- Department: Archaeology
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: M
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
- See module specification for other years: 2023-24
In this module, we build on the foundations from The Archaeology of the Human Skeleton by focusing on what people in the past looked like using measurements, as well as on palaeopathology, with the aim of developing an understanding of skeletal lesions of disease and trauma and how to distinguish these.
Pre-Requisite: Students must have taken The Archaeology of the Human Skeleton in Semester 1 to be able to take this module in Semester 2.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
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A | Semester 2 2024-25 |
This module aims:
Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to:
This module will provide a background to the concepts of health, skeletal development and growth and how these affect human remains. You will explore medical treatment in the past, as well as developing an understanding of the different types of pathologies that can affect the human skeleton. Through a series of practical classes, you will gain hands-on experience of detailed human skeletal anatomy, focusing on the identification of skeletal pathology and trauma.
The module will also focus on how skeletal remains are commercially analysed and how individual osteobiographies can be developed. You will consider ways in which data gained from skeletal analysis can be presented as client reports, within in academic setting, as poster presentations for conferences and for the general public and how this can be used to develop impact. The module will also consider the ethics of biomolecular analyses, sampling techniques and potential ways of applying such techniques and their outcomes.
This module builds on The Archaeology of the Human Skeleton, it is essential that students choosing Skeletal Evidence for Health in the Past have completed The Archaeology of the Human Skeleton.
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
None
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
Formative: oral feedback from module leaders
Summative: written feedback within the University's turnaround policy
Aufderheide, A.C. and Rodríguez-Martín, C. 1998. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Paleopathology (Cambridge)
Cox, M. and Mays, S. (eds) 2000. Human Osteology in Archaeology and Forensic Science (London)
Roberts, C.A. and Manchester, K. 2005. The Archaeology of Disease (Stroud)