Using Experimental Archaeology to Teach about Ancient Military Technology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Experimental Pedagogies: Teaching through Experimental Archaeology Part 1" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper looks at addressing specific pedagogical questions in an experimental archaeology classroom using the case study of a lab with a group of 25 students from a variety of majors. The lab explores the development of three ancient Mediterranean military technologies that defeated and replaced each other over 350 years. The students first spend the two class periods preceding the lab reading and discussing ancient accounts of these military technologies and their attendant formations. As we are using proxy data—e.g., we are not using actual weapons but instead modify lengths of pvc tubing and plastic garbage cans and lids; we have small numbers; we are not in an actual conflict—the students are told to focus on three specific questions to see if we can address them: (1) How fast was the learning curve of each technology? (2) How does your personal feeling of safety differ between the three techniques? (3) Why did each formation replace the other? During the lab, group discussions are held after each formation on the research questions. In the class period following the lab we also discuss how proxy data be useful to learn about the past.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Experimental Pedagogies: Teaching through Experimental Archaeology Part 1   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37995.0