Syllabus

Aims of the Course

Our study concerns the history of humankind's interaction with a dynamic natural environment.  This history begins at a point of geoligic time where human life was ruled by nature, and where nature shaped the evolution of human form and the abundance of human populations across the planet. At the end of the ice age, humans began to be a dynamic factor in the natural environment, and human activity began to supplant the rule of nature in determining the course of the planet's environmental evolution. In the present world, human influence on the natural environment poses numerous uncertainties and potential dangers to both the quantity and quality of human life. By examining the co-evolution of human history and environmental history we seek insight into the array of problems and potential solutions that face humankind in the present world.

The course is conceived as a partnership between three organizational units of the university: the Department of Geophysical Sciences, the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and the Environmental Studies program. The original intent of the course was to provide an opportunity for students of humanities and social sciences to learn about the physical processes of Earth's climate and environment within the context of archaeology. While the main educational goal of the course is to explore the knowledge of physical science (e.g., meteorology, geochemistry, geomorphology), the distinctive feature of the course which sets it apart from others that emphasize the science of Earth's environment is the emphasis on human history. The course was first taught in 2003 (winter and spring quarters). The sequence offered in 2004 will entail several restructurings, including a greater emphasis on the time-line of human history as an organizational thread.

Topics of study cover the climatology, paleoclimatology, meteorology, land-surface geomorphology, physical chemistry, metallurgy, astronomy, population ecology, statistical and computational methodology, and physical/biological interactions necessary to understand Earth's environment during the period in which humankind emerged as a species and as a social, technological, political and cultural entity on the planet.

The first quarter (Physci 132), emphasizes the emergence of humans as a species, and the development of early strategies for the management of nature (e.g., development of agriculture).  The time frame will lead up to the development of early urban settlements of the Near East approximately 4000 B.C.E.This regional focus provides an ideal laboratory for the study of human-environmental interactions because it offers an enormous array of data drawn from archaeological and textual studies. Laboratory exercises and readings will emphasize the evolutionary biology of hominids, the spread of humans across the globe, sea level and ice-age climate change, and geochemical records of late-Peistocene climate.

The second quarter (Physci 133), emphasizes the interplay between cultural and environmental mechanisms which shape the early development of civilization. Particular attention will be given to covering Earth systems (e.g., rivers, subtropical climate and transgressive sea level changes) that influence the early urban settlements of the Near East. Topics of study will culminate with an examination of the environmental challenges and problems in today's world and their underpinnings in the concepts of physical science.  Return to top.

Student Responsibilities

Students are required to attend all lectures, complete reading assignments, hand in reading-comprehension quizzes (late assignments will be given a 50% cut in grade, late assignments handed in after the answer key is posted will receive zero credit), attend one lab section per week, complete the self-guided field trips and complete the final exam. Students who cannot fulfill these responsibilities should consider taking another course as a means to complete their physical science core requirement. Return to top.

Important note: You must register for this course by registering for a lab section. You must then attend the section you register for without switching. We are limited in the lab space, and this mandates a strict adherence to section enrollment provided by the registration system.

Lab Activities

Weekly lab activities (including the preparation of a lab report following the format specified by the lab report templates that are provided) are a vital part of the course and are essential to understanding the ways in which information is processed in the physical sciences. Labs will be held in the Crerar USITE Computer Classroom (this is the small, glassed-in room in the back corner of the USITE area). There are 9 seats available for students in each section, and all students must conform to this constraint. Once a section is full, additional participants will be denied registration for that section. Students who cannot find a lab section that suits their schedule, and into which their entry is allowed (e.g., the section is not full), must drop the course.

Students may access lab materials and software outside of the regular lab sections by using the computers at Carrier and Harper USITE, and accessing software and data available on the course web site (chalk).

Lab Assignments and Due Dates

Labs will begin during week 2 of the quarter (do not bother to come during week 1). There will be 6 lab activities including:

1. 1. The little ice age in ice cores and other climate records

   2. Map projections, geographical information systems.

   3. Satellite imagery of ancient settlement sites.

   4. Identification of ancient settlement sites.

   5. Ancient settlement of Mesopotamia.

   6. River systems in antiquity.

   7. El Niño.

   8. Climate records and the Early Bronze Age.
      

Lab Sections

• 10:30-11:50 am, Monday (sec. 5)

• 1:30-2:50 PM, Tuesday (sec. 1)

• 3:00-4:20 PM, Tuesday (sec. 2)

• 10:30-11:50 am, Wednesday (sec. 6)

• 3:00-4:20 PM, Wednesday (sec. 7)

• 1:30-2:50 PM, Thursday (sec. 3)

• 3:00-4:20 PM, Thursday (sec. 4)
  

• 10:30-11:50 AM, Friday (sec. 8)
  

Labs will begin 5 minutes after the start time (this gives students an extra 5 minutes to walk from their previous class). Once the lab activities begin, i.e., the lab instructor has begun to present the material, late students will be forced to fend for themselves. Disruption by students entering the lab area late is discourteous.Return to top.

Self-Guided Field Trips

Students are expected to complete two self-guided field trips during the Winter Quarter. The first trip will be to the Field Museum and will involve examination of artifacts and technology associated with ancient Egypt. The second trip will be to the Oriental Institute and will involve elements from ancient mesopotamia.

Field Museum Self-Guided Field Trip: to be determined

Oriental Institute Self-Guided Field Trip: to be determined

Reading

Emphasis shall be placed on assigned reading as a means to bridge the gap between physical science and the elements of human history that exemplify humankind's relationship with nature.  The reading list is drawn from popular books that represent a genre of enjoyable, stimulating journalism.  Please anticipate reading one book per week over the bulk of the quarter. Assigned reading will be available for purchase from the university bookstore (also check Amazon.com). Each book is to be read cover-to-cover unless otherwise indicated.

Reading comprehension quizzes will accompany each assignment.

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Exams and Quizzes

A reading comprehension quiz (see above) will be associated with each book. All books are available in the bookstore (you can also check Amazon.com) for purchase as either new or used. A final exam will be given at the end of the quarter. It is likely that the final will be a take-home test and will involve software and analysis skills derived from lab activities. There is no midterm exam.

Grading

Grading shall be conducted in a manner that rewards students for conscientious attention to class assignments, neatness in presentation (e.g., using a word processor to prepare assignments), attendance in lecture and lab sections, performance on exams and quizzes, and performance on assigned laboratory and self-guided field trip reports. All grading of labs and field-trip reports will be done on a "Pass/Fail" basis. The TA who runs the lab section to which you are registered is responsible for assigning your grade. He or she is instructed to deduct for late work (i.e., "Fail" for a late lab). All Lab and Field Trip reports shall be written in the format of a lab journal (each report will constitute a separate chapter). Students are required to maintain both digital and hard copy versions of the complete lab journal. The lab journal will be used for future reference during the second quarter of the class.

Collaboration Policy

Students may discuss all elements of the course among themselves, but must hand in their own, unique written assignments. Students who wish to perform lab exercises with a partner are strongly discouraged from doing so, and will be given permission to do so only by the professor.Return to top.

Lecture Topics

Water

1. Surficial water, ground water and water/sediment dispersal relations

2. Fluvial landscapes and river hydrology

3. Ancient Mesopotamia I

4. Ancient Mesopotamia II

5. The Nile.

6. Degredation in desert environmennts, irrigation.

7. Fresh water and human conflict

8. Digression: Oil I

9. Digression: Oil II

The Sun and atmospheric thermal structure

1. Solar physics I

2. Solar physics II

3. Solar physics III, weapons of mass distruction

4. The Little Ice Age, collapse of the Norse Greenlandic settlements.

5. Atmophseric structure, troposphere, stratosphere and the ozone hole

6. Atmopsheric pressure and stability

7. Greenhouse effect

Lithospheric influence on human settlement

1. Plate tectonics, plate boundaries and volcanoes

2. Earthquakes and volcanoes in antiquity

Meteorology, global distribution of rainfall, impact of weather on human settlement

1. Water vapor, Hadley cell and the earth's climate belts

2. Orographic lifting, desert civilizations of the Andes

3. Extratropical cyclones, cyclogenesis and storms

4. Severe weather I

5. Severe weather II

6. Severe weather III

7. Monsoons and el Niño I

8. Monsoons and el Niño II

9. Monsoons and el Niño III

Environmental degradation and the collapse of ancient civilizations

1. The collapse of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
2. The collapse of Norse Greenlandic settlements
3. The collapse of Mayan empire

4. Collapse of early Bronze age settlements of the Fertile Crescent

5. Collapse of river settlements of Mesopotamia, the Indus and the Nile
   
   

6. Future of Irrigation in the modern world

8. Future of groundwater pumping in the modern world

9. Future of nature in the modern world.