CMRAE education
CMRAE's educational and research objectives are realized through the graduate and undergraduate subjects the consortium offers at MIT* and its affiliated institutions, as well as through the laboratory facilities and technical expertise it can provide for all levels of study. Education ranges from broad one-semester undergraduate subjects that survey the spectrum of materials science contributions to cultural interpretation, to specialized methodological classes in statistics and geographic information systems, and intensive year-long graduate lecture and laboratory subjects that examine the organic and inorganic materials common to archaeological artifacts and environmental remains. For graduate and post-graduate CMRAE- affiliated scholars, laboratory facilities can be made available for supervised or independent research involving ancient and non-industrial cultural materials of all kinds, or for the study of paleobotanical, faunal, and human osteological remains. Faculty and staff drawn from the member institutions bring an unparalleled breadth of technical competence to these endeavors. CMRAE is a unique enterprise made possible by inter-institutional sharing and the drawing together of vast expertise dispersed throughout Boston's extensive scientific community.*Please follow the Undergraduate (B.Sc.) and Graduate (Ph.D.) Degrees in Archaeology and Archaeological Science at MIT link for a listing of related degree programs and courses offered at MIT.
CMRAE is committed to linking the education of students to the research activities of our faculty who share their expertise in diverse fields across departmental and institutional lines. Until recently we have directed our teaching entirely toward graduate education; the first undergraduate subject, Archaeological Science, was introduced in the spring of 1996.Our curriculum and program committees meet regularly to recommend the design of new subjects, to schedule subject offerings, and to inform the consortium universities about current CMRAE curricula. Notices of prospective subjects are posted to invite student inquiry. Interested students interview and seek permission to enroll from the Center faculty in their home institutions. Each consortium university has arrangements for accepting CMRAE credits, and students receive credit at their own institutions.
CMRAE Graduate Subject Offered 1999-2000
In 1995, the CMRAE program committee initiated the development of an undergraduate curriculum that is available to students from all the consortium universities. Archaeological Science is the first subject offered in the new undergraduate program. Fifteen faculty members from six CMRAE institutions, all specialists in their fields, present lectures and laboratory demonstrations within an intellectual format designed by CMRAE's curriculum committee. Half the semester focuses on reconstructing time, place, and human ecologies in prehistory, taking a close look at the natural environment in which people lived and the ecologies of human-environmental interactions. The other half considers ancient technologies and the transforming of natural materials to items of material culture. The subject relies heavily on the presentation of case studies to anchor anthropological context while developing rigorous discussion of pertinent science and engineering approaches. As new materials-oriented subjects with solid laboratory and processing components are designed, these CMRAE-wide subjects complement those already in place at individual consortium universities.
Many CMRAE subjects are designed and taught by teams of faculty, often from several institutions. Graduate subjects are based on the specialties of the faculty and the needs of graduate students. Core offerings have included Biological Materials in Prehistory, Metallurgy in Ancient Societies, Stone in Ancient Societies, Ceramics in Ancient Societies, and Mathematics and Computers in Archaeological Data Analysis. Recently we have added: Geological Materials: Ores and Clays, Remote Sensing and Archaeology, and Geographic Information Systems and Archaeology to the curriculum. The subjects evolve as the disciplines change and as new faculty enter the consortium. Biological Materials, for example, originally a single one-year subject, has been offered recently as separate subjects in archaeobotany, archaeozoology, and stable isotope analysis of bone. This has provided a three semester sequence in the analysis of organic materials.Our intensive laboratory subjects usually have an enrollment limit of 15 students, meet 3 hours each week for lecture-seminar, 4-5 hours each week for laboratory instruction, and an additional 3-5 hours for individual supervised laboratory work. The faculty expects that many students who complete a one year subject will be able to apply their experience to the design of a Ph.D. research project at their home institution.
The Center is especially interested in assuring that those students selected for admission are prepared for the rigorous standards maintained in the laboratory. The CMRAE Graduate Laboratory is well-equipped for teaching and for individual projects; the strictest standards of procedure and safety are observed. Laboratory instruction is conducted by the faculty assisted by a laboratory supervisor who is able to work with students during nonscheduled hours. Following the customary practice of the biological and physical sciences, the laboratory notebook and presentation of individual research projects form the bases for assessing the accomplishments of students participating in our subjects.
Often, graduate students continue their thesis research at their home institutions on topics initiated in CMRAE subjects and continue to consult with their former CMRAE instructors to make use of the Center's Graduate Laboratory. CMRAE dissertation topics range broadly both in geographic coverage and by material. A few examples: The Origins, Technology, and Social Construction of Ancient West Mexican Metallurgy; Seasonality of Natufian Gazelle Tooth Cementum; Archaeobotanical Materials from Tel Ifshar, Israel; A Diachronic Study of Agricultural Strategies during the Third and Second Millennia BCE; Style and Technology: A View of African Early Iron Age Smelting through its Refractory Ceramics; The Usewear of Stone Tools used by Neanderthals and Modern Homo Sapiens in Israel.The effectiveness of our teaching program is ultimately measured by the accomplishments of those who have been students in the program. Some have assumed university faculty positions in the departments of archaeology, materials science, life sciences, and geology. Others have joined conservation analytical laboratories in major museums. Several are employed in government laboratories dedicated to the preservation of the cultural heritage and to cultural resource management. All rely on their CMRAE experience and perspective.
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