The Center for Cognitive Archaeology is pleased to announce a brand-new course, The Archaeology of Numbers!
Join Karenleigh A. Overmann for our online course in the Archaeology of Numbers. This course examines numbers as systems comprised of interacting psychological, behavioral, and material domains, using concepts and evidence from psychology and ethnography to interpret the archaeological record. Course content includes the neuropsychology of numeracy, ethnographic behaviors with numbers, and ancient and modern numbers and counting devices. Classes begin January 19 and end May 15.
How did archaeologists come to apply cognitive models from psychology and philosophy of mind to the material record? Why were they drawn to begin investigating the evolution of the human mind? How has cognitive archaeology changed the way we think about the evolution of human intelligence and the structure and function of the mind?
Join Karenleigh A. Overmann for the once-a-year offering of our course, The History of Cognitive Archaeology Since 1969. The course consists of a selection of primary sources that have been instrumental in establishing cognitive archaeology as a viable and influential approach in the study of human evolution. Readings are biased toward Anglophone archaeology and toward important issues in human cognitive evolution. Classes begin January 19 and end May 15.
When, where, and how did the modern human mind evolve?
Join Professors Thomas Wynn and Frederick L. Coolidge for our online course in Cognitive Evolution. This course employs the theories and methods of several academic domains (cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, archaeology, linguistics, philosophy of mind, etc.) to interpret the tangible evidence for the evolution of mind—non-human primate anatomy and behavior, human neuroanatomy, hominin paleontology, and archaeology. Here, you will explore the origins and adaptive purposes of concept formation, spatial cognition, social cognition, language, symbolic structures, technology, and working memory on your way to a deeper understanding of the evolutionary changes in form and function of the mind. Classes begin January 19 and end May 15.
How did Neandertals experience their world? How did their cognition and culture differ from ours? Were they pragmatic? Callous or cold-hearted? Did they love, were they charitable? Were they tough? Dogmatic? Xenophobic?
Join Professor Frederick L. Coolidge for our online course Neandertal Cognition. Together, we will explore the mind of some of our recent ancestors to compare and contrast similarities and differences between our behavior and the behavior of these archaic humans. After a century of suffering the negative biases of early scholars, Neandertals are emerging from the shadows of prehistory to take their rightful place as explorers and innovators who fought to survive in a heretofore uninhabitable clime. Our course reviews the archaeological evidence via empirical models of cognition in an effort to understand the cognitive and behavioral strategies employed by Homo neanderthalensis during their nearly half million years of existence. Classes begin January 19 and end May 15.
Interested in learning when, where, and how modern human aesthetics evolved?
Join Professor Manuel Martín-Loeches of the Complutense University of Madrid for our online course Neurocognition of Art. This course explores the biopsychological basis of human artistic behavior by investigating its neurocognitive and biological underpinnings. We expand our understanding of this otherwise bizarre activity in natural terms, thereby contextualizing art within the framework of Natural Selection. This approach provides a suitable foundation for exploring the possible evolutionary origins of art, its development, as well as its major milestones along human evolution. Although the course is mainly focused in visual art, much of its content can be applied to other forms of artistic behavior. Classes begin January 19 and end May 15.
The Center for Cognitive Archaeology at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs is now offering five courses for the Spring 2021 semester, including a brand new course, The Archaeology of Numbers. Spring 2021 semester starts January 19 through May 15. Graduate and undergraduate level training is offered in each class. For more information about the Center for Cognitive Archaeology and enrolling in courses, please visit us at: https://www.uccs.edu/lases/programs-a-l/cca
Deadline to register for course is February 3, 2021.
This month’s featured book that the faculty of the Center for Cognitive Archaeology want to highlight is First Sculpture: Handaxe to Figure Stone by Tony Berlant and UCCS Distinguished Professor Thomas Wynn.
First Sculpture: Handaxe to Figure Stone, by Tony Berlant and Thomas Wynn, is the catalogue of the first museum exhibition to present ancient handaxes and figure stones as works of art. Traditionally understood as the longest-used tool in human history, with examples dating back more than 2 million years, some handaxes are equally fascinating for their non-utilitarian, aesthetic qualities. First Sculpture presents these objects as evidence of the earliest forms of artistic intention, highlighting the aesthetic qualities of each stone and providing crucial historical and scientific information to give the viewer a deeper understanding of human history, as well as an enriched appreciation for humankind’s early ability to sculpt beautiful objects.
Cognitive Archaeology 