Availability: Available to internal and external students in the first semester of every year.

There is no residential school.

Coordinator: Prof Iain Davidson

Online level: 3

Unit objective:

Upon completion of this unit, students will be able to: identify the basic materials of archaeology and how they are preserved; describe the range of techniques employed in archaeological investigations; explain how archaeological materials are interpreted; describe the range or questions archaeologists ask; use archaeological theories to solve practical problems; explain how archaeological research and practice have changes through the history of the discipline; evaluate the practice of archaeology through an understanding of the ethics and relevance of archaeology to public life, including the responsibility archaeologists have to past traces and to the owners of the past.

Content: This unit introduces the practice, method and theories, history, and achievements of archaeology. Through lectures and practical sessions featuring the simulation of an archaeological excavation it prepares students for the in-depth critical study of the archaeology of any region or time. Topics include the nature and aims of archaeology, the history of the discipline, types of evidence and their recovery, dating, the scope of archaeological enquiry, the place of archaeology in contemporary life, and the ethics of archaeology with respect to the present and the past.

Assessment: Internal and External: Test and bulletin Board- Multiple choice (40%), Major project (60%).

Prescribed Text: Renfrew, Colin and Bahn, Paul, Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice, Thames and Hudson, London.

0500281475