Preface

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Isabel M. Scarborough, Jennifer M. Johnson Zovar, Ian S. Ray, and John A. Donahue
Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges (SACC)

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Isabel M. Scarborough, PhD, Parkland College

Jennifer M. Zovar, PhD, Whatcom Community College

Ian S. Ray, PhD, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention*

John A. Donahue, MA, Harford Community College

Introducing Traces

Welcome! Traces: An Open Invitation to Archaeology is part of a series of no cost high quality anthropology textbooks including the award-winning Perspectives introducing cultural anthropology and Explorations for introductory courses in Biological Anthropology. The open access series is a project of the national Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges (SACC) to provide quality peer reviewed course materials for introductory anthropology college courses in an open access format.

As anthropologists, we (the editors) firmly believe in raising awareness on diverse topics and perspectives. As educators, we are keenly aware of the costs of higher education and have invested countless volunteer hours in putting this volume together so students and instructors everywhere can freely access the course materials needed for an introduction to archaeology. Our hope is that this collection of instructional works and ancillary materials will help alleviate some of the inequalities in higher learning.

As with other volumes in this series, the textbook is freely available in an online or e-book format. The advantages of this, particularly in our post-pandemic world, is that most students are now familiar with these types of content, and instructors are much more likely to adopt electronic resources and even embed them into their learning management systems. Another great advantage is that online formats can also contribute to accessibility requirements providing alternate text and headings for voice readers to capture, adequate contrast, and the ability to enlarge the text, among other tools. Yet another advantage is that the work itself can be modified and updated with greater ease than print editions. Having said that, students who require a printed version of the book have the option to purchase an inexpensive hard copy through a third party.

How to Use this Book

For Instructors

The past decade has seen significant shifts in pedagogy and in the standards and norms within anthropology itself with an increased emphasis on diversity, inclusion, anti-racism, and equity. Archaeology in particular deals with ethical issues that involve descendant communities, and the shift within this field has been toward decolonization and collaboration with Indigenous peoples and other groups whose heritage is affected by new discoveries and knowledge. The rapid pace of technology has also affected research methods and practices in the discipline, as noted by some of the volume’s contributors. These changes mean that archaeology is now involved in ethical and legal challenges affecting people in the present. Archaeological scientific methods can be used to research current social structures, and our understanding of the practices of past societies affect the lived experience of present-day communities.

The book itself has been divided into two general areas: Why We Do Archaeology and How We Do Archaeology. The first section addresses these connections from the past to the present and the changing tides in the discipline, both theoretically and thematically. The authors of these chapters discuss the ethical challenges of archaeology in the twenty-first century. These chapters also showcase how archaeology embodies applied anthropology and its collaborative nature across disciplinary and subfield lines. The second section provides the different methods and tools used by archaeologists today to contribute to the study of human societies and our origins. A final third section, Case Studies in World Archaeology, is still being developed. Please contact us at archaeologyoer@gmail.com if you are interested in contributing something!

You, as the instructor, will be able to choose and curate the material you will teach according to the needs of your curriculum and the makeup of your students, as well as on your class format and delivery methods. Thank you for choosing to adopt this textbook which has been written, peer reviewed, and edited by anthropology instructors such as yourself. The Creative Commons License under which Traces is published, unlike a traditional textbook, provides the freedom for you to modify, supplement or add to this textbook as you see fit.

For students

This book was specifically written for students in introductory archaeology courses, such as yourself. The editors and authors of the different chapters all share an enthusiasm for archaeology as well as a love of teaching and learning. Over the years it took to compile the chapters in this text, students in different classes piloted adopting the book, gave suggestions, commented on the accessibility and readability of the content, as well as on the format of the book. We have taken these suggestions into account and will continue to do so. More importantly, the book is available to you for free! We hope you find at least some of the content useful and interesting.

Whether you read part of a chapter out of interest in one of the many fascinating topics in archaeology, whether you are an instructor assigning some of these texts to your students, or whether you are a student exploring archaeology with this textbook, we welcome you and are delighted you are joining us in this journey through the traces of the past.

Warmly,

Traces Editors:

Isabel M. Scarborough, Jennifer M. Johnson Zovar, Ian S. Ray, and John A. Donahue

Note: This book was prepared by the editors in their personal capacity. The opinions expressed in this chapter are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of their institutions, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government.

Dedication

The editors would like to thank our families and colleagues who patiently put up with a very lengthy editorial process. We dedicate this volume to them and to all anthropology students and educators.

Acknowledgements

This book and its ancillary materials were partially funded from the Illinois Support for the Creation of Open Educational Resources (SCOERs) project, facilitated by the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) and funded by a $2 million Open Textbooks Pilot Program grant from the Department of Education and the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education.^[1] This grant was awarded to The Learning Commons and the Department of Arts, Media, and Social Sciences at Parkland College. The materials were created for community college undergraduate students.

The book will be adopted by Introduction to Archaeology courses nationwide as this textbook is part of the series created by the national Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges (SACC), a division of the American Anthropological Association. SACC provided the seed money to start the project and pay for the cover graphics. We also wish to thank Whatcom Community College, which houses the textbook in its Pressbooks account. Whatcom Community College also supported Jennifer Zovar’s Fall 2021 sabbatical to work on the project full-time.

Contributors

Contributors to the development of this OER textbook/ancillary material include educators, librarians, and staff from Parkland College, Harford Community College, Whatcom Community College, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Illinois SCOERs Project Staff helped coordinate the management of the Open Textbook Pilot grant that made this OER possible. Topical experts shared their knowledge on open educational resources, incorporating technologies including 3D printing, accessibility, author rights, instructional design, publishing, and participated with the review and proofreading processes. The Illinois SCOERs Advisory Committee provided input on the subgrant applications and the materials produced, and include industry members, librarians, graduate students, and representatives from the SCOERs project partners.

Authors

All the chapters in Traces are original and were written for this first edition of the textbook with an introductory college level audience in mind. We wish to especially thank all the authors who contributed with their intellectual production in different areas of expertise to make the teaching and learning of archaeology more accessible.

Rebecca K. Albert
David S. Anderson
Andrew Beaupré
Samantha Blatt
Valerie Bondura
Katherine Brewer
Lisa Bright
Kristina Casper-Denman
Meghan Dennis
John A. Donahue
Riley Freeman
James G. Gibb
Kaitlin Hakanson
Jenna Hendrick
Christopher L. Hernandez
Emily Johnson
Amy Michael
April Kamp-Whittaker
Steven R. Kuehn
Robyn Lacy
Alexandra Martin
James Macrae
Jo Zalea Mattas
Paulina Przystupa
Ian S. Ray
Matthew P. Rooney
Isabel M. Scarborough
Jacob Skousen
Dana Shew
Katrina Worley
Jennifer M. Zovar

Peer Review

The Peer Reviewer process was completed by the following reviewers:

Lauren Anaya, Emma Bate, Adam Bramowicz, Adalyn Coker, Jamie Colopietro, Maia Dedrick, Jennifer Faux-Campbell, Alex Fitzpatrick, Pamela J. Ford, Alexis Garcia, Elizabeth Hoag, Kirsten Jenkins, Nicholas Kager, Sarah King, Sarah Latham, Paul Lehman, William Loftus McIntyre, James Macrae, Lee Panich, Rachel Pinkman, Amy Raymond, Evin Rodkey, Matthew Rooney, Judith Sichler, Jill Wagner, Staci Willis, Gillian Wong.

Copyediting and Formatting

Many thanks go to Laura Carney and Kate Babbitt who provided copyediting for the text. Thanks also go to Holly Baker who formatted the printable PDFs.

Cover Art

We acknowledge and thank Stewart A. Williams for creating Traces’ cover art in line with the other OERs SACC has produced.

Customization/Terms of Use

This textbook is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY) license unless otherwise indicated, which means that you are free to:

SHARE – copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
ADAPT – remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose

Licensing Terms

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Attribution: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if any changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
No Additional Restrictions: You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Notice: You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable United States copyright exception or limitation.
No Warranties are Given: The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

The contents of this publication were developed under a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. ↵

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