Archaeology of Complex Societies

This seminar examines the concept of complexity from an archaeological perspective. It surveys various cultural traditions, focusing on issues associated with the emergence and development of social, economic and political complexity such as the advent of sedentism, early villages, the evolution of urban, literate societies, city-states and incipient supra-regional polities, and ancient "world empires". Students should complete the subject with a critical understanding of historical and contemporary theoretical issues in archaeological research and interpretation concerned with complexity, and have a knowledge of various methodologies utilised toward these interpretative ends.