Search Results
Your search for courses · during 25FA, 26WI, 26SP · tagged with ARCN Pertinent · returned 13 results
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ARCN 101 The Human Story: Archaeology and the Anthropocene 6 credits
What are the origins of our species? How did our ancestors evolve in Africa and disperse to nearly every corner of the globe? How did people create tools and homes, transform landscapes, and build cities? What are the origins of art? Of agriculture? Of mass-transport and communication technologies? Writing is about 5000 years old, meaning over 99% of the human past (c. 4 million years) is documented only through the material record of fossils, artifacts, and environmental impacts. This course examines the material worlds of humanity, and how archaeology provides a unique, “big-picture” story of our shared past.
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ARCN 222 Experimental Archaeology and Experiential History and Lab 6 credits
This course offers an experiential approach to crafts, technologies, and other material practices in premodern societies. Through hands-on activities and collaborations with local craftspeople, farmers, and other experts, this course will examine and test a variety of hypotheses about how people in the past lived their lives. How did prehistoric people produce stone tools, pottery, and metal? How did ancient Greeks and Romans feed and clothe themselves? How did medieval Europeans build their homes and bury their dead? Students will answer these questions and more by actively participating in a range of experimental archaeology and experiential history projects. Lab required.
During registration, students will register for both the lecture and a corresponding lab section, which will appear on the student's academic transcript in a single entry.
- Spring 2026
- LS, Science with Lab
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One Archaeology Pertinent (tagged ARCN Pertinent) course with a grade of C- or better.
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ARCN 246 Archaeological Methods & Lab 6 credits
As a field that is truly interdisciplinary, archaeology uses a wide range of methods to study the past. This course provides a hands-on introduction to the entire archaeological process through classroom, field, and laboratory components. Students will participate in background research concerning local places of historical or archaeological interest; landscape surveying and mapping in GIS; excavation; the recording, analysis, and interpretation of artifacts; and the publication of results. This course involves real archaeological fieldwork, and students will have an opportunity to contribute to the history of the local community while learning archaeological methods applicable all over the world.
During registration, students will register for both the lecture and a corresponding lab section, which will appear on the student's academic transcript in a single entry.
Sophomore priority
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ARTH 101 Introduction to Art History I 6 credits
An introduction to the art and architecture of various geographical areas around the world from antiquity through the “Middle Ages.” The course will provide foundational skills (tools of analysis and interpretation) as well as general, historical understanding. It will focus on a select number of major developments in a range of media and cultures, emphasizing the way that works of art function both as aesthetic and material objects and as cultural artifacts and forces. Issues include, for example, sacred spaces, images of the gods, imperial portraiture, and domestic decoration.
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ARTH 120 Art and Archaeology of Ancient Egypt and West Asia 6 credits
This course will provide students with foundational knowledge in the art, architecture and archaeology of Egypt, East Africa, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Iran and Central Asia from the Neolithic through Late Antiquity (ca. 7,000 B.C.E. – 650 C.E.). Students will gain an understanding of the relationship between the visual material and the social, intellectual, political and religious contexts in which it developed and functioned. In this regard, students will also gain an understanding of the evolution of, and exchanges and differences among, the visual cultures of these time periods and regions. It will also expose them to the preconditions for contemporary geopolitics in the region.
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CLAS 200 Greece at a Crossroads: History, Landscape, and Material Culture 6 credits
This course provides a long-term view of the history, landscape, and material culture of Greece, from prehistory to the present day. While the monuments of ancient Greece are cultural touchstones, Greece has a remarkably diverse past, occupying a borderland between continents, empires, and cultures, both ancient and modern. Classroom study and on-site learning examine the wide range of sources that inform us about the Greek past (texts, archaeology, the environment), and focus especially on the stories told by places and things. Site visits in Athens and on trips throughout Greece highlight the importance of local and regional contexts in the “big histories” of the eastern Mediterranean.
Requires participation in OCS Program: Greece at a Crossroads: History, Landscape, and Material Culture
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
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Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Greece at a Crossroads program.
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ENTS 120 Introduction to Geospatial Analysis & Lab 6 credits
Spatial data analysis using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, global positioning, and related technologies are increasingly important for understanding and analyzing a wide range of biophysical, social, and economic phenomena. This course serves as an overview and introduction to the concepts, algorithms, issues, and methods in describing, analyzing, and modeling geospatial data over a range of application areas.
During registration, students will register for both the lecture and a corresponding lab section, which will appear on the student's academic transcript in a single entry.
- Fall 2025, Spring 2026
- QRE, Quantitative Reasoning SI, Social Inquiry
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GEOL 110 Introduction to Geology & Lab 6 credits
An introduction to the fundamental and wondrous processes that shape the Earth. We approach learning through outdoor and laboratory problems, which are often complicated and messy, like the planet itself. Topics may include the formation of rocks, minerals, and mountains, the water cycle, plate tectonics, climate change, volcanoes, and earthquakes. One all-day weekend field trip is typically required. No previous outdoor experience or gear is needed.
During registration, students will register for both the lecture and a corresponding lab section, which will appear on the student's academic transcript in a single entry.
Note: Movement between sections is not possible, if sections fill during registration, seats that open are filled from that waitlist first.
- Fall 2025, Spring 2026
- LS, Science with Lab
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Not open to students who have taken another 100-level Geology course.
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GEOL 125 Introduction to Field Geology & Lab 6 credits
This course introduces fundamental principles of geology and geological reasoning using the geology of southern Minnesota as a guide. Weather permitting, much of the classroom and lab time will be spent outdoors at nearby sites of geological interest. Using field observations, descriptions, data-gathering and interpretation, supplemented by lab work and critical reading, students will piece together the most important elements of the long and complex geologic history of southern Minnesota. Field trips, including one or two all-day weekend trips, and laboratories included.
During registration, students will register for both the lecture and a corresponding lab section, which will appear on the student's academic transcript in a single entry.
Extra Time Required: Weekend field trips
- Fall 2025
- LS, Science with Lab QRE, Quantitative Reasoning
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Not open to students who have taken another 100-level Geology course.
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GEOL 210 Geomorphology and Lab 6 credits
A lab and field-focused introduction to water resources–the processes driving the water cycle, the methods used to quantify and understand the flow of water, and the relationship between humans and water. Weekly field trips to nearby locations such as streams, wellfields, caves, and water infrastructure to develop skills including streamflow measurements, water quality monitoring, pump tests, and measuring soil properties. No previous outdoor experience required.
During registration, students will register for both the lecture and a corresponding lab section, which will appear on the student's academic transcript in a single entry.
- Fall 2025
- LS, Science with Lab QRE, Quantitative Reasoning
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One 100-Level GEOL course with grade of C- or better.
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HIST 338 Digital History, Public Heritage & Deep Mapping 6 credits
How do new methods of digital humanities and collaborative public history change our understanding of space and place? This hands-on research seminar will seek answers through a deep mapping of the long history of Northfield, Minnesota, before and after its most well-known era of the late nineteenth-century. Deep mapping is as much archaeology as it is cartography, plumbing the depths of a particular place to explore its diversity through time. Students will be introduced to major theories of space and place as well as their application through technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), 3D modeling, and video game engines. We will mount a major research project working with the National Register of Historic Places, in collaboration with specialists in public history and community partners.
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LTAM 113 Archaeology of Ancient Latin America 6 credits
This course examines ancient peoples of the large, geographically and culturally diverse region of Latin America. Focused on Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, we will examine the material culture of Indigenous peoples from c. 20,000 years ago to the time of European contact (1500 AD), including the Olmec, Maya, Aztec, Moche, Inka, Taíno, and Rapa Nui peoples. Themes include migration, the environment, settlement, long-term social change, and daily life. We will also review current debates and ethical issues, with an emphasis on Indigenous perspectives and cross-disciplinary dialogues between archaeology and related fields.
- Spring 2026
- IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
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SOAN 110 Introduction to Anthropology 6 credits
Anthropology is the study of all human beings in all their diversity, an exploration of what it means to be human throughout the globe. This course helps us to see ourselves, and others, from a new perspective. By examining specific analytic concepts—such as culture—and research methods—such as participant observation—we learn how anthropologists seek to understand, document, and explain the stunning variety of human cultures and ways of organizing society. This course encourages you to consider how looking behind cultural assumptions helps anthropologists solve real world dilemmas.
Sophomore Priority.
- Fall 2025, Winter 2026
- IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2 CX, Cultural/Literature