1. You have been awarded the Professor Gloria Steinem Chair of Feminist Archaeology at Contra Costa College and have been asked to start a major research project on the role of women in ancient Egypt. The occupant of the Professor Gloria Steinem Chair of Feminist History is Michael Burnham, who has already staked her claim to all the textual material related to ancient Egypt – you do not want to mess with her! Therefore, your research project needs to look at archaeological evidence for womens roles, ideologies, behaviors, or relationships in ancient Egypt.
a. What kinds of research questions would you ask?
b. Provide at least three kinds of archaeological evidence you would look for?
c. State what the evidence tells us about womens role in ancient Egyptian society?
2. The aliens really did land on earth and monitored us from about 3000 BC to 1500 AD. One team was given the western hemisphere, the other the eastern. After a couple of days, they got bored and went looking for a more interesting planet. Back on their home planet of TZPJRVXS (no vowels in space), they were debriefed by the alien chief.
Her main question was, which complex society visited by one team was the most similar to one monitored by the other?
a. The chief of the two spaceships sat down and jointly wrote a one-page executive summary comparing the most similar societies. When translated to English, what did it say?
3. Irit-Ishtar was the most successful farmer in ancient Babylon. An emissary from the Maya Civilization (no, this is not a realistic scenario) shows up in Babylon one day looking for an agricultural consultant to help them. Irit- Ishtar is the go-to girl, the agriculturalist nerd of Babylon. After sailing all the way to southern Mexico, she looks around and sees that agricultural possibilities are very different than at home.
a. What would she explain as the similarities and differences between what she does around Babylon and what they do?
b. What would she recommend making their agricultural regimen more like Babylon?
c. Would it work? Why or why not?
4. Bob Carneiro, Karl August Wittfogel, and Lewis Binford are sharing a pitcher of Long Island Iced Tea at the V. Gordon Childe Bar and arguing about Great Zimbabwe. Theyre still on the first pitcher, so they can argue rationally. Each posits their theory of how Great Zimbabwe developed as a state level society. But then, Jared Diamond stumbles into the bar and yells it is more important to understand why it failed as a state!
a. What would Bob Carneiro, Karl August Wittfogel, and Lewis Binford say about how Great Zimbabwe became a state
b. Whom do you agree with and why?
c. What would Diamond say was the cause of Great Zimbabwes collapse
