Course Co-ordinator: Dr K Milek

Pre-requisite(s):

Co-requisite(s): None, although AY 3003 Archaeological Science is recommended for students in Archaeology single or joint honours programmes.

Note(s): This course is appropriate for Geography, Geology, and Soil Science students, as well as more humanities-based students taking the single or joint honours Archaeology programmes. It is a compulsory component of the BSc in Archaeology, the BSc in Archaeology with Chemistry, and the BSc in Archaeology-Geoscience, and may be used to fulfil compulsory programme requirements for the BSc in Archaeology-Geography. This course may NOT be included in a graduating curriculum with AY 3006. Students will be asked to make a nominal contribution towards the cost of the field trip.

This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to the complex relationships between past human societies and the environments with which they were intimately associated, and covers important issues for the archaeology of all regions and time periods, including:

• Different theoretical and methodological approaches to the understanding of past human-environment relations.


• Processes of archaeological site formation.


• The relationships between human activities, natural processes, and the physical characteristics of soils and sediments on archaeological sites.


• Techniques used to reconstruct past human environments, and the importance of situating past cultural practices in their environmental context.


• Archaeological case studies from around the world that link past human activities to large-scale landscape changes.

1 two-hour lecture or practical per week (24 hours total), a one-day field trip to examine and sample soils and sediments at a local archaeological site, and 2 two-hour seminars.

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%); continuous assessment (50%), in the form of a field notebook (10%), a lab notebook (10%), and either a practical project or an essay (30%), depending on the students' interests and background (3,000 words).

Resit: Marks from continuous assessment to be carried forward (50%); 1 two-hour written examination (50%).