Themes in Osteoarchaeology

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• critique specific techniques and methods of osteological analysis
• critique osteoarchaeological data and interpretations derived from it
• evaluate results of skeletal analyses and studies
• integrate theoretical issues and archaeological questions with empirical data
• pose and tackle archaeological questions using skeletal data

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• undertake analysis and presentation of quantitative data.
• lead seminars and discussion groups

Knowledge and Understanding

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

• 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
• of the ethical issues surrounding working with human remains
• of human-animal interactions in the past
• of the varying theoretical approaches to the analysis of human and animal skeletal remains

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

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.

Resources & Reading list

General Resources

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.

Buzon, M.R. 2006. Biological and Ethnic Identity in New Kingdom Nubia: A Case Study from Tombos. Current Anthropology 47: 683-695..

Journal Articles

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.

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.

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