Our fourth class focus is North America and underwater archaeology on the east and west coasts and the Great Lakes. The most interesting takeaway is how recent discoveries document the movements of early hunter-gatherers into and across the U.S. much earlier than 12,000 years ago.
Videos:
Shallow water archaeology in Florida with Jessica Cook-Hale
another north Floria river project
First Americans and Clovis debate
"Stonehenge" under Lake Michigan
In our third class, we contined to explore shipwrecks around the Mediterranean, especially off the coasts of Israel, Turkey, Sicily, and Greece. The focus was digs which special challenges (depth, interference by thrill seekers) and the incredible finds of metalworking and glassworking debris from sites explored by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology in Texas. Then we switched to South and Central America, illustrating the new cities and sites found by LiDAR and analyzed with AI. My favorite is the Mayan city Valeriana, discovered by a graduate student working at home on his computer (he used LiDAR data collected by another team for a different purpose 10 years ago).
Other links and videos:
Classical wreck off the coast of Sicily (embedded video on website shows unusual preservation of wood)
The "Glass Shipwreck" at Serce Limani, Turkey
We discussed space archaeology, especially the work of Sarah Parcak, in Egypt, Asia, and around the Mediterranean Sea. There are many examples of upgraded LiDar and other surveying techniques combined with older aerial photos, helping archaeologists find whole cities in the ancient world. Data are integrated by artificial intelligence, resulting in new maps of extensive areas in the former Soviet Union and the Arabian peninsula.
Then we switched to deepwater shipwrecks and introduced sonar and other techniques used underwater to locate and map sites. Here are some of the web links and videos from class:
Cemetery in Sudan (National Geographic)
7.000 year old road discovered off coast of Croatia
Minoan shipwreck
Uluburun wreck found off coast of Bodrun, Turkey (Institute of Nautical Archaeology)
Uluburun video
This class is offered during March 2025 at OLLI at Illinois.
Introduction
In
the early days of archaeology, archaeologists excavated temples and tombs at
well-known sites in the Middle East and around the Mediterranean. As the field
has become more interdisciplinary and surveying techniques more advanced, the
focus has shifted to regional archaeology and selective excavation of less
accessible sites.
The first class covered the above introduction and concentrated on "Doggerland," the area of submerged land between Britain and Scandinavia during the Last Glacial Maximum. Stunning evidence of Mesolithic hunter-gatherer cultures (stone tools, wooden structures, artifacts made of bone and antler) have been recovered from Doggerland by using underwater surveying.
One of the sites we looked at was Star Carr in Britain, and we saw a small portion of a documentary. (I recommend looking at the rest of it, especially the section* near the end on how ancient wood soaked in sea water is conserved).
In the last two classes, we moved from the Ancient Near East to Greece and Italy. Greek and Latin texts provide a wealth of human-animal relationships, everything from dogs and falcons to bees and cicadas. Several tombstones with inscriptions about favorite dogs were particularly touching.
Find the bookOne unusual video described and illustrated how Roman soldiers trapped and transported animals from all over the Roman Empire and sent them to the Colosseum in Rome.
In the last lecture, we sampled some South American animals (the fox, depicted in temple art of Peru and in the night sky as a constellation) and different kinds of camelid (llama, alpaca, guanaco, etc)
We finished with North America, especially our own state of Illinois, with dog and cat burials particularly this charming bobkitten who was buried with "pomp and circumstance" in the form of a shell necklace.
Class 2 moved from Mesopotamian to Egyptian Animals. I introduced one of my favorite Egyptologists, Salima Ikram, who has posted two videos about Egyptian mythology and animals, especially cats.
Animal cults (5 min)
Documentary on cats (45 min)
Summary: Man’s historical relationship with animals goes far beyond using animal parts for food, clothing, and ornaments. This class will begin with trusted pets (e.g. dogs, cats, and birds). Later we will consider relationships with animals who serve specific functions (e.g. plowing, milking, transport, war) and odd companions (e.g. snakes, geese). When were animals first domesticated? Which animals ate and slept with their humans? Which animals achieved sacred status, either as gods or as symbols of transformation and the afterlife? Types of evidence will include pet cemeteries around the world, stables and other enclosures, bone and coprolite analyses, art, and literature.
The first class introduced different types of evidence archaeologists use, including burials of animals with humans, artifacts, art, literature, and faunal analysis.
Video: What is Zooarchaeology? (7 minute Australian video)
