Archaeology Programs

This first attempt by the English to settle the New World ended in the disappearance of 115 people in 1587 on what is now the North Carolina coast. It still remains an unsolved mystery. Andrew Lawler, a longtime science journalist, examines both old archival material and new archaeological data to provide up-to-date insights on the Roanoke settlers.

Recent discoveries suggest that Indigenous peoples have lived in the area we know as the American Southwest for more than 22,000 years. Jon Ghahate of the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque examines how these early inhabitants utilized science-based constructs as they shifted from nomadic hunter-gatherer family groups to more socially complex agrarian communities of thousands of inhabitants.

Historian Cheryl White examines four significant monuments of art and archaeology of medieval England—the Sutton Hoo ship burial, the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Bayeux Tapestry, and Canterbury Cathedral—each of which points to a specific turning point in the historical narrative of the 7th through 14th centuries. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1 credit)

Two hundred years ago, French historian and linguist Jean-Francois Champollion deciphered the hieroglyphics inscribed on a slab of black stone found in Egypt in 1799—finally cracking the code to the ancient Egyptians’ enigmatic writing system. Historian Gary Rendsburg unfolds the exciting story of one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time.