Contexts for Human Origins Research

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Identify key areas of research in the study of human origins and Palaeolithic archaeology
• Integrate theoretical issues and archaeological questions with published data from key archaeological sites

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Knowledge of the historical basis for Palaeolithic research
• Understanding of the interdisciplinary environment of Palaeolithic studies
• Evaluation of the applicability of different conceptual frameworks to the investigation of Palaeolithic data
• Understanding of the major research themes for the period

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Evaluate information on an independent basis
• Distil a wide variety of data and ideas to address key issues within oral presentations and a PowerPoint summary of a seminar discussion
• Undertake oral presentations
• Present information to a group through regular seminar contributions
• Demonstrate effective use of a variety of information sources – book, journal, internet

Cognitive Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Evaluate the interpretation of data
• Integrate data and concepts to answer research questions
• Critically assess the concepts of others
• Understand how to evaluate research questions

Typically, the syllabus will cover the following:

Seminar: -

• Orientation & introduction to the course
• The use of analogy in archaeological interpretation
• Evolutionary and social models: frameworks for analysis.
• Palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions
• Integrity & resolution in the archaeological record
• Groups and individuals in the Palaeolithic
• Time & temporality
• Place and space
• Transitions (i): biological (brains, populations and genes).
• Transitions (ii): social (technology, mind and identity/ethnicity)
• Transitions (iii): society (language, symbolism and social evolution).
• Hominins on the move

Presentations: -

• Chimpanzee technology; Oldowan and Acheulean.
• Acheulean makers and lifestyles; Acheulean as a technological mode.
• Middle Pleistocene regional variability; the “Acheulean World.”
• Homo ergaster colonisation; Lower Palaeolithic chronologies
• The origins of Prepared Core Technologies; PCT as a technological mode
• Neanderthal specialised hunting; characterising Neanderthal society
• Homo sapiens & Neanderthals; European Upper Palaeolithic “revolution.”
• Defining “modern humans”; why is “modernity” an odd concept?
• Aurignacian dispersal; Gravettian as truly “Upper Palaeolithic.”
• Cave art and refugia; characterising the late Upper Palaeolithic.
• Colonisation of Australia; Tasmanian prehistoric settlement & technology.
• Colonising the Americas; dispersal routes into the Americas.

Teaching and learning methods

The module examines in detail the leading questions of contemporary enquiry into the Palaeolithic. Who are we, and how did we come to be the way we are? Discussion is conducted through student-led seminars and presentations on given topics given by students. The approach is essentially theoretical, but the practical applications of this theory to the Palaeolithic record will be emphasised. You will have the opportunity of testing ideas with leading figures in interpreting the Palaeolithic record.

The module will be taught through a mixture of student-led seminars and presentations, for which reading lists are provided. Independent study will include preparation for an essay, for presentations and seminars.

Resources & Reading list

General Resources

Resources. The module relies on the continued availability of equipment and software, specifically ArcGIS and ERDAS Imagine (for which we currently have Chest licenses) and availability of Survey equipment. The module also requires continued availability of the Digital Humanities workstation cluster in B65a.

Textbooks

Gamble, C.S. (1999). Palaeolithic Societies of Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

van Andel, T.H. & W. Davies (eds.) (2003). Neanderthals and modern humans in the European landscape during the last glaciation. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research Monographs.

Gamble, C. & M. Porr (2005). The Hominid Individual in Context: Archaeological investigations of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic landscapes, locales and artefacts. London: Routledge.

Dobres, M.-A. (2000). Technology and social agency. Oxford: Blackwell.

Mithen, S. (2003). After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000-5000 BC. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Lowe, J.J. & M.J.C. Walker (1997). Reconstructing Quaternary Environments. Longman.

Binford, L.R. (2001). Constructing Frames of Reference: An analytical method for archaeological theory building using ethnographic and environmental datasets. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Gosden, C. (1999). Anthropology and archaeology: a changing relationship. London: Routledge.

Gamble, C.S. (2007). Origins and Revolutions: Human identity in earliest prehistory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Stringer, C. & P. Andrews (2005). The Complete World of Human Evolution. London: Thames & Hudson.

Petraglia, M. & R. Korisettar (eds.) (1998). Early human behaviour in global context. London: Routledge.

Klein, R. (2009). The Human Career: Human biological and cultural origins. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External