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This archived information is dated to the 2008-09 academic year only and may no longer be current.

For currently applicable policies and information, see the current Stanford Bulletin.

Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology

Up one level:

Undergraduate Programs in Archaeology

The B.A. in Archaeology requires a minimum of 65 units in the major, divided among five components:

  1. Core Program (20 units), consisting of:
    1. Gateway: ARCHLGY 1, Introduction to Prehistoric Archaeology (5 units)
    2. Intermediate: ARCHLGY 102, Archaeological Methods and Research Design (5 units)
    3. Intermediate: ARCHLGY 103, History of Archaeological Thought (5 units; Writing in the Major)
    4. Capstone: ARCHLGY 107A, Archaeology as a Profession (5 units)

    ARCHLGY 1 is recommended as a first course, and many upper-level courses in Archaeology require this course as a prerequisite. Students should normally take the capstone course in their final year of course work in the major.

  2. Analytical Methods and Computing (at least 3-5 units): quantitative skills and computing ability are indispensable to archaeologists. It is recommended that students take either ANTHRO 304, Data Analysis in Anthropological Science, or ANTHRO 98B, General Methods in Archaeology. Other courses that may satisfy this requirement are PSYCH 10/STATS 60, ECON 102A, and GES 160.
  3. Archaeological Skills (at least 10 units): archaeological skills include archaeological formation processes, botanical analysis, cartography, ceramic analysis, dating methods, faunal analysis, geographic information systems, geology, geophysics, genetics, osteology, remote sensing, soil chemistry, and statistics. Students are required to take at least 5 units from section A, Formation Processes, and at least 5 units from section B, Archaeological Methods. Students are encouraged, whenever possible, to take GES 186, Geoarchaeology, to fulfill the formation processes requirement. With the approval of the instructor and Archaeology director, undergraduates may fulfill part of this requirement from graduate-level courses (i.e., courses with numbers of 200 or higher). Note: this list combines historical and current offerings subject to change; contact the Archaeology program administrator for course planning beyond this year and check the web site.

Section A: Formation Processes

GES 1. Fundamentals of Geology

5

GES 49N. Field Trip to Death Valley and Owens Valley

5

GES 102. Earth Materials

5

GES 144. Fundamentals of Geographic Information Science

4

GES 160. Statistical Methods for Earth and Environmental Sciences:General Introduction

5

GES 186/286. Geoarchaeology

5

GEOPHYS 140. Introduction to Remote Sensing

3

Section B: Archaeological Methods

ANTHRO 175. Human Osteology

5

ANTHRO 175B . Advanced Human Osteology

5

ANTHRO 97. Laboratory Methods in Historical Archaeology

5

ANTHRO 91A. Archaeological Methods and Research Design

5

ARCHLGY 109. Archaeogenetics

5

CLASSART 150. Archaeological Fieldwork in the Mediterranean

5

HUMBIO 115. Long-Term Human Interaction with Environment

5

4. Theory (at least 10 units): topics include archaeological, art-historical, sociocultural, historical, and material culture theory. With the approval of the instructor, undergraduates may fulfill part of this requirement from graduate-level courses (i.e., courses with numbers of 200 or higher). Note: the following list is a combination of historical and current offerings; contact the Archaeology administrator for course planning beyond this year and check the web site.

ANTHRO 112. Ethnoarchaeology

5

ANTHRO 90D. Social Theory in the Anthropological Sciences

5

ANTHRO 90A. History of Archaeological Thought

5

ANTHRO 103. Archaeology of Modern Urbanism

5

ANTHRO 134. Object Lessons

5

ARCHLGY 109. Archaeogenetics

5

ARCHLGY 110. Magic, Science and Religion: Archaeological Perspectives

5

HUMBIO 115. Long-Term Human Interaction with Environment

5

5. Area of Concentration (at least 20 units): in consultation with their faculty advisers, students choose an area of concentration in archaeological research. Concentrations can be defined in terms of time and space such as small-scale societies or the archaeology of complex societies, or in terms of research problems such as new world archaeology or Mediterranean archaeology. An area of concentration should provide both breadth and depth in a specific research area. Courses should be chosen from the list below. Courses other than those on this list can be used to fulfill this requirement with the prior approval of the student's faculty adviser and the program director. With the approval of the instructor, undergraduates may fulfill part of this requirement from graduate-level courses, typically courses numbered 200 or higher. Some courses, such as ANTHRO 114, Stone Tools in Prehistory, can be taken either to fulfill the skills requirement or as part of an area of concentration. However, each course may only count toward one component of the program. Students are encouraged to design their own area of concentration, with the prior approval of the student's faculty adviser and the program director.

Concentrations—In addition to the following components, majors must participate in an archaeological field project, and complete a collateral language requirement. Note: this list combines historical and current offerings subject to change. Contact the Archaeology program administrator for course planning beyond this year.

Small Scale Societies:

ANTHRO 102 . Archaeology of the American Southwest

5

ANTHRO 112. Ethnoarchaeology

5

Archaeology of Complex Societies:

ARCHLGY 110. Magic, Science and Religion: Archaeological Perspectives

5

ARCHLGY 111. Cultural Heritage in Post-Socialist Europe

5

CLASSART 101. Archaic Greek Art

5

CLASSART 102. Classical and 4th-Century Greek Art

4-5

HUMBIO 115. Long-Term Human Interaction with Environment

5

Mediterranean Archaeology:

ANTHRO 142. Sex, Death and Body in Ancient Egypt

5

ARCHLGY 112. The Archaeology of Early Islam

5

CLASSART 61. The Archaeology of the Greek World

5

CLASSART 81. Introduction to Roman Archaeology

5

CLASSART 101. Archaic Greek Art

5

CLASSART 102. Classical and 4th-Century Greek Art

4-5

CLASSART 105. The Body in Roman Art

3-5

New World Archaeology:

ANTHRO 22. Archaeology of North America

5

ANTHRO 105. Incas and their Ancestors: Peruvian Archaeology

5

ANTHRO 106. Ancient Cities in the New World

5

ANTHRO 101. Aztecs and Their Ancestors: Introduction to Mesoamerican Archaeology

5

ANTHRO 102. Archaeology of the American Southwest

5

6. Archaeological Fieldwork—Students may meet this requirement in three ways:

  1. ARCHLGY 108A. Archaeological Field Methods
  2. taking part in a month-long field project directed by a Stanford faculty member, and taking a directed reading during the returning academic year for credit. In 2007-08, field projects were underway in Peru, Rome, Sicily, Switzerland, and Turkey.
  3. completing a field school offered by another institution. Such field schools must be approved in advance by the student's undergraduate adviser and by the director of the Archaeology Program.

Collateral Language Requirement—All Archaeology majors must demonstrate competence in a foreign language beyond the first-year level. Students can meet this requirement by completing a course beyond the first-year level with a grade of 'B' or better, and are encouraged to choose a language that has relevance to their archaeological region or topic of interest. Students may petition to take an introductory-level course in a second language to fulfill this requirement by demonstrating the connection between the language(s) and their research interest(s).

To declare a major in Archaeology, students should contact the program administrator, who provides an application form, answers initial questions, and helps the student select a faculty adviser and area of concentration. All majors must complete 65 units, which must form a coherent program of study and be approved by the student's faculty adviser and the program director.

Students who plan to pursue graduate work in Archaeology should be aware of the admission requirements of the particular departments to which they intend to apply. These vary greatly. Early planning is advisable to guarantee completion of major and graduate school requirements.

HONORS PROGRAM

The honors program in Archaeology gives qualified Archaeology majors the chance to work closely with faculty on an individual research project culminating in an honors thesis. Students may begin honors research from a number of starting points including topics introduced in the core or upper-division courses, independent interests, research on artifacts in Stanford's collections, or fieldwork experiences.

Candidates of sophomore and junior standing with an overall Stanford grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or better should submit an application to the program administrator no later than the end of the fourth week of Spring Quarter. It must include a brief statement of the project, a transcript, a short paper, and a letter of recommendation from the faculty member who supervises the honors thesis. Students are notified of their acceptance by the undergraduate committee.

Approved candidates must complete all of the requirements for their major and submit an honors thesis no later than four weeks prior to the end of the quarter in which graduation is anticipated. The thesis is read by the candidate's adviser and a second reader appointed by the undergraduate committee. Honors candidates may enroll in one of the honors or thesis courses in Anthropology, Classics, Geological and Environmental Sciences, or Geophysics for up to three quarters during their senior year (15 units maximum). No more than 5 of those units may count toward the 65-unit degree requirement.

COGNATE COURSES

The following is a partial list of cognate courses for Archaeology. Please refer to our program web site for updated lists throughout the year. You can also check with respective department listings for course descriptions and General Education Requirements (GER) information. You can also meet with our Student Advisor about degree requirements and the applicability of these courses to a major or minor program.

ANTHRO 3. Introduction to Prehistoric Archaeology

ANTHRO 6. Human Origins (Same as BIO 106, HUMBIO 6.)

ANTHRO 7. Introduction to Forensic Anthropology

ANTHRO 13. Bioarchaeology

ANTHRO 14. Introduction to Anthropological Genetics (Same as HUMBIO 14.)

ANTHRO 16. Native Americans in the 21st Century: Encounters, Identity, and Sovereignty in Contemporary America

ANTHRO 16N. Ethnographies of North America: An Introduction to Cultural and Social Anthropology

ANTHRO 22. Archaeology of North America

ANTHRO 22N. Maya Hieroglyphic Writing

ANTHRO 28. Indigenous Australia

ANTHRO 90A. History of Archaeological Thought

ANTHRO 90D. Social Theory in the Anthropological Sciences

ANTHRO 91A. Archaeological Methods

ANTHRO 94. Postfield Research Seminar

ANTHRO 98B. Digital Methods in Archaeology

ANTHRO 100A. India's Forgotten Empire: The Rise and Fall of Indus Civilization

ANTHRO 101. The Aztecs and Their Ancestors: Introduction to Mesoamerican Archaeology

ANTHRO 103.The Archaeology of Modern Urbanism

ANTHRO 105. Ancient Cities in the New World

ANTHRO 109. Archaeology: World Cultural Heritage

ANTHRO 113. Fanual Analysis: Animal Remains for the Archaeologist (Same as BIO 166.)

ANTHRO 114. Prehistoric Stone Tools: Technology and Analysis

ANTHRO 115A. Long-Term Human Interaction with Environment

ANTHRO 130A. Interpreting Space and Place: An Introduction to Mapmaking

ANTHRO 130B. Introduction to GIS in Anthropology

ANTHRO 134. Object Lessons

ANTHRO 162C. Current Issues in Paleoanthropology (Same as BIO 130.)

ANTHRO 169. Communicating Science: Proposals, Talks, Articles

ANTHRO 171. The Biology and Evolution of Language

ANTHRO 175. Human Osteology

ANTHRO 175B. Advanced Human Osteology

ANTHRO 245. The Ancient Maya

ANTHRO 245A. Evolutionary Theory in Archaeology

ANTHRO 290B. Advanced Evolutionary Theory in Anthropological Sciences

ANTHRO 304. Data Analysis in the Anthropological Sciences

ANTHRO 346A. Sexuality Studies in Anthropology

ANTHRO 362. Conservation and Evolutionary Ecology

ANTHRO 374. Beginnings of Social Complexity

ANTHRO 375. Archaeology and Globalism

ANTHRO 380. Practice and Performance: Bourdieu, Butler, Giddens, de Certeau

ANTHRO 307. Archaeological Methods and Research Design

ARCHLGY 1. Introduction to Prehistoric Archaeology

ARCHLGY 102. Archaeological Methods

ARCHLGY 103. History of Archaeological Thought

ARTHIST 101. Archaic Greek Art (Same as CLASSART 101.)

ARTHIST 102. Classical and 4th-Century Greek Art (Same as CLASSART 102.)

ARTHIST 203. Greek Art in and out of Context (Same as CLASSART 109.)

ARTHIST 204A. Appropriations of Greek Art (Same as CLASSART 110.)

CASA 373. Introduction to Archaeological Theory

CLASSART 20. Introduction to Classical Archaeology

CLASSART 21Q. Eight Great Archaeological Sites in Europe

CLASSART 61. Introduction to Greek Archaeology

CLASSART 81. Introduction to Roman Archaeology

CLASSART 113. Ten Things: Science, Technology, and Design (Same as STS 112.)

CLASSART 114. Ceramics: Art and Science

CLASSART 126. Alpine Archaeology

CLASSART 149. Roman Portraits and Persons

CLASSART 250. Cultural Heritage and Classical Antiquities

CLASSART 315. Mapping Rome

CLASSART 323. Archaeology of the Roman Economy

CLASSGEN 119. Gender and Power in Ancient Rome

CLASSGEN 123. Urban Sustainabilty: Long-Term Archaeological Perspectives

CLASSGEN 332. Pragmatogony: Archaeological Perspectives on the Origins of Things

CLASSHIS 101. The Greeks

CLASSHIS 312. Big Ancient History (Same as HISTORY 311G.)

ECON 102A. Introduction to Statistical Methods (Postcalculus) for Social Scientists

EESS 160. Statistical Methods for Earth and Environmental Sciences: General Introduction

EESS 164. Fundamentals of Geographic Information Science (GIS) (Same as EARTHSYS 144.)

EE 140. The Earth From Space: Introduction to Remote Sensing (Same as GEOPHYS 140.)

GEOPHYS 190. Introduction to Geophysical Field Methods

GES 1. Dynamic Earth: Fundamentals of Earth Science

GES 7A. An Introduction to Wilderness Skills

GES 49N. Field Trip to Death Valley and Owens Valley

GES 102. Earth Materials

GES 185. Volcanology

GES 186. Geoarchaeology

HUMBIO 115. Long-Term Human Interaction with Environment

HUMBIO 180. Human Osteology

STATS 60. Introduction to Statistical Methods: Precalculus (Same as PSYCH 10.)

URBANST 115. Urban Sustainabilty: Long-Term Archaeological Perspectives

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