Environmental Archaeology of the Near East (ANE 213)

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2015

This course deals with major changes in climate and environment affecting humans, and the various ways in which Near Eastern societies have endured, mastered, or destroyed themselves, from an ecological perspective. Importance is placed on a diachronic outlook on dynamic human-environment interactions as understood through archaeology, particularly with reference to the challenge of sustainability in the so-called Anthropocene. A major focus of this course will be on case studies from around the eastern Mediterranean and greater Near East during the Holocene, but particularly dealing with examples from the Levant (modern Israel/Palestine, Syria, southern Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan). Topics will cover different types of environments and geological processes found in the Near East, practical sampling and analytical procedures, and major categories of anthropological interpretation.