UNIVERSITY OF GHANA

(All rights reserved)

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND HERITAGE STUDIES

SCHOOL OF ARTS
FIRST SEMESTER 2021/2022 ACADEMIC YEAR

COURSE SYLLABUS

COURSE CODE AND TITLE: ARCH 211. FUNDAMENTALS OF

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE (CREDITS: 3)

Lecture Period / Venue: Thursday 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. zoom/JQB Room 23.
Course Instructor: Dr. Fritz Biveridge
Office Location: Room 2, School of Arts Building
Office Hours: Wednesday, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Email: fbiveridge@ug.edu.gh

Course Overview
The course outlines the ethical and technological framework within which contemporary
archaeologists work with special reference to Ghana. It examines the various methods,
techniques and theoretical concepts they use in accomplishing the tasks of reconstructing
the socio-cultural, and economic life-ways of ancient societies. Some behavioral
processes and patterns which facilitated cultural change and impacted societies are also
discussed.

Course Objectives
The course has three main objectives. First, is to introduce and familiarize archaeology to
the class. This is very important because archaeology is not taught at the Senior
Secondary School level and many may not have heard of the discipline. Second, is to
whip-up their enthusiasm and get them interested in the subject by introducing them to
the various methodologies, approaches and techniques used by archaeologists to derive
data, undertake analysis, and reconstruct tangible and intangible aspects of human
culture. Third, is to encourage students to develop personal analytic skills by introducing
to them different scenarios encountered in the field during archaeological investigations
by encouraging and helping them to derive conclusions based on empirical facts and
scientific evidence.

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Learning Outcomes
At the end of the semester, students will be expected to have had a good grasp of the
subject matter/discipline, especially the methodologies and analytical approaches used by
archaeologists to derive and analyses data, as well as their advantages and limitations.
Students will also be expected to have familiarized with several notable archaeological
sites, from the earliest to contemporary times across the nation and in the sub region, and
the nature of archaeological investigations undertaken there.

Assessment and Grading

Grading will be based on two mid-semester Interim Assessment class tests which carry
20 marks each, and a final exam which carries 60 marks. All tests are compulsory and
criteria to be considered during marking will be clarity of expression in texts, writing
skills, surface correctness, grammar, punctuation and sentence structure.

Grading Scale
Refer to University of Ghana undergraduate handbook

Plagiarism Policy
Plagiarism in any form is a serious offence in the university and students caught will be
sanctioned and/or severely punished as stipulated in the plagiarism policy. This policy is
available at http:/www.ug.edu.gh/policies-guidelines. All students are expected to visit
this website and familiarize themselves with the contents of the policy.

Other Information
Lateness to lectures and use of mobile phones during lectures is a serious offence and
students caught will be severely reprimanded and punished. Talking and making of
unsolicited noise will also not be tolerated and students are expected to comport
themselves at all times during lectures.

Course Delivery Schedule/Lecture Topics

Week 1 Topics - Background discussion of archaeology/ its origins and growth from
classical times to the present, as well as the major developments and highlights which
occurred in the discipline over the period.

Week 2 Topics - The various definitions of archaeology / their advantages and

limitations / the primary goals of archaeology (constructing cultural history,
reconstructing ancient life ways and explaining culture change).

Week 3 Topic. - The processes of archaeological research and the ethical responsibilities
of the archaeologists

Week 4 Topics - Research Design (a) The formulation stage (b) the implementation
stage (c) Data acquisition stage (d) the data processing stage (e) the data analysis stage (f)
the data interpretation stage, and (g) the data publication stage.

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Week 5 Topic - Finding archaeological sites – the methods used in discovering them and
the various types of archaeological sites.

Week 6 Topics - Site formation processes -- (a) The primary contexts (b) secondary
contexts. (c) The Law of Association. (d) The Law of Superposition. (e) Archaeological
reconnaissance. (f) Remote sensing techniques

Week 7 Topics - Organizing archaeological surface surveys and excavations, and the
importance of multi-disciplinary teams in archaeological research.

Week 8 Topics - Preparing for excavation - mapping and site layout, equipment,
establishing a datum point, gridding, selection of units to excavate, drawing stratigraphy
plans/profiles

Week 9 Topics - Methods of excavation, tools of the trade, excavation problems,

excavation layout, methods of excavation and back filling

Week 10 – Topics - Recording archaeological data / collecting artifacts / Stratigraphy, its

recording and recognition / Identification and classification of data / Preservation of
archaeological data.

Week 11 Topics - Dating methods: absolute dating techniques (radiocarbon dating,

potassium dating, fission track, thermo luminescence, dendrochronology and amino acid
racemization) / Relative dating techniques (linguistic dating, stratigraphy dating, and
typological dating).

Week 12 Topics - Reconstructing past life-ways using botanical resources /

Reconstructing past life-ways using faunal resources.

Bibliography.

Sharer, R. J and Ashmore, W. 2006. Archaeology, Discovering Our Past. Mayfield

Publishing Company. California.

Brown, David. 2019. Principles and Practice in Modern Archaeology. London. Hodder
& Stoughton.

Joukowsky, Martha. 2015. A Complete Manual of Field Archaeology. Prentice- Hall Inc.
New Jersey.

Scarre, Chris. 2014. The Human Past. World Prehistory and the Development of Human
Societies. London. Thames & Hudson.

Aremu, David. 2010. Preservation of land, Culture and Wildlife for the Development of
Ecotourism in Africa. Ibadan. Spectrum Books Ltd.