UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH MODULE RECORD

MODULE CODE: PAP105

CREDITS: 20

LEVEL: 1

MODULE TITLE: WORLD STONE AGE SOCIETY

PRE-REQUISITE(S): None

CO-REQUISITE(S): None

COMPENSATABLE WITHIN THIS PROGRAMME:     Yes

SHORT MODULE DESCRIPTOR

This module explores prehistoric society from the Lower Palaeolithic to the origins of agriculture, including the Oldowan, Acheulean, Middle Palaeolithic Neanderthals and the origins of modern humans. Similarities and differences in the development of society, subsistence and technology are evaluated, as are the roles of colonisation, cognition and adaptation.

ELEMENTS OF ASSESSMENT:  (C1) COURSEWORK   100%

Give Subject Assessment Panel Group to which module should be linked

Minimum pass mark for professional body accreditation

MODULE AIMS:

This module involves making contributions to intrusive archaeological field investigations. It deals with the contributions to preparation for an investigation, the fieldwork and the analysis and presentation of the data.

ASSESSED LEARNING OUTCOMES:  At the end of a module the learner will be expected to be able to:

  1. demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of the diversity of human societies and the complex ways in which social and cultural change occur;
  2. demonstrate an ability to present, evaluate and interpret similarities and differences in development of human societies;
  3. demonstrate knowledge of the underlying concepts and principles associated with the methods used to reconstruct past human behaviour
  4. evaluate the ways in which archaeologists' conceptions of what it is to be human have changed and how these are related to the colonial and post-colonial history of the West.

 

INDICATIVE SYLLABUS CONTENT:

  • Lower Palaeolithic of Africa and the earliest hominin dispersals into Europe and SE Asia
  • The Neanderthals of Europe and SW Asia.
  • The origins of modern humans in Africa and dispersals out of Africa
  • Settlement and colonisation in the last Ice Age
  • Inception of farming and the development of sedentary life and changing social organisation.
  • Nature, causes and consequences of these changes.

APPROVAL:     DATE OF APPROVAL:     23/05/07                  

DATE OF IMPLEMENTATION:     1/9/2007

DATE(S) OF APPROVED CHANGE:     n/a

FACULTY:

UPC

SCHOOL:

PARTNER INSTITUTION:

City College Plymouth

NAME OF SITE:

  MODULE LEADER: Anne Pirie

Term: All Year

       

 

 

 

Assessment Criteria (Threshold Level) :

The student should provide evidence that they provide evidence of:

  1. a knowledge and understanding of the diversity of human societies and the complex ways in which social and cultural change occur;
  2. an ability to present, evaluate and interpret similarities and differences in development of human societies;
  3. knowledge of the underlying concepts and principles associated with the methods used to reconstruct past human behaviour
  4. an ability to evaluate the ways in which archaeologists' conceptions of what it is to be human have changed and how these are related to the colonial and post-colonial history of the West.

 

 

Assessment Mode:

Coursework: 70% Essays, Seminars and Presentations.

Assessment: 30% Reflective journal of lectures, seminars and field trips and participation in groupwork.

 

 

Schedule of Teaching and Learning:

The module is delivered by means of lectures, field trips and online tutorials through the College VLE. The course comprises 30 lectures in four major blocks. The first block focuses on the earliest hominin groups of the Oldowan and Acheulean; the second block explores Middle Palaeolithic Neanderthal and early modern human society; the third block looks at life during the last Ice Age and the final block looks at hunter-gatherers of the early Holocene and transitions to farming.

 

Recommended Texts and Sources

The recommended texts for the course are:

 

Delson, E., I. Tattersall, J. van Couvering, and A. Brooks (eds.) (2000) Encyclopaedia of Human Evolution and Prehistory. 2nd edition. New York: Garland.

Gamble, C. (1999) The Palaeolithic Societies of Europe. Cambridge: CUP.

Gamble, C. (1993) Timewalkers: The Prehistory of Global Colonization. Stroud: Alan Sutton.

Johanson, D. & Edgar, B. (1996) From Lucy to Language. New Jersey: Simon & Schuster

Lewin, R. (2005) Human Evolution: an illustrated introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. 

Mellars, P. (1996) The Neanderthal Legacy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Mithen, S. (1998) The Prehistory of the Mind: A Search for the Origins of Art, Religion, and Science. London: Phoenix

Scarre, C. (ed) (2005) The Human Past: World Prehistory and the Development of Human Societies. London, Thames and Hudson.

Whittaker, John. (1994) Flintknapping: making and understanding stone tools. Texas: University of Texas Press

 

Internet

http://www.becominghuman.org/

http://www.svf.uib.no/sfu/blombos/index.htm

http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/en/index.html

 

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