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Module

ARA8118 : Early Prehistoric Europe: Origins and transformations (Inactive)

  • Inactive for Year: 2024/25
  • Module Leader(s): Professor Chantal Conneller
  • Lecturer: Dr Eline Van Asperen
  • Owning School: History, Classics and Archaeology
  • Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Semester 1 Credit Value: 20
ECTS Credits: 10.0
European Credit Transfer System

Aims

This module aims to give students an advanced and nuanced understanding of key transformations in human society from the first appearance of Homo sapiens in Europe to the end of the Mesolithic (c40,000-4000BC). This vast periods of time encompasses dramatic transformations in society, beliefs, climate and landscape.

The course aims to give students an advanced understanding of key debates and themes for this period, such as the extinction of the Neanderthals, Upper Palaeolithic art, the emergence Mesolithic cemeteries and human responses to dramatic climate change. It will simulate critical thinking about approaches to origins research, and the impact of early prehistory on the present. Lectures will explore how early prehistorians deal with the fragile and fragmentary archaeological record for this period (human fossils, stone tool, animal remains) to understand the big issues of the time. The course will explore how archaeologists have dealt with this ephemeral evidence to produce rich and varied accounts of Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic life.

Aims:

•       To develop an advanced and detailed understanding of the key issues and debates the European Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic and mastery of specific areas of interest.
•       To provide students with an in-depth advanced knowledge of the material remains of Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic life and the historical context of its interpretation.
•       To provide students with an advanced understanding of the methodologies and theoretical approaches used by archaeologists to address this material and the problems that these pose.
•       To give students detailed knowledge of the major environmental changes of the period.
•       To enable students to think critically about the socio-political aspects of origins research

Outline Of Syllabus

Themes: Introduction, Quaternary environments and climate change
Practical (1 hr) Ice Age animals
           
Themes: The emergence of Modern Humans, Interaction and extinction
Seminar (1hr) Debate: Sapiens v Neanderthals
     
Themes: The Aurignacian: origins of art and adornment? Venuses and vengeful spirits: The Gravettian
Seminar (1hr). Gravettian burials
     
     
Themes: Life in the Ice Age,‘A cavalcade of animals’: The Magdalenian apogee of cave art
Seminar (1hr) The Venus figurines
     
     
Themes: The reoccupation of northern Europe, Ice Age Fauna
Seminar (1hr) Interpreting cave art
     
Themes: What is the Mesolithic? Sea-level rise and environmental change
Seminar (1hr) Shamanism
     

Themes: Mesolithic cemeteries, Alternative mortuary traditions: extended processes
Seminar (1hr) Death, bodies and identities
     
Themes: The Early Mesolithic in Southern Scandinavia and Northern Germany, Complex hunter-gatherers of the Late Mesolithic
Seminar (1hr) Social Complexity
     
Themes: The Mesolithic in Britain, Ireland and Northern France
Seminar (1hr) Mesolithic houses


Themes: The Mesolithic in southeast Europe
Practical session


Fieldtrip

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities
Category Activity Number Length Student Hours Comment
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion631:0063:00N/A
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesLecture201:0020:00N/A
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesPractical11:001:00N/A
Guided Independent StudyDirected research and reading113:0033:00Weekly reading from course handbook
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesSmall group teaching91:009:00seminars
Structured Guided LearningStructured research and reading activities82:0016:00Reading for seminar
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesWorkshops12:002:00Formative presentations and discussion of essay ideas.
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesFieldwork18:008:00Fieldtrip, conditions permitting
Guided Independent StudyIndependent study481:0048:00N/A
Total200:00
Jointly Taught With
Code Title
ARA3118Early Prehistoric Europe: Origins and transformations
Teaching Rationale And Relationship

A series of subject-specific lectures will provide a detailed outline of key transformations in human society during the period with the impact of environmental change highlighted. Seminars will provide students with the opportunity to explore key debates in greater depth and in particular have been designed to encourage students to interpret archaeological evidence in an imaginative manner, and to critically explore the socio-political effects of origins research. Seminars, structured round small group work and discussion and including a formal debate, provide an opportunity for teamwork, peer-review and oral presentation. A practical and a fieldtrip will permit students to explore key artefacts and sites, and encourage different ways of learning. This is jointly taught with ARA3118, meaning higher than usual contact hours for PGT modules.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment
Description Semester When Set Percentage Comment
Essay1A1003500 words
Formative Assessments

Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.

Description Semester When Set Comment
Oral Presentation1M10 minute presentation
Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Assessment will enable students to demonstrate mastery of a complex and specialised area of knowledge and skills. The students will agree their assignment topics with the module leader, and consult with the module leader about the assignment title. Formative feedback will be provided on a proposal for these research plans.

Focussing on a single extended assignment will give students the opportunity to pursue research into whichever aspect of the module interests them most. They are encouraged to visit the lecturing staff during office hours to discuss the development of their topics. This gives them experience of supervision on research assignments within the context of a taught module.

This module can be made available to Erasmus students only with the agreement of the Head of Subject and of the Module Leader. This option must be discussed in person at the beginning of your exchange period. No restrictions apply to study-abroad, exchange and Loyola students.

All Erasmus students at Newcastle University are expected to do the same assessment as students registered for a degree.

Study-abroad, non-Erasmus exchange and Loyola students spending semester 1 only are required to finish their assessment while in Newcastle. This will take the form of an alternative assessment, as outlined in the formats below:

Modules assessed by Coursework and Exam:
The normal alternative form of assessment for all semester 1 non-EU study abroad students will be one essay in addition to the other coursework assessment (the length of the essay should be adjusted in order to comply with the assessment tariff); to be submitted no later than 12pm Friday of the final week of semester 1 teaching. The essays should be set so as to assure coverage of the course content to date.

Modules assessed by Exam only:
The normal alternative form of assessment for all semester 1 non-EU study abroad students will be two 2,000 word written exercises; to be submitted no later than 12pm Friday of the final week of semester 1 teaching. The essays should be set so as to assure coverage of the course content to date.

Modules assessed by Coursework only:
All semester 1 non-EU study abroad students will be expected to complete the standard assessment for the module; to be submitted no later than 12pm Friday of the final week of semester 1 teaching. The essays should be set so as to assure coverage of the course content to date.
Study-abroad, non-Erasmus exchange and Loyola students spending the whole academic year or semester 2 are required to complete the standard assessment as set out in the MOF under all circumstances.

Reading Lists

Timetable