Module ARCH2121: ARCHAEOLOGICAL METHOD AND THEORY

Department: Archaeology

ARCH2121: ARCHAEOLOGICAL METHOD AND THEORY

Prerequisites

• Archaeology in Action (ARCH1071) OR Scientific Methods in Archaeology 1 (ARCH1041).

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To enable students to appreciate and analyse major debates about the nature of archaeology.
• To give students the opportunity to reflect on their Level 1 learning, and the skills they are developing.
• To give students an understanding of the way in which the present-day discipline of archaeology has come to exist.
• To provide students with the necessary theoretical background in archaeology.
• To provide students with information on graduate careers.

Content

• The module will cover a range of general topics in archaeology both theoretical and practical.
• These will include: theoretical development in archaeology, from traditional and New Archaeology through to postprocessual and interpretative approaches.
• issues and debates in the study of artefacts, of sites and of landscapes.
• Students will also enumerate and reflect on the key skills they are developing across their course as a whole.
• Students will be introduced to how the skills they develop while studying archaeology are applicable to a range of careers.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the module, students will have: Explored in depth a range of ideas and debates that underpin the discipline of archaeology.
• Have reflected on the course as a whole, and the knowledge and skills they are gaining from it, at its half way point.
• Considered a range of methodological and theoretical issues relevant to the subject, principally through secondary literature.

• Developing a broad range of core interpretive skills pertaining to archaeological analysis by undertaling a report on (a) artefacts, or (b) sites, or (c) landscapes.

• Accessing library and WWW resources
• Undertaking independent study, reserach and problem solving
• Preparation and effective communication of research methods, data, and arguments in written and visual form.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Lectures will furnish core ideas, information and concepts.
• Seminars will facilitate more comprehensive discussion and debate.
• They will also produce a summatively assessed seminar write-up in which they engage in critical reflection upon a general debate within archaeology (on one of: artefacts, sites or landscapes).
• Students' knowledge of a range of ideas and debates and of methodological issues will be assessed in a short end-of-year unseen examination.
• Self guided learning.
• Research is embedded into the teaching of this module through the expertise of the lecturers and tutors. The examples and topics chosen within the curriculum will derive from the specialist research interests of the staff teaching the module. The module also enables students to explore how archaeologists produce evidence about the past, develop theories to explain it, and how archaeological evidence may subsequently be reinterpreted.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Preparation of an essay (c1,500 words); participation in seminar discussion.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University