Assume that you have to write an essay for your Archaeology class. Which topics would you be interested in?

A LOT of them, I picked. But you will NOT catch me doing underwater archeology. Just looking at a picture of water & fish makes me anxious. (deep water/water animal phobia)

I always had a thing for dinosaurs..especially the Tyrannosaurus Rex..he's awesome

This is a really bad question for a person with a bachelor of science in anthropological studies with an emphasis on archaeology. lol. I checked the majority of them!

Faunal analysis and Human evolution were my two faves from the list. An interesting topic I came across recently would be the history and cultural impact of certain ancient diseases, such as porphyria.

Oooo that's a good topic!

I was seriously considering doing Ethnical responsibilities, Human Evolution, Roman Britain, or City of Rome. I ended up doing the one on GIS since it seemed the easiest one. Not too enthusiastic about hunting for site reports.

Hey Iseult, as I'm about 99% sure that it's your survey. Here's the few that I would chose

Stone Tools - analysis (cultural groups, etc)
Mayans
Vikings
Historical Archaeology (Celts )

Archaeology of the Near East. I would probably write about the interplay of archaeological and textual evidence, since I'm really more interested in texts than in artifacts. I think archaeology is kind of boring. I'm sure it's fun to do, but it's boring to read about.

Being trained as an architect I'd have to say ancient architecture.
If you studied such things you'd know that building the Great Pyramids was pretty much an impossible feat to accmplish. And that they are aligned to North/South, East/Est axises to an accuracy of less than 1 degree.

Since i love archaeology, most of these.

- City of Rome - 753BC to AD500
- Human evolution (up to about 100,000 or 40,000BP (=before present) depending of geographic area)
- Egyptian Old Kingdom
- Greek civilization - choose a period and specific geographic location - e.g. Iron Age, - Bronze Age, Classical
- Vikings in the North America - Ireland, Iceland, Greenland and North America - focus on subsistence, settlement patterns, material culture, social organization, technology, ideology as a it relates to archaeological information
- Recent advances and applications of any dating techniques
- Neanderthal culture
- Rise and fall of the Maya - a survey of the various theories
- Babylon and Ur
- Roman Britain
- Historical Archaeology - choose a region, culture and period, and conduct a comparative analysis of aspects of methodology, theoretical approach, material culture, etc.

Too hard to choose, If I had to choose only one, it would drive me crazy, but who could write a paper on them all.

Have you seen the original Jaws???

I had to all of them because you didn't have a choice for all of the above. You had one for none of the above though.
Anyways all/any one of them would be interesting to me. I wish I knew more about some of that stuff.

Good survey though!

Rise and Fall of the Maya
City of Rome
And the Viking one, not because specifically of it being Vikings, but the focus part sounds quite interesting.
In that order.

Oh, yeah. *screams in horror*

Many good topics there, but I would do an essay on King Midas who lived in what is now called Turkey. When I was stationed there, I visited his tomb and saw the excavation of his city. Although, he didn't have a "touch of gold" as in the story, he was an interesting person. I also visited the ruins of a Hittite city there.

Babylon and Rome would be most interesting to write about and do some research on these subjects and the Holy Land in the Middle East I have never been there before

> Many good topics there, but I would do an essay on King Midas who
> lived in what is now called Turkey. When I was stationed there, I
> visited his tomb and saw the excavation of his city. Although, he
> didn't have a "touch of gold" as in the story, he was an interesting
> person. I also visited the ruins of a Hittite city there.

Poor King Midas. Everything he touched turned to gold. He thought he was being granted a wish, but it's hard to eat when your food turns to gold, or drink for that matter & it ended up being a curse. Greek Mythology. So who is your King Midas?

> Hey Iseult, as I'm about 99% sure that it's your
> survey. Here's the few that I would chose
>
> Stone Tools - analysis (cultural groups, etc)
> Mayans
> Vikings
> Historical Archaeology (Celts )

Hey, Chris.
How did you know?

Oh trust me, Archaeology is just as boring to do. Imagine sitting whole day, every day, for days, in a square of dirt with a toothbrush. And you have to record EVERYTHING you find. And then index everything. And write reports on everything you found. Still enthusiastic?

Do you think they could have accomplished building pyramids with today's technology?

Give me a room full of books any day!

Just call it a hunch. I'm excited for next year, I'll be takining Historiography - ie, how to research & analyze data. One of the classes got to do rubbings of gravestones. I can't wait.

Do you mean stats under analyzing data?

...although as an archaologist you can legally sex skeletons

No, but I do need to take a stats course to complete my Quantative Methods minor which is a quasi math / quasi comp programming minor. In regards to analyzing data, I can't tell you 100% about the course except for what I've heard from friends, but it basically encourages "teaches" objectiveness and critical thinking in regards to historical events.

Take for example the following
1) Is Russia a European or Asian country in its politics, religious structure, and economic system?
2) Explain why Catherine the Great was or was not so "Great".
3) Is autocracy "natural" to Russia

Sorry, it's easiest to relate it to this course as the same prof teaches both & that's how he structures his exams.

Is Number 2 a Clone High reference?

A who? A what? ... apparently not.

Oh.

Well Clone High is this MTV cartoon sitcoms in which they have cloned famous people, like Joan of Arc or Abraham Lincoln. Anyway, in one episode JFK's clone is getting it on with Catherine the Great, and when somebody points that out, JFK replies 'More like Catherine the So-So'.

I love it. No, unfortunately cable costs $50, & that's out of my budget, I suppose it's for the better since I'm never in my dorm & instead in the radio station.

Well if you have some time you can check out here for free: http://www.youtube.com/results?search=clone+high&s...
That's where I've seen most episodes since it's showing at the time that's inconvenient for me.

Do they have British shows on youtube?

Yes. There is some Fawlty Tower Episodes and whole first season of this new show IT Crowd. I am sure there is more, but I haven't looked for them. Which shows are you interested in?

Haven't figured it out yet, I'll probably look at the BBC site & see if anything grabs my interest.

Little Britain is all the rage now. At least here in Canada. I like it, it's quite funny.

anything about the history and about human evolution.

Some other answer

Egyptian Old Kingdom
City of Rome-753BC to AD500