Ideas for a Beginner Archaeology Class Research Paper???

Question

hi i have to find a topic for a archaeology paper and i don't know what to do it on. i did a paper on kennewick man in my intro to anthropology course but i was gonna try and do something else. any ideas? anything at all? i'd like it to be within the basic introductory framework of archaeology itself and not something that is about a certain culture or people. thanks!

Answer 1

do a paper on the practice of doing a 'potlach' of the pacific northwest indians.

Answer 2

If you want to do something basic... and really learn from it... This is what I would do -

Skim through your lecture notes and your intro text (or even watch a few hours of educational TV on archaeological subjects) and see what really interests you most.  Write a list of subjects you'd like to learn more about, and try to pose a question or two about each which you think you might be able to follow up on without over-committing yourself.  

Then decide which of these is the most realistic and most appealing and post them here for feedback and/or show them to your professor for their guidance.  

You will get the most out of a research project you design yourself and which really interests you.  

However, if you are just doing this for a grade, say so and I will try to come up with something clever.

FOLLOW-UP:

If you can't identify any particular interest of your own and work on that, maybe you should focus on something like how people apply criteria for listing on the National Register of Historic Places to archaeological sites and their investigation (very practical), or how sampling intervals affect survey results (very technical, and math-oriented)

Answer 3

What was the original primate ancestor of both old world monkeys and the monkeys that evolved into pre humans, such as Australopithecus, and eventually...us?

Hint, over 25 million years ago. His remains have been recently discovered and excavated; he has been named.

Should work and be somewhat original.

Answer 4

Even though I agree that NAGPRA is an interesting topic, it isn't exactly a topic that is good for a beginner paper.  People can write huge papers and arguments on it one way or another.  I would say some good basic topics would be something like looking at the beginings of American archaeology (I believe it was Thomas Jefferson that excavated a mound to see what it was and to see if he could determine who built it...founding father AND amature archaeologist...) or the history of archaeology in a certain area (state, region, or even a particular site such as serpent mound, Cahokia or something).  You don't really have to delve into the people or culture, but about the different archaeologists and their differnt approaches based on their theories.  I did a paper like this on the history of Archaeology in Minnesota.

Answer 5

NAGPRA

NAGPRA NAGPRA NAGPRA. What is probably the biggest issue for archaeology for the last 20 years.

Specifically, the changes put before Congress that might be coming up might be good to look at. But that's just me. I'm a North American archaeologist.

Answer 6

Are you interested in the debate surrounding the peopling of the New World?  If so, there is plenty of material written on the subject, and you could choose which (if any) side you fall on and argue that, i.e. Clovis versus Pre-Clovis.  Good luck!

Answer 7

How about you discuss the identity of the Indus Valley civilization. The research involved require archaeological knowledge and the topic is debated so there is plenty of room for you to make a stance.