ANTH 3008 is also offered in Fall 2024
ANTH 3008 is also offered in Spring 2023
ANTH 3008 is also offered in Fall 2021
Fall 2021 | ANTH 3008 Section 001: Introduction to Flintknapping (34949)
- Instructor(s)
- Class Component:
- Laboratory
- Credits:
- 3 Credits
- Grading Basis:
- A-F or Audit
- Instructor Consent:
- No Special Consent Required
- Instruction Mode:
- In Person Term Based
- Meets With:
ANTH 5008 Section 001
- Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
UMTC, West Bank
Blegen Hall 318
- Enrollment Status:
Open (13 of 16 seats filled)
- Also Offered:
- Course Catalog Description:
- Hands-on experience in replication of prehistoric stone tools, as basis for archaeological analysis and as art form in itself.
- Class Notes:
- .
- Class Description:
- This course gives students hands-on training in how to use prehistoric techniques to make stone tools, such as the earliest chopper cutting edges to the million year old hand axe, to recent arrowheads that are sharper than surgical steel. If you want to learn to live like a Neanderthal (or an archaeologist) and survive the coming collapse of our global fossil fuel based economy, this is the course for you. Little reading is required (we use abundant how-to videos) but abundant patience is needed to learn a body technique skill that will stay with you for your lifetime. As the vast majority of human existence has been spent using stone tools as the primary medium for the interaction between humans and the environment, understanding the causes of change in stone tool variation through time is fundamental to understanding the human past. The rediscovery of the techniques used to create past stone tool traditions is thus instrumental to the study of archaeology. This course provides students with hands-on experience in the replication of prehistoric stone tool technology that furnishes the basis for contemporary approaches to lithic analysis in prehistoric archaeology (in fact, this course is designed to complement Anth5269 Analysis of Stone Tool Technology). In addition, flintknapping is an art form in itself, pursued by both archaeologists and non-academic flintknappers. The learning objectives of this course include 1) a practical ability to manufacture stone tools (flintknapping) using aboriginal tools and techniques from the most ancient to most recent times, 2) an introductory knowledge of known prehistoric lithic variability, and 3) experience with several raw materials used for flintknapping. The one-on-one training in flintknapping provided in this course gives students the ability to improve their flintknapping skills on their own time or to engage in more detailed study through enrolling in the follow-up course, Anth5008 Advanced Flintknapping. This course is thus designed to be of use to professional archaeologists, amateur flintknappers, and the general public.
- Who Should Take This Class?:
- This class is designed for anthropologists, archaeologists, artists, and anyone interested in learning and working with their hands
- Grading:
- 40% Special Projects
30% Quizzes
30% Class Participation Other Grading Information: The Special Projects include the production of 4 specific artifact classes during the course. These 4 pieces are submitted at the end of the course for 40% of the grade.
- Class Format:
- 20% Lecture
80% Laboratory
- Workload:
- 40 Pages Reading Per Week
4 Special Project(s)
2 Quiz(zes)
Other Workload: Videos on flintknapping are viewed by students on-line through the Digital Content Library outside of class time.
- Textbooks:
- https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/34949/1219
- Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
- 11 October 2017
ClassInfo Links - Fall 2021 Anthropology Classes