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| Unit name |
Prehistoric Landscapes |
| Unit code |
ARCHM0059 |
| Credit points |
20 |
| Level of study |
M/7
|
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
|
| Unit director |
Dr. Gardiner |
| Open unit status |
Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department |
Department of Anthropology and Archaeology |
| Faculty |
Faculty of Arts |
Description including Unit Aims
This unit examines the evidence for understanding the subsistence and settlement practices in Prehistory from the early Holocene to the end of the Iron Age in Britain. It includes landscapes from a range of topographical zones (uplands. lowlands, wetlands and the intertidal zone). It explores how societies at different times have used landscapes for subsistence, settlement, agriculture, ritual purposes as well as for defence and prestige. Excavation and palaeoenvironmental evidence will be considered in detail to explore in a critical way how different societies have shaped their landscape environment.
Aims:
- to explore critically the evidence for landscape use and subsistence practices by hunter-gatherers within a range of topographical zones;
- to understand how the introduction of agriculture and monument building re-shaped and altered the landscape;
- to understand how different societies used landscapes for both ritual and functional purposes;
- to investigate how different environments have been used in Prehistory and critically explore current interpretations;
- to show how the evidence for settlement and subsistence in the landscape can be recognised and investigated in Prehistory;
Intended Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this Unit students will:
- be able to recognise and successfully interpret the landscape features of past subsistence and settlement practices within Prehistoric contexts;
- be able to place these features within the context of changing subsistence and settlement practices and account for those changes through reference to recent interpretive work;
- have an understanding of the importance of both excavation and palaeoenvironmental evidence in investigating past human occupation of the landscape;
- be aware of the current debates that constantly revise our interpretations.
Teaching Information
Lectures, fieldtrips and museum visits (nb number of hours as reflected below required in order to cover the subject sufficiently and approx half of hours are fieldtrips or museum visits).
Assessment Information
A 20 Minute Seminar presentation and subsequent discussion (75%) with Handout(25%) including a short bibliography.
Reading and References
- Bradley, R. 2007. The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Edmonds, M. 1999. Ancestral Geographies of the Neolithic. London: Routledge.
- Fowler, P. 2002. Farming in the First Millennium BC. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Mellars, P. and Dark, P. 1998. Star Carr in Context. Cambridge: McDonald Instutute.
- Tilley, C. 1994. A Phenomenology of Landscape: places, paths and monuments. Oxford: Berg.
