Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for this course. A basic knowledge of site survey and GIS would be useful, but not required.
Required Texts
Several of the texts for this course are available for purchase through the bookstore if you choose. All readings will be made available either through regular reserve or through the OCRA e-reserve system. Reading lists are located at the end of the syllabus and on the Resources page.
CLARK, A. 1996. Seeing Beneath Soil, Revised Edition. London: B. T. Batsford Ltd. (available as an e-book through Josiah)
CONYERS, L. & D. GOODMAN. 1997. Ground-Penetrating Radar: An Introduction for Archaeologists. Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press.
GAFFNEY, C. & J. GATER. 2003. Revealing the Buried Past, Geophysics for Archaeologists. Stroud: Tempus Publishing Ltd.
GAFFNEY, C. 2009. Magnetometry for Archaeologists (Geophysical Methods for Archaeology). AltaMira Press.
JOHNSON, J. (ed.) 2006. Remote Sensing in Archaeology: An Explicitly North American Perspective. University of Alabama Press.
SCHMIDT, A. 2002. Geophysical Data in Archaeology: A Guide to Good Practice, 2nd ed. (Arts and Humanities Data Service Guides to Good Practice), Oxbow Books, Ltd.
Additional Materials:
Each student will be responsible for keeping their own field notebook. A “Rite in the Rain” field notebook is recommended for use, however, other, scientific lab notebooks will be accepted upon approval from instructor.
Grading
Your grade will be based on the following breakdown:
| Task | Percentage |
| Class participation | 15 |
| Lab Completion | 10 |
| Field Notebook | 10 |
| Class Presentation | 10 |
| Mid-Term Paper | 20 |
| Final Report & Presentation | 35 |
| Total | 100 |
Class Participation: is required. Principles and equipment operation instructions covered in class are directly applicable to successful completion of weekly lab assignments. Only excused absences will be accepted (with class reading and content completed). Class absence will be directly reflected in final grading.
Because most of the work that we will be doing has an intensive hands-on component, a discussion forum will be set up on our course wiki. This is to be used as a question and answer board as well as for discussion about the readings and field methods you will be developing. Students are responsible for checking this board regularly and contributing to discussion throughout the semester. Students are encouraged to post their own thoughts as well as respond to my questions and prompts. Participation in the wiki discussion forum will be part of your class participation grade.
Lab Completion: Labs are designed for class participants to work together with hands-on exercises using different geophysical survey instruments and data processing / visualization software.
Mid-Term Paper: 
A mid-term paper on a geophysical survey method of your choice is required. The paper will cover the method principles, history of use in archaeology, survey methods, and showcase representative examples of your geophysical survey method conducted on two different types of archaeological sites. The paper should be a minimum of 8 pages and should not exceed 10 pages. Proper notation of references is required. Paper topic should be submitted by class on Tuesday, September 21; Mid-term paper is due October 26.
Class Presentation: Each student will be required to present the content of their Mid-Term papers.
Final Report and Presentation: The final project of this class will be a comprehensive geophysical survey of a local archaeological site. Class participants will work as a team in preparing a final report on the geophysical surveys they conducted. The results of this project will be presented at the Joukowsky Institute.
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