Teaching with eHRAF Archaeology

By Matthew Longcore, Ph.D.
Director of Membership and Outreach, Human Relations Area Files at Yale University
Adjunct Faculty Member, Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut

Over the past several years, I have taught an introductory undergraduate course in archaeology at the University of Connecticut. Students greatly enjoy learning about archaeological traditions using the eHRAF Archaeology database. The eHRAF Workbooks created by HRAF staff are visually appealing, easy to follow, and helpful for learning how to navigate the database.

The introductory course provides a general introduction to archaeology and is considered a first year, or freshman level, course with no prerequisites. The course covers current issues, methods, and techniques in the field of archaeology. Additionally, it offers a survey of important discoveries in archaeology spanning the whole of human prehistory across the globe. Similar introductory courses in archaeology are taught at colleges and universities around the world. For those interested in learning more, the syllabus for this course is available to view and download in Teaching eHRAF.

To get started with using eHRAF Archaeology in the curriculum, all of my students work on the eHRAF Workbook assignment titled Introducing eHRAF Archaeology. This activity helps familiarize students with the database. In addition, I dedicate some class time to showing students the core features of the database.

Introducing eHRAF Archaeology

 

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eHRAF Training

For faculty who are planning to teach with eHRAF Archaeology, I highly recommend scheduling a webinar for themselves or for their entire class. I am available to provide instructors and their students with customized webinars. To request a webinar, please contact me at hraf-membership@yale.edu. Webinars provide students with a general overview of the database which covers the following topics:

eHRAF Classification Systems

  • Outline of Archaeological Traditions (OAT)
  • Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
  • Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM)

Browsing eHRAF

  • Traditions – Including Tradition Summaries
  • Subjects – Including Major Subjects
  • Documents – Books, Articles, Essays, etc.

Searching eHRAF

  • Advanced Search
  • Search Results

Citation and Notebooks

  • Citation – APA, Chicago, Harvard, and MLA.
  • Notebooks – Create, View, Modify, and Share

eHRAF Workbooks

Visit eHRAF Workbooks to browse our collection of workbook activities for eHRAF Archaeology. Designed to complement any introductory textbook or archaeology curriculum, eHRAF Workbook activities are presented as PowerPoint slideshows that instructors can download, modify, share, and upload to Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, or a similar learning management system. The activity slideshows can also be viewed online from our homepage for easy access. All of the activities are based upon searching or browsing in eHRAF Archaeology, and include links and navigation instructions for students to enter and explore the database in order to complete the assignments.

Teaching eHRAF

Teaching eHRAF is our open access repository of teaching materials which includes sample syllabi and teaching exercises for classroom use. To browse our sample syllabi, visit Teaching eHRAF. This page contains all of the 70+ teaching exercises categorized by field and level of difficulty. You may search and browse for topics of interest. Use the existing syllabi as-is, or choose to modify the relevant portions to better suit your courses. Some of the exercises include easy-to-share PDFs, PowerPoints, or other media. Many have been prepared in-house by experts at HRAF. Others have been written by educators from our member institutions who use the exercises as part of their curricula. We encourage professors and instructors to submit syllabi and welcome diversity in style, theme, and level of difficulty.

Assignments with eHRAF Workbooks

Instructors can utilize the eHRAF Workbooks in a variety of ways. Students can be assigned research projects working independently as individuals, or collaboratively in groups. For my courses at UConn, I assign each students to a small team comprised of 4 to 5 members. Each team is expected to deliver a slideshow presentation (Canva, Google Slides, PowerPoint, etc.) in class based on an archaeological topic featured in the eHRAF Workbooks. I allow students to choose a topic that they find particularly interesting from eHRAF Workbooks page. Following each presentation there is time for class discussion. The format for the team presentations is outlined below.

Part I – Who?

  • Who are the main archaeologists associated with this discovery?
  • Who are the people studied?

Part II – What?

  • What did the archaeologists discover?

Part III – Where?

  • Where is the site located?
  • Does the location have strategic importance?
  • How did the physical environment and natural resources shape cultural practices?

Part IV – When?

  • When were the discoveries made?
  • When in human history do archaeologists believe that this site can be dated to?
  • What does this represent in terms of cultural evolution and progress?

Part V – How?

  • How did archaeologists excavate, analyze, and interpret this site?
  • What technologies were utilized by the people who lived during this archaeological time period?
  • How did they construct buildings and make artifacts (lithics, pottery, etc.)?

Part VI – Why?

  • Why is this archaeological site considered a “great discovery”?
  • Why should this great discovery be preserved and who should be responsible for preservation?

As an example, here is the eHRAF Workbook assignment titled Royal Tombs of Ur:

Royal Tombs of Ur

Here is a recent team project submitted by a group of UConn students:

Royal Tombs of Ur

For more information about membership with eHRAF Archaeology and resources for teaching with the database, including the eHRAF Workbooks, please contact hraf-membership@yale.edu.