Myths and Mysteries in Archaeology anth 3821 Dr. Susan Johnston Spring 2018 Monroe 352

Textbooks: Feder, Kenneth L. 2013. Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries. 8^th Edition. McGraw-Hill: New York. ISBN 978-0078035074

Recommended: if you have not had an archaeology course before, read Paul Bahn’s book Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction (2000, Oxford University Press); it’s on reserve in Gelman.

January 17 Introduction

Feder Ch. 1

24 Science and knowledge

Feder Ch. 2

Andersson; Fagan; Bahn Ch. 1-7, on Reserve (if you have not had any

archaeology before)
31 The Discovery of America?

Feder Ch. 6; Anderson

Review Feder Ch. 5; The Voyage of St. Brendan;

Tim Severin and Saint Brendan
7 The Kensington Runestone 1

Kehoe Ch. 1-5

Kehoe Ch. 6-9

Feder Ch. 10; Hadingham

http://www.gizapower.com/

http://www.thepump.org/

16 All things Egyptian Part 2

Nelson; NYT King Tut’s curse; Hawass et al (this is technical but get the gist)

In-class DVD

Feder Ch. 9; Nickel & McGaha

Stonehenge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-Roman_Britain

Skeptics and King Arthur

Looking for King Arthur

7 EXAM

9 ESP and archaeology

Feder Ch. 11; Hyman, Psi experiments; Schwartz (I know this one’s

long, just get the gist of the ESP aspect); Plummer

14-16 SPRING BREAK

21 That Old Time Religion

Feder Ch. 12; Bielo; Wood
23 The Piltdown Hoax

Feder Ch. 4; DeGroote et al

Gimbutas; Eller; Meskell

Feder Ch. 8; Critias; Section from Timaeus

April 4 Atlantis locations?

Jordan, New World

http://atlantipedia.ie/samples/ (look through some of the theories here)

Antarctica http://atlantipedia.ie/samples/antarctica/

Aegean http://www.greeka.com/cyclades/santorini/santorini-volcano/atlantis.htm

Straits of Gibraltor http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1554594.stm

Bimini http://funandsun.com/1tocf/inf/bim/bimini.html

Erlingsson Ch. 1-2

11 Atlantis from a Geographer’s Perspective, Part 2

Erlingsson Ch. 3-4

Jordan, Plato

Holtorf 2005; Fagan & Feder; Wallis & Blain

20 How should archaeology respond?

Biesaw; Holtorf 2010; Reece; Feder 2016

Hyman, Belief*; Flemming

The exam questions will consist of multiple choice, the identification of terms, and a longer essay question. For identifications, you should note 1) what it is and 2) why it is important for this course; for sites, you should also give an indication of its chronological position (specific date or period) and where it is located. For the essay questions, you should be sure to 1) address all required parts of the question; 2) provide specific information (and avoid generalities); and 3) demonstrate knowledge of material in the reading and presented and discussed in class.

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Academic Integrity Code


Academic dishonesty is defined as cheating of any kind, including misrepresenting one's own work, taking credit for the work of others without crediting them and without appropriate authorization, and the fabrication of information. For the remainder of the code, see: studentconduct.gwu.edu/code-academic-integrity

Paper Topic

For the paper, I would like you to select any published claim with an archaeological subject. It can be from anywhere—newspapers, tabloids, pamphlets, books, websites, TV, magazines—as long as it is archaeological. By the time this is due, you should know what that means. It isn’t living people (as in “Pacific tribe worships Elvis statue”—interesting but not archaeological), dinosaurs, or physical anthropology (you can’t consider claims about the biology of our past ancestors though you could consider claims about their associated material culture). It can include a significant portion of history (i.e. documents) if you want, though you should also think about documents in terms of material culture as well as their written content. It also has to be “real”, by which I mean it can’t be something in a clearly fictional piece (like a novel). You should be evaluating a single source (e.g. a TV show, website, or article) rather than a particular topic—not whether or not aliens built the pyramids in general but a particular individual, article, show etc. that says they did. If you are unsure, please tell me what you want to do and I can either approve it or not.

Then, critically evaluate this claim in the way we have been doing in class. Some of the questions you should consider are:

 Who said it and what is their background?

 Do they present any evidence for their claim?
 Are there any references provided?
 Is it possible to verify what they said?
 What information would you need to properly evaluate this claim?
 What are some of the ways you might go about testing what the person said?

You need not be limited to these questions, but these are intended to give you some guidelines. The idea is to encourage you to apply what you have learned here to a real example of the kinds of claims that are made every day in the media and elsewhere. If possible, you should also make some attempt to actually verify the claim made. For example, you might consult introductory archaeology texts, regional archaeology surveys, etc. If you can’t actually verify the claim, at least consider what would have to change in the current state of knowledge in order for the claim to be true (for example, if someone claims that the mounds they found were cities 200,000 years ago because they are channeling a spiritual entity who once lived there, you might be given to wonder why that is earlier by roughly 195,000 years than any known city in the world).

You may use the Internet as a source for claims. If you do, please be sure I have some documentation of the claim. You can print it out for me and include it with the paper or you can email me the link (in which case please tell me in the paper you are doing this). Also, you may not use one of the topics we covered in class—that would be cheating!
You may also use the Internet for research, but be very careful—there are far more unreliable sites out there than reliable ones (that being sort of the point of the class). Using a pseudoarchaeology site to critique a pseudoarchaeology claim kind of misses that point. If you are unsure whether the site you are using is reliable, send me the URL and I’ll take a look at it.
Grammar and organization count! While I don't expect you to be writing prize-winning prose, your grade will go down if there are large numbers of typos, grammatical errors, lapses in logic, etc. An A paper will not look like something you spit out after midnight the night before it was due and clearly haven’t read over since. If English is your second language, I would strongly encourage you to either write a draft (see below) or use the writing center. I have all kinds of sympathy for people who are writing papers in a second language, but ultimately it is your responsibility to see that you write in a way that I can understand.
1If you want to discuss any details about this paper with me, please come to my office hours. Also, I would be happy to read a draft version of your paper, and make comments on it before you turn the final version in. Emailed drafts are fine, even encouraged. If you want me to read a draft, please get it to me no later than ten days before the paper is due.
The paper will be 5-10 pages long, double-spaced, and will be worth 20% of your grade. And please remember—I have been using computers for longer than most of you have been alive! I know all about large type faces and large margins. Please give me some credit for intelligence.
The paper is due IN CLASS on MARCH 30. Papers turned in before the due date can be put in my mailbox in to the anthropology department (2110 G St). It is open most days until 5:00, but if the anthropology department is closed there is a plastic bin on the outside of the department door and you can leave it in there (so please don‘t claim that you went to turn it in and you couldn’t because the office was closed). DO NOT PUT THE PAPER UNDER MY OFFICE DOOR. There are too many ways this can go wrong. I will check my mailbox when I get I get back from class on the day the paper is due. If your paper wasn’t turned in during class and isn’t my mailbox, it will be considered late.
And in case you missed it the first time, YOU MAY ONLY SUBMIT PAPERS BY E-MAIL IF YOU HAVE MADE PRIOR ARRANGEMENTS WITH ME TO DO SO. I am not a printing service. Last minute submissions by e-mail without such arrangements will not be accepted.
As noted above, I take plagiarism very seriously. I am a researcher, and like all researchers, I respect the right of people to own their own work. You should do the same. If I suspect that you might have used outside sources inappropriately, I will run your paper through Safe Assign, so be warned and don’t be stupid.
As noted above, late papers may be accepted under some circumstances, but I will deduct a grade level for each day it is late (i.e. A to A- to B+). If it is late the reason should be something more serious than “I just ran out of time” or “I had a lot of other things to do that week.” You know about this paper well in advance—schedule your time accordingly!

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