ANTH 365: The Archaeology of Empire

(1 Unit)
Prerequisite: ANTH 105 or SOC 101 and junior standing or permission of instructor.
The global interconnections and inequalities that characterize the twenty-first century have their origins in the sixteenth-century European imperial expansions that drew peoples from all regions of the globe into novel economic, political and ideological relationships that fundamentally transformed the identities of all parties involved. European imperialism, however, was not a unique incidence of this phenomenon, but was rather the most recent in a series of colonial encounters that began over 5,000 years ago as the institutions of the world’s first cities expanded their influence beyond the floodplains of Mesopotamia. In this course students gain a more complete understanding of the modern world through the critical review of case studies including Uruk, Greek, Roman, Aztec, Incan and European civilizations. Chase.