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Assessed Seminar: Past Environments - ARC00091H

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• Department: Archaeology
• Credit value: 20 credits
• Credit level: H
• Academic year of delivery: 2023-24
  • See module specification for other years: 2024-25

Module summary

This module will consider how landscape archaeologists combine different kinds of evidence to investigate transformations in human-environment interrelationships. Students will consider environmental evidence (e.g. climate models, palaeoecological evidence, speleothems, lake cores, topography, soils and sediments, and remote sensing datasets) as well as archaeological data (e.g. site morphologies, build heritage, settlement distributions, index trenches) to ask why different signature landscapes emerged and reveal how human-environment interactions changed over time.

Related modules

A directed option - students must pick an Assessed Seminar module and have a choice of which to take

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 1 2023-24

Module aims

Assessed Seminars seek to develop an understanding of a specialist topic (particularly a critical understanding of the key themes, approaches and opinions). In doing so students should be able to improve their knowledge of the subject area (through reading and preparation for their own seminar, their seminar contributions and involvement in the seminars) and also have the opportunity to develop their skills in chairing a seminar, presenting material and being involved in discussion (including thinking on their feet about the topic being discussed, how to engage interest in the topic and stimulate debate).

Specifically this module aims to:

• Develop breadth of knowledge about the archaeology of social-ecologies
• Develop the ability to assemble convincing arguments using studies based in landscape archaeology and environmental archaeology
• Develop skills to assemble an argument based in landscape archaeology and/or environmental archaeology that addresses a knowledge gap in environmental archaeology and landscape archaeology

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module the students should be able to:

• Demonstrate that they are familiar with the literature on the environmental archaeology and landscape archaeology
• Exhibit a firm understanding of the theoretical and methodological issues related to the archaeological study of environment and landscape
• Explore a range of case studies and the interpretation of them
• Prepare a worksheet which sets out key reading and issues for presentation, debate and discussion
• Chair a seminar, engage interest in a topic, stimulate debate and structure discussion
• Present on other subjects within the general theme and contribute informed ideas and information to the other seminars

Module content

In a series of lectures and workshops, students will become familiar with the theme of the module. Students will then choose a topic around which they will design and chair a seminar. Seminars and class discussion will encourage a critical approach to the literature and provide preparation for chairing and presenting.

This module will consider how landscape archaeologists combine different kinds of evidence to investigate transformations in human-environment interrelationships. Students will consider environmental evidence (e.g. climate models, palaeoecological evidence, speleothems, lake cores, topography, soils and sediments, and remote sensing datasets) as well as archaeological data (e.g. site morphologies, build heritage, settlement distributions, index trenches) to ask why different signature landscapes emerged and reveal how human-environment interactions changed over time.

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	25
Oral presentation/seminar/exam	25
Oral presentation/seminar/exam	10
Oral presentation/seminar/exam	20
Oral presentation/seminar/exam	20

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

Students will hand in worksheets before consolidation week (in Week 5) so staff can work out a schedule for students chairing and delivering presentations. Students will need to hand in presentation slides by week 8, either with pre-recorded narration or without if they opt to do it live. Student-run seminars will run from Week 9 to Week 11 where students will chair a 1hr session. Within these seminars, contributions from students will be assessed.

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	25
Essay/coursework	25
Oral presentation/seminar/exam	25
Oral presentation/seminar/exam	25

Module feedback

Formative: oral feedback from module leaders in class

Summative: written feedback within the University's turnaround policy

Indicative reading

Lawrence, D, and Tony J. Wilkinson. ‘Hubs and Upstarts: Pathways to Urbanism in the Northern Fertile Crescent’. Antiquity 89, no. 344 (2015): 328-44. https://doi.org/doi:10.15184/aqy.2014.44.

McAnany, Patricia A., and Norman Yoffee. Questioning Collapse: Human Resilience, Ecological Vulnerability, and the Aftermath of Empire. Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Isendahl, Christian, and Daryl Stump, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Historical Ecology and Applied Archaeology. 1st ed. Oxford University Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199672691.001.0001.