Palaeopathology in Context

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• use skeletal remains as a resource for studying past variability in heath and disease, but also in diet and subsistence, social structure and organisation, speciation and extinction, ideology and religious belief, and population history and migration
• undertake palaeopathological analyses and the methods for differential diagnosis of skeletal disorders and pathology
• pose and tackle archaeological questions using skeletal data
• pose and tackle archaeological questions using skeletal and pathological data
• integrate theoretical issues and archaeological questions with empirical data derived from bioarchaeology
• critique specific techniques and methods of palaeopathological analysis

Knowledge and Understanding

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

• the varying theoretical approaches to the analysis of human skeletal (and especially pathological) remains
• the evaluation of results of analyses and studies
• the ethical issues surrounding working with human remains who experienced disease processes
• the critique of data and the interpretations derived from such data

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• demonstrate awareness of ethical issues regarding aspects of disease
• undertake analysis and presentation of skeletal data including differential diagnoses (suitable for publication)

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.