Skarp
Unearthing the Past: Recent Archaeological Discoveries and How They Rewrite History
This course explores some of the most important archaeological discoveries from roughly the last decade and shows how they are changing what historians thought they knew about human societies, technology, and belief. You will connect specific case studies—from hidden cities revealed by lasers to ancient DNA and shipwrecks—to big questions about how history is written and rewritten.
Course Content
8 modules · 2h total
From Shovels to Satellites: How Modern Archaeology Works
Introduce the basic methods of archaeology and how recent technologies have transformed the kinds of questions we can ask about the past.
Seeing the Invisible: Remote Sensing and Hidden Cities
Examine how Lidar and other remote-sensing tools have revealed previously unknown cities and landscapes, transforming our understanding of ancient urbanism and land use.
Ancient DNA and Human Stories in the Bones
Explore how ancient DNA and bioarchaeology are reshaping narratives about ancestry, kinship, and everyday life through recent case studies.
Rewriting Human Origins: Footprints, Tools, and Early Hominins
Look at very early evidence of humans and their relatives—footprints, wooden tools, and bone tool caches—and what these finds imply about migration and cognition.
Power and Piety: Royal Tombs, Necropolises, and Sacred Spaces
Investigate how recent discoveries of tombs and ritual sites illuminate political power, religion, and social hierarchy in ancient societies.
Everyday Lives Revealed: Graffiti, Settlements, and Shipwrecks
Shift from elites to ordinary people by examining recent finds that capture daily life, work, trade, and personal emotions.
From Find to Headline: How Discoveries Rewrite History (and Sometimes Don’t)
Analyze how archaeologists, journalists, and the public talk about discoveries that ‘rewrite history,’ and learn to critically evaluate such claims.
Ethics, Heritage, and the Future of Archaeological Discovery
Conclude by considering who owns the past, how communities are involved, and what future technologies may reveal, then synthesize how recent discoveries have changed our view of human history.
Read the Textbook
Read every chapter for free, right here in your browser.
Archaeology and history both study the past, but they focus on **different kinds of evidence**.
### Archaeology vs. History - **Archaeology** studies the past using **material remains**: - artifacts (tools, pottery, jewelry) - features (walls, hearths, roads) - ecofacts (animal bones, seeds, pollen) - human remains (skeletons, teeth) - **History** studies the past using **written sources**: - documents, letters, laws - chronicles, diaries - inscriptions, official records
### How They Complement Each Other - Many societies left **no writing** (for example, most of the people who lived in the Americas before European contact). Archaeology is the **main source** for these. - For literate societies (like ancient Rome or medieval China), texts often show the **elite viewpoint**. Archaeology can reveal: - everyday life of ordinary people - what people actually did vs. what laws or ideals said