Geoarchaeology: Peopling the Pacific

Description

This course is intended to introduce students to the environmental processes affecting the settlement of the South West Pacific over the last 100,000 years. The course will cover the physical context of human migration to Australia, Micronesia, Polynesia and New Zealand. It will include topics such as the impace of climate and sea level change on migration patterns and subsequent human impacts on landscapes including environmental degradation due to burning, resource depletion and megafauna extinction. The course will provide students with an underpinning in Earth Science principles and Archaeological techniques.