Module overview
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- of the varying theoretical approaches to the analysis of human and animal skeletal remains
- of human-animal interactions in the past
- of the ethical issues surrounding working with human remains
- of skeletal remains as a resource for studying past variability in diet and subsistence, health and disease, social structure and organisation, speciation and extinction, ideology and religious belief, and population history and migration
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- critique specific techniques and methods of osteological analysis
- evaluate results of skeletal analyses and studies
- integrate theoretical issues and archaeological questions with empirical data
- pose and tackle archaeological questions using skeletal data
- critique osteoarchaeological data and interpretations derived from it
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- lead seminars and discussion groups
- undertake analysis and presentation of quantitative data.
Syllabus
Topics may vary according to staff availability, but issues typically covered include:
- Subsistence of Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans
- The beginning of domestication and its ongoing processes: zoo-archaeological and genetic evidence
- Food provisioning in complex societies
- Bioarchaeology: status and inequality
- Ethnicity and identity
- Migration and mobility through the application of isotopic analyses
- The use of isotopic analyses in the determination of diet
- Bioarchaeology of disability and care
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
This module is taught by a combination of lectures, to introduce the key areas of consideration, and seminars, in which students and staff can discuss the issues raised in more detail, and as they relate to specific case studies. In addition, students will deliver presentations around their own areas of enquiry, with opportunities for peer feedback and learning.
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Lecture | 6 |
| Assessment tasks | 56 |
| Wider reading or practice | 70 |
| Seminar | 18 |
| Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
General Resources
Buzon, M.R. 2006. Biological and Ethnic Identity in New Kingdom Nubia: A Case Study from Tombos. Current Anthropology 47: 683-695..
Zeder M (2006) Archaeological approaches to documenting animal domestication. In Zeder et al. (eds.) Documenting domestication. Berkeley : University of California Press, pages 171-180..
Stallibrass, S. and Thomas R. (eds.) (2008) Feeding the Roman Army. Oxbow: Oxford.
Journal Articles
Bentley, R.A. (2006). Strontium Isotopes from the Earth to the Archaeological Skeleton: A Review. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 13, pp. 135-187.
Lorenzen E., Nogués-Bravo D., Orlando L., Weinstock J., et al. (2011). Species-specific responses of Late Quaternary megafauna to climate and humans. Nature, 479, pp. 359–364.
Assessment
Formative
This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.
Oral presentation
- Assessment Type: Formative
- Feedback: Verbal feedback from staff and students to be given immediately after presentation.
- Final Assessment: No
- Group Work: No
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Written assignment | 50% |
| Literature review | 50% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Literature review | 50% |
| Written assignment | 50% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External