Archaeology

This course gives students an insight into the full cycle of the post-excavation process of artefact analysis. By combining theoretical approaches to material culture with practical experience, this it provides an understanding of how to approach artefact assemblages, how to carry out detailed analysis, and the production of comprehensive written summaries both of the contents of assemblages and of their potential to answer research questions. Students will be given an option to develop specific knowledge of different categories of material (e.g. ceramics, lithics, glass, metalwork, building materials).

This course critically examines the archaeology of Ireland during the high medieval period from c.1100 until the second half of the 14th century. The background to the coming of the Anglo-Normans to Ireland in 1169 and the impact they had on the landscape are discussed in depth in the first part of the course. Themes for this section of the course include the role of castles, the manorial economy, trade, the foundation of villages, rural boroughs, and towns by mostly English immigrants and the growth of certain cities. Dispersed settlement in Anglo-Norman parts of eastern Ireland are also explored. In particular, in the first part of the course, the interplay between castle, town, and countryside in Anglo-Norman Ireland is examined in detail.

This course examines how textual evidence may be used by students of different disciplines to study past societies, with a particular focus on archaeological research. It draws on written sources from the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean to explore issues such as the materiality of texts, literacy and orality, the relationship between texts, physical space and visual media, and the social and cultural contexts in which writing was used.

The course offers an overview of Stone Age technologies, concentrating on, but not exclusively limited to, lithic (stone) technology. The curriculum places the manufacture and use of lithic artefacts in relation to the social and evolutionary contexts of hunters and gatherers. The course also concentrates on developing a more general understanding of technology from an evolutionary standpoint, and the role of technological innovations have had in shaping human societies. The course discusses topics including the biological and social bases for the development of human technology; how technological knowledge was and is culturally transmitted; how lithic tools were manufactured at various points in the past; how lithic tools were used and what they represent in the scheme of human survival strategies; why technologies change and the cultural and social contexts of these changes; how to identify and create lithic material; how to recognize the main stages of lithic production; how to recognize the various types of raw material types used in the manufacture of stone tools; and how to situate knowledge of technological traditions into broader models of social change and human evolution. Instruction regarding the essential attributes of flakes, blades, knapping debris, cores, and various tool types is emphasized. The course also touches on other forms of human technology such as fire, art, boats, and organic materials, which have been critical human technologies for hundreds of thousands of years. This course has a very prominent practical component where students put into operation what is discussed in the lectures. In the laboratories prepared bags of selected materials and accompanying work sheets are distributed. Seminars are meant to be informal and invoke lively discussions of the selected material, the associated technologies, and their social links. Fundamentally, this course challenges students to understand the basis of modern society as an extension of human environmental adaptation and modification in the past, and how deeply coded and important the human technological brain is.

This course offers an introduction to the study and practice of archaeology and its diverse relationships with allied disciplines and fields. It explores the early history and background of archaeology, as well as advances in methods of excavation, analysis, and interpretation through contemporary times. This course discusses worldwide case studies and applications of archaeological methods.

The course provides an introduction to the phenomenon of globalization from archaeological and historical perspectives. Topics covered include conditions and driving forces for the globalizing processes, the exchange patterns of the “pre-European” world, the European expansion from the 15th century, cultural encounters and hybridity, merchant capitalism and the East India trade, slavery and plantations, and the life of the non-articulate groups of humanity. Special emphasis is on ecological globalization and the threat to the global heritage caused by climate change.