This is the first unit in a high school course that is designed to be used in lieu of the traditional textbook based Government class in public high schools.
This class introduces the multidisciplinary nature of archaeology, both in theory and practice. Lectures provide a comparative examination of the origins of agriculture and the rise of early civilizations in the ancient Near East and Mesoamerica. The laboratory sessions provide practical experience in aspects of archaeological field methods and analytical techniques including the examination of stone, ceramic, and metal artifacts and bone materials. Lab sessions have occasional problem sets which are completed outside of class.
This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:
"Dental calculus, or mineralized dental plaque, preserves various microfossils and biomolecules, including DNA. Dental calculus from ancient human remains therefore contains information about the oral microbiomes, health, and diets of our ancestors. However, little is known about the non-bacterial microbes in ancient calculus. In a new study, researchers used metagenomics to study calculus from 20 sets of human remains dating to the Neolithic period through the Early Middle Ages. Compared with modern calculus in publicly available datasets, the ancient calculus had a much higher abundance of archaea belonging to the phylum Euryarchaeota. Compared with modern calculus in publicly available datasets, the ancient calculus had a much higher abundance of archaea belonging to the phylum Euryarchaeota, specifically archaea in the genus Methanobrevibacter. The only known Methanobrevibacter species in modern calculus, M..."
The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.