Archaeology and World Prehistory

Archaeology and World Prehistory emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of the field and its interconnectedness with the four fields of anthropology, sciences, humanities, and beyond. Students new to archeology will learn key theories and methodologies through rich examples from field work and pre-history. Christopher R. DeCorse challenges ethnocentrism and essentialism by highlighting the differences and similarities across cultures, encouraging critical thinking, cultural appreciation, and global awareness.

Christopher R. DeCorse is a distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. He received his B.A. in anthropology with a minor in history from the University of New Hampshire, before completing his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in archaeology at the University of California—Los Angeles. His research interests include African archaeology and history, general anthropology, and archaeology in popular culture.  Dr. DeCorse has excavated a variety of prehistoric and historic period sites in the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa, but his primary area of research has been in the archaeology, history, and ethnography of Africa. Dr. DeCorse has taught archaeology and general anthropology in undergraduate and graduate programs at the University of Ghana, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Syracuse University. His academic honors and awards include: the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Award for Outstanding Teaching, Research and Service; the William Wasserstrom Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching; and the Syracuse University Excellence in Graduate Education Faculty Recognition Award. Dr. DeCorse is particularly interested in making archaeology more accessible to general audiences. In addition to the single-authored physical anthropology and archaeology textbook The Record of the Past: An Introduction to Physical Anthropology and Archaeology, he coauthored with Brian Fagan, the eleventh edition of In the Beginning: An Introduction to Archaeology.  He is currently completing a book examining the presentation of archaeologists and archaeology in popular culture. Dr. DeCorse’s academic publications include more than sixty articles, book chapters, and research notes in a variety of publications, including The African Archaeological Review, Historical New Hampshire, Historical Archaeology, the Journal of African Archaeology, and Slavery and Abolition. Volumes on his research in Africa include An Archaeology of Elmina: Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast 1400–1900 (Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001) and the edited volume, West Africa during the Atlantic Slave Trade: Archaeological Perspectives (Bloomsbury, 2016). His most recent books include Fringe Archaeology: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Past (Cognella 2025), Anthropology: A Global Perspective, 9th Edition (with Raymond Scupin, SAGE 2021), and the edited volumes that deal with Europe’s entanglements with the non-Western World: Power, Political Economy, and Historical Landscapes of the Modern World: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Fernand Braudel Center Studies in Historical Social Science, SUNY Press, 2019) and British Forts and Their Communities: Archaeological and Historical Perspectives, with Zachary J. M. Beier (University Press of Florida, 2018).