be announced.

Department of Anthropology Speakers

To be announced.

Spurlock Museum Exhibits

"With approximately 40,000 objects in its artifact collection, the Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign celebrates our shared humanity by collecting, preserving, documenting, exhibiting, and studying objects of cultural heritage." Read more about these exhibitions on the Museum's web site at http://www.spurlock.illinois.edu/. Exhbits of interest include:

Krannert Art Museum

To be announced.




Events in the Region (or Online)


Mike Ruggeri's List of Mesoamerica and
Ancient America Lectures, Conferences And Exhibits

Some are available in person and many available online. link.

Industrial Archaeology Talks

Series of recorded talks available online. November 10 talk on "Industrial Archaeology of West Point Foundry." link.

Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery Archaeology Talks

Series of recorded talks available online. link.

Illinois Association for Advancement of Archaeology

To be announced.

Illinois Archaeological Survey Conference

To be announced.

Field Museum, Chicago

The "Ancient Americas" exhibit is being presented at the Field Museum in Chicago. Read more about this exhibition on the Field Museum's web site at https://www.fieldmuseum.org/at-the-field/exhibitions/ancient-americas.

From the exhibit web site: "Step into the windswept world of Ice Age mammoth hunters. Walk through a replica of an 800-year-old pueblo dwelling and imagine your entire family cooking, eating, and sleeping in one small room. Explore the Aztec empire and its island capital, Tenochtitlan, a city of more than 200,000 people and an extraordinary feat of engineering for any era. The Field Museum's ground-breaking new exhibition, The Ancient Americas, takes you on a journey through 13,000 years of human ingenuity and achievement in the western hemisphere, where hundreds of diverse societies thrived long before the arrival of Europeans. You'll discover what Field Museum scientists and others have learned about the people who lived in the Americas before us, and how it's changing nearly everything we thought we knew!"

The "Inside Ancient Egypt" exhibit is being presented at the Field Museum in Chicago. Read more about this exhibition on the Field Museum's web site at https://www.fieldmuseum.org/at-the-field/exhibitions/inside-ancient-egypt.

From the exhibit web site: "The Field Museum is one of the few places in the country where you can explore an ancient Egyptian tomb. The Museum's three-story recreation of a mastaba features two authentic rooms from the 5,000-year-old tomb of pharoah's son Unis-Ankh. From hieroglyphs, mummies, and a Book of the Dead, to a marketplace showing artifacts from everyday life, this exhibition demonstrates how the elaborate preparations that ancient Egyptians made for the afterlife give clues to their lives on Earth -- and to what ancient Egyptians might have had in common with people today."

The "Africa" exhibit is being presented at the Field Museum in Chicago. Read more about this exhibition on the Field Museum's web site at https://www.fieldmuseum.org/at-the-field/exhibitions/africa.

From the exhibit web site: "Explore a sampling of the cultures and environments of the vast and varied African continent . . . from the scene of a holy day in the capital city of Senegal to the mountainous rainforests of Rwanda . . . from the Royal Palace of the Bamum in Cameroon to a research station on the Great Rift Valley . . . from an iron smelting workshop in Ethiopia to a camel caravan crossing the Sahara Desert in Nigeria.


Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago

Exhibits and events to be announced. The Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago "is a world-renowned showcase for the history, art, and archaeology of the ancient Near East. The museum displays objects recovered by Oriental Institute excavations in permanent galleries devoted to ancient Egypt, Nubia, Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Anatolia, and the ancient site of Megiddo, as well as rotating special exhibits."


Illinois State Museum Exhibits

The Illinois State Museum in Springfield, Illinois hosts a number of exhibits concerning archaeology, anthropology, and Illinois' prehistory, including "Changes: Dynamic Illinois Environments" and "Peoples of the Past." Read more about these exhibitions on the Illinois State Museum's web site at http://www.illinoisstatemuseum.org/content/exhibitions-page.


Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site

"Managed by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, in Collinsville, Illinois, is located on the Mississippi River floodplain, across from St. Louis, Missouri. This site was first inhabited by Indians of the Late Woodland culture about AD 700. The site grew during the following Mississippian period, after AD 900, and by AD 1050-1150, the Cahokia site was the regional center for the Mississippian culture with many satellite communities, villages and farmsteads around it. After AD 1200, the population began to decline and the site was abandoned by AD 1400. In the late 1600s, the Cahokia Indians (of the Illinois confederacy) came to the area and it is from them that the site derives its name." This state park includes an excellent interpretative and exhibit center. Learn more online at https://cahokiamounds.org/.


Lincoln's New Salem

"Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site" is located in Petersburg, Illinois. Abraham Lincoln lived in New Salem from 1831 to 1837. While the cooper shop is the only original building still standing, numerous buildings including a carding mill, gristmill, tavern, shops, a school, sawmill and cabins have been reconstructed to their 1830s appearance. Signs for an "archaeology walk" show places excavated during archaeological investigations. Learn more online at http://www.lincolnsnewsalem.com.


Museum of the Grand Prairie

"Our mission is to collect, preserve and interpret the natural and cultural history of Champaign County and East Central Illinois." The Museum is located west of Urbana-Champaignm, in Mahomet. Exhibits include "Blacksmithing on the Prairie." Read more about these exhibitions on the Museum of the Grand Prairie's web site at http://www.museumofthegrandprairie.org/exhibits.html.


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Faculty Archaeology Anthropology University

Last updated: November 7, 2021