Module Catalogue 2025/26

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

The aims of this module are to provide students with an introduction to:

- the history of archaeological thought and its development into current theoretical approaches
- methods and techniques used by archaeologists to investigate artefacts, sites and landscapes
- ways in which archaeologists and anthropologists identify features of social and cultural life
- the role of ethics and conservation in archaeology

Outline Of Syllabus

Example outline of lectures, seminars and practical classes (to inform module choice only - subject to minor change):

What is Archaeology?
Who Are Archaeologists?
The Extraordinary History of Archaeology, from Pompeii to Colonialism
Grow Your Own Cropmarks
Space Archaeology? Protecting Heritage from Afar
Endangered Archaeology
The Let’s Dig a Cake Challenge! Excavation and Recording
A Brief History of Time in Archaeology
Stone Age Finds
What Do Your Bones Say About You? The Archaeology of Death and Burial
Working with Human and Animal Remains
Underwater Archaeology: Shipwrecks and Lost Cities
Cold Cases: Archaeological Mysteries Solved by Science
Using X-Rays to ‘Read’ Finds
Difficult Archaeologies: Colonialism, Gender and Race
Myths, Aliens, and … Woolly Jumpers? Archaeology in TV and Media
Archaeology Escape Room Challenge
Are We Civilised?

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

By the end of this module students will know:
- The major trends in archaeology as a discipline, and how these developments reflected wider intellectual movements.
- The principal techniques archaeologists use to recognise, investigate and conserve material evidence of the past.
- How archaeologists and anthropologists identify, explain features of social and cultural life.

Intended Skill Outcomes

By the end of this module students will have developed the following skills:
- Using software provided by the Robinson Library to conduct searches for references to sources located in the library and in online sources;
- Being aware of differences between books, edited volumes and conference proceedings, journals and journal articles, encyclopaedias and websites;
- Providing accurate and appropriate citations of references using the Harvard System, and knowing how to construct a bibliography.
- Assessing the usefulness and reliability of various different publication media, and being aware of the importance of evaluating source material for writing effective coursework;
- Taking notes from lectures and other information sources, and avoiding plagiarism when using notes in coursework;
- Presenting coursework to a standard required by Newcastle University's criteria for assessing work;
- Engaging in interpersonal communication through working in small groups in seminars;
- Being aware of ways in which archaeological and anthropological data are used, in order to develop these skills in later modules.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

- Knowledge outcomes will be taught through lectures and seminars in class and developed through private study, they will be assessed.
- Library and research skills will be taught and assessed through written work.
- Key skills will be developed in particular in seminars.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The draft essay is set with an early deadline, to provide students with enough time to process their feedback and use it to construct essay 2.

The portfolio is designed to encourage student learning throughout the breadth of the module, and will be based upon a selection of weekly discussion board and quiz-related activities.


Study-abroad, non-Erasmus exchange and Loyola students spending semester 1 only are required to finish their assessment while in Newcastle. For their formative assessment, these students will be required to submit the essay only, with an earlier deadline of mid-December.

General Notes

N/A