Because HIST 100 is a Disciplinary Lens course, we spent the first three weeks learning some basics about how historians undertake their work. We learned the difference between primary and secondary sources, applied Jules Prown’s method of analyzing artifacts, considered how historians use multiple sources to make sense of a sometimes contentious past, reflected on how historians—amateur and professional—see their world through various lenses, shared how our own lenses may have formed and influence how we interpret the world around us as well as how we understand the past, and examined a case study (Thanksgiving Day) of how lenses shape our interpretation of the past.

This week—week 4—we begin the next phase of the course, diving into the course theme “engineering the past.” We’ll be looking at large engineered structures and systems from around the world and across the centuries. We launch this section of the course with a three-week-long look at structures humans have considered sacred. (Next up: water delivery systems, which are far more interesting than you might have realized—have you seen what’s going on in Flint, Michigan right now?)

More specifically, we’re going to explore how sacred structures have been constructed, what they represented to their creators and early users, and how those meanings have shifted over time. Continue to Module 4.1 to get started on this intellectual journey.