Institute of Archaeology
ARCL3097
Archaeology in the World
Third Year 0.5 Unit Core Course
2015–2016
Coordinator: Dr Mark Lake
mark.lake@ucl.ac.uk
Room 115, Tel. 020 7679 1535 (Ext. 21535)
Contents
1 Overview
1.1 Short description . . . .
1.2 Week-by-week summary
1.3 Basic texts . . . . . . .
1.4 Method of assessment .
1.5 Teaching methods . . .
1.6 Workload . . . . . . . .
1.7 Prerequisites . . . . . .
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2 Aims, objectives and assessment
2.1 Aims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 Learning outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3 Coursework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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3 Schedule and syllabus
3.1 Teaching schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3 Week 1: Introduction: Deep History, Grand Challenges and Public Intellectuals)
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4 Online resources
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5 Additional information
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5.1 Libraries and other resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.2 Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6 Tutors
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7 Appendix A: Policies and Procedures 2015-16
(please read carefully)
16
This document and other resources are available from the course website:
https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=34395
2015–2016
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1.1
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Overview
Short description
The purpose of this course is to help you develop your grasp of the ‘bigger picture’ and enhance
your ability to communicate it. The ability to answer the ‘so-what’ question is vital for further
academic development, but is also a valuable skill in many walks of life. A short lecture series
will discuss the role of archaeologists as ‘public intellectuals’ and then provide examples of some
of the ‘big themes’ to which archaeology can contribute, for example: the unintended consequences of human decision-making, the origins of inequality, and the construction of identity.
You will then take one of these themes or another of your choosing and explore how information and approaches learned in your 1st and 2nd year courses, fieldwork and extra-curricular
experience can illuminate that theme. The course is taught using a combination of lectures,
group discussion and some practical work. It is assessed via the construction of a blog and you
will be supported to develop the technical and writing skills necessary to achieve this.
1.2
1.3
Week-by-week summary
1
2
3
4
5
16 Nov
23 Nov
30 Dec
7 Dec
14 Dec
6
7
8
9
10
14 Jan
21 Jan
28 Jan
4 Feb
11 Feb
Term 1
Introduction: Grand Challenges: Narrative and ‘Public Intellectuals’
Past and Future Earth
Escaping Inequality: Can the Past Reshape our Future?
The Construction of Identity
Power, Violence and Inequality
Term 2
Communication in Public Archaeology
Introduction to Campus Pack Blog
The Use and Abuse of Electronic Resources
Blogging Workshop
Formative Feedback
Basic texts
There is no single textbook that covers the range of material introduced in this course. Please
see the syllabus below.
1.4
Method of assessment
This course is assessed by means of a blog comprising 8 entries not exceeding a total of 4000
words (see below for more detail).
1.5
Teaching methods
Teaching will be by a mixture of lectures and in-class group work. The first lecture will provide
an overview and you are asked to do the essential reading over the following weeks. The other
lectures have a small number of essential readings which you should do ahead of time in order
to follow and actively contribute to group discussion.
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1.6
2015–2016
Workload
There will be 6 hours of lectures for this course, plus 14 hours of practical work and group
discussion. You will be expected to undertake around 68 hours of reading for the course, plus
60 hours preparing for the assessed work and 40 hours producing it. This adds up to a total
workload of 188 hours for the course.
1.7
Prerequisites
This course is a compulsory core course for all final year undergraduate students in the Institute
of Archaeology and is only available to Institute of Archaeology students.
2
Aims, objectives and assessment
2.1
Aims
This course seeks to prepare you for graduation by providing a space in which you can draw
together the various strands of archaeology that you have learned about and also reflect upon
the relevance of archaeological knowledge for wider debates about the past, present and future
of humanity. It aims to:
• Provide additional intellectual training in how to use knowledge and understanding of
particular cases to inform thematic research;
• Enhance employability by preparing you to be able to draw on your archaeological knowledge and skills to address issues of wide concern to companies, NGO’s, local and national
governments, policy ‘think tanks’, etc.;
• Inspire and equip you to be inspired, thoughtful and articulate ambassadors for archaeology in wider society.
2.2
Learning outcomes
At the end of this course you should:
• Possess knowledge of how archaeology can inform debate surrounding several major issues
facing humanity;
• Posses knowledge of one particular big theme and be able to demonstrate how knowledge
and skills you have acquired in other courses are relevant to it;
• Have enhanced your understanding of the potential and limitations of making inferences
from the particular to the general;
• Be able to communicate the significance of archaeological findings to a non-specialist
audience.
2.3
2.3.1
Coursework
Assessment tasks
This course is assessed entirely by coursework consisting of a blog, constructed using UCLs
Campus Pack Blog (accessed via Moodle). The complete blog should address a major theme
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of wide interest, but should also demonstrate how detailed archaeological work contributes to
knowledge of/debate about this theme; to achieve this, you will be expected to juxtapose entries
dealing with different scales of analysis. Your blog should be written and illustrated so that
non-specialists will find it engaging, but at the same time it should retain academic rigour; to
achieve this you will need to adopt a voice which is personal (yours) and so less formal than
a journal article, but you should nevertheless provide citations and ensure that your prose is
grammatically correct.
You are not permitted to re-write and re-submit coursework in order to try to improve your
marks. The nature of the assignment and possible approaches to it will be discussed in class
in advance of the submission deadline. In week 7 of this course we will provide step-by-step
instructions for using Campus Pack Blog, while the issue of voice will be discussed in weeks 6
and 9, and the practicalities of referencing (and compliance with copyright law) will be covered
in week 8. You will also receive support to ‘brainstorm’ your topics throughout the course and
particularly in week 9, as well as formative feedback in week 10. If you remain unclear about
what is expected on you then please do discuss it with the Course Coordinator.
Assessment criteria The assessment criteria for the blog are available the course Moodle
site. Please note that you will have an opportunity to obtain formative feedback on the first
blog 2 entries (see also deadlines below).
2.3.2
Word length and submission procedures
Word count Your completed blog should not exceed 4000 words. Your blog should be made
up of exactly eight entries. You may vary the length of individual entries as appropriate,
but avoid extreme scenarios (such as 7 blogs of 100 words and one of 3300 words) since work
organised in this way is unlikely to meet the requirements to obtain a good grade.
Deadlines Your entire blog must be complete (i.e. all eight entries must have been published
on Campus Pack Blog and you must have submitted the text to Turnitin) by 23:59 on 21st
March 2016. Blogs completed after this date (or the date specified on a completed Extension
Request Form) will be subject to the normal late submission penalties for coursework.
In addition, the first 2 entries of your blog must have been published on Campus Pack Blog
by 23:59 on 8th February 2016. Failure to meet this intermediate deadline means that you will
not receive formative feedback on your work and you are strongly advised not to disadvantage
yourself in this way.
Turnitin All work should be submitted to Turnitin (http://www.submit.ac.uk/en_gb/
home). The relevant ‘class ID’ is 2970113 and the ‘enrolment password’ is IoA1516. Please
note that we are working with UCL E-Learning Environments to determine the simplest way
of achieving this and will provide full instructions before Term 2 Reading Week.
Warning UCL has strict regulations with regard to word-length, late submission and plagiarism. Please see Appendix A for further information. If ever in doubt please consult the Course
Coordinator, or if he is unavailable and the matter is urgent, the Academic Administrator.
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ARCL3097
2015–2016
Schedule and syllabus
Teaching schedule
The course will be taught in the last 5 weeks of Term 1 and the first 5 weeks of Term 2. In
term 1 classes will be held on Mondays, commencing at 14:00 and lasting until 16:00. In term
2 classes will be held on Thursdays, commencing at 16:00 and lasting until 18:00.
Lectures will be held in room 612 and we also have use of the Staff Common Room (609)
for group discussion. Except in the case of illness, the 70% minimum attendance requirement
applies to all classes.
3.2
Overview
This course has two main parts.
Term 1 is devoted to exploring some big themes to which archaeology can contribute.
Week 1 re-introduces some issues surrounding ‘deep-history’ and ‘grand challenges’. We say
‘re-introduces’ because two years ago Cyprian Broodbank introduced you to the idea of ‘deep
history’ in the second lecture of the first year course ARCL1003 World Archaeology. That course
was intended to provide a “synthesis of the big patterns of global social, cultural, economic and
political change from earliest prehistory to the beginnings of the modern era”, although it also
included case studies to illustrate the evidence base that underpins such sweeping syntheses.
Two years on, this course asks you to take the detailed knowledge that you are acquiring in
your option courses and fit it into a bigger picture—in other words, to do for yourselves what
we did for you in the first year. Moreover, it has a stronger focus on the relevance of big
themes to contemporary concerns so that you can answer that ‘so-what’ question. In weeks 2–5
four Institute of Archaeology ‘guest lecturers’ present examples of how they are addressing big
themes of contemporary relevance in their own research. It is important to understand that
these are offered as exemplars, not the only such themes (although the staff presenting them
certainly believe them to be important). We recognise that there may be other themes that you
find more interesting—that is absolutely fine and you should investigate those, which is why we
have deliberately not overloaded you with large numbers of essential readings.
Term 2 is rather different as the principal aim is to help you develop the skills required
to complete the blogging assignment. There are three strands to this: one is acquiring the
technical skills and information literacy to produce blog entries; another is more concerned
with developing an appropriate voice to communicate effectively with a wider audience; and
the third is ongoing work to help you develop the intellectual skills to piece together detailed
knowledge of your favourite subjects in the service of a bigger picture.
Moodle As the course proceeds we will be posting additional resources on Moodle (https://
moodle.ucl.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=34395), including, where appropriate, information
about/results of group discussion.
Reading lists As usual, the following outline identifies essential readings relevant to each
session. Information is provided as to where in the UCL library system individual readings
are available; their location and Teaching Collection (TC) number, and status (whether out on
loan) can also be accessed on the eUCLid computer catalogue system. This course also has a
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UCL Electronic Reading List which can be found at http://readinglists.ucl.ac.uk/lists/
948EA037-C0B3-F6BE-BB63-C125A2815685.html. Supplementary readings will be posted on
Moodle, as appropriate.
3.3
Week 1: Introduction: Deep History, Grand Challenges and Public Intellectuals)
Lecture synopsis
As noted above, at the outset of your studies here (in ARCL1003 “World Archaeology”) we
introduced you to the notion that as archaeology “addresses the lion’s share of global long-term
history”, so it ought perhaps to play a major role in explaining “why human and other contemporary life on the planet has developed as it has, and looks as it does today”. In the introduction
to this course I return to that theme, distinguishing between ‘grand narrative’, ‘deep-history’,
‘world history’, ‘big history’ and ‘grand challenges’ and asking whether archaeologists should/do
in fact produce such works and what they look like.
Essential reading
The following cover the many of the key issues raised in the lecture. You should already
have read Sherratt 1995 and Smith 1992 for ARCL1003, and Tilley 1989 and Trigger 1984 for
ARCL2028.
For the issue of causality and timescales in deep-history:
Christian, D. 1991. The case for “big history”. Journal of World History 2(2): 223–238.
[e-journal].
Smail, D. L. & A. Shryock 2013. History and the “pre”. The American Historical Review
118(3): 709–737. [e-journal].
Smith, M. 1992. Braudel’s temporal rhythms and chronology theory in archaeology. In
Archaeology, Annales and Ethnohistory, pp. 22–34. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. [http://ls-tlss.ucl.ac.uk/course-materials/ARCL1003_74074.pdf].
For the call to revive grand narrative in archaeology and address ‘grand challenges’:
Kintigh, K. W., J. H. Altschul, M. C. Beaudry, R. D. Drennan, A. P. Kinzig, T. A.
Kohler, W. F. Limp, H. D. G. Maschner, W. K. Michener, T. R. Pauketat,
P. Peregrine, J. A. Sabloff, T. J. Wilkinson, H. T. Wright & M. A. Zeder
2014. Grand challenges for archaeology. American Antiquity 79(1): 5–23. [e-journal].
Sherratt, A. 1995. Reviving the grand narrative: archaeology and long-term change.
Journal of European Archaeology 3: 1–32. [e-journal].
For the questioning of Western grand narratives:
Hodder, I. 1998. Whose rationality? A response to Fekri Hassan.
213–217. [e-journal].
Antiquity 72(275):
Pincince, J. 2014. Jerry Bentley, world history, and the decline of the “West”. Journal of
World History 25(4): 631–643. [e-journal].
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Tilley, C. 1989. Archaeology as socio-political action in the present. In V. Pinsky &
A. Wylie (eds.), Critical Traditions in Contemporary Archaeology: Essays in the Philosophy, History and Socio-Politics of Archaeology, pp. 104–116. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge. [http://ls-tlss.ucl.ac.uk/course-materials/ARCL2028_46997.pdf].
Trigger, B. G. 1984. Alternative archaeologies: Nationalist, colonialist, imperialist. Man
19 (NS)(3): 355–370. [e-journal].
For the question of whether archaeologists can/should function as ‘public intellectuals’:
Holtorf, C. 2013. The need and potential for an archaeology orientated towards the present.
Archaeological Dialogues 20(1): 12–18. [e-journal].
Tarlow, S. & L. N. Stutz 2013. Can an archaeologist be a public intellectual? Archaeological Dialogues 20(1): 1–5. [e-journal].
Case study: Ian Morris, ?, “Why the West Rules—For Now”
See Moodle for links to video footage of an interview with Ian Morris, a lecture in Chicago
outlining the content of this book, and a lecture he gave in the Institute of Archaeology in
March 2015 which also includes critical responses from Kevin MacDonald and Corinna Riva.
Note also that LSE IDEAS is organising a series of public lectures (no ticket required) given
by Ian Morris—again, see the Moodle site.
Deep histories / big themes
Over the first five weeks of the course you should familiarise yourself with one or more relevant
and comparatively recent works, according to your interests. The following are all in UCL
libraries:
Braudel, F. 1994. A History of Civilizations. Penguin, London. Translation of ‘Grammaire de Civilisations’, translated by Richard Mayne. [bartlett cb78 .b73 1994][ssees
misc.ix.a bra].
Broodbank, C. 2013. The Making of the Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean from
the Beginning to the Emergence of the Classical World. Thames & Hudson, London.
[inst arch dag 100 bro][issue desk ioa bro 22].
Cunliffe, B. 2015. By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia. Oxford University
Press, Oxford.
Cunliffe, B. W. 2001. Facing the Ocean: The Atlantic and its Peoples, 8000 BC – AD
1500. Oxford University Press, Oxford; New York. [inst arch da 200 cun].
Diamond, J. 2012. The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional
Societies? Allen Lane. [inst arch ddc dia].
Diamond, J. M. 1997. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. Norton,
London and New York. [inst arch bd 5 dia][anthropology d 2 dia].
Diamond, J. M. 2005.
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive.
Allen
Lane, London. [inst arch bb 6 dia][issue desk ioa dia 2][anthropology b 28
dia][geography h 26 dia].
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Fukuyama, F. 2011. The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French
Revolution. Profile Books, London. [inst arch bd 5 fuk][issue desk ioa fuk 1][history 25 a fuk].
Harari, Y. N. 2014. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Harvill Secker, London.
Translated by the author, with the help of John Purcell and Haim Watzman. [inst arch
bb 1 har].
Horden, P. & N. Purcell 2000. The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History.
Blackwell, Oxford. [inst arch dag 200 hor].
Johnson, A. & T. Earle 2000. The Evolution of Human Societies: From Foraging Group
to Agrarian State. Stanford University Press, Stanford. [inst arch bb 6 joh].
Mithen, S. J. 2003. After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000–5000. Weidenfeld &
Nicolson, London. [inst arch bc 100 mit].
Morris, I. 2010. Why the West Rules—For Now. Profile Books, London. [inst arch bd 5
mor][issue desk ioa mor 14].
Morris, I. 2015a. Foragers, Farmers, and Fossil Fuels: How Human Values Evolve. Princeton University Press, Princeton. [inst arch hj mor][ssue desk ioa mor 4].
Morris, I. 2015b. War: What is it good for? The Role of Conflict in Civilisation, from
Primates to Robots. Profile Books. [inst arch bd mor][issue desk ioa mor 7].
Turchin, P. 2003. Historical Dynamics: Why States Rise and Fall. Princeton University
Press, Princeton and Oxford. [history 6 a tur].
Wengrow, D. 2010. What Makes Civilization? The Ancient Near East and the Future of
the West. Oxford University Press, Oxford. [inst arch dba 100 wen][issue desk ioa
wen 8].
In addition, these papers may be of interest, particularly if you are more interested in
quantitative approaches inspired by the natural sciences and/or have a particular interest in
human-environment interaction:
Aunger, R. 2007. Major transitions in “big” history. Technological Forecasting and Social
Change 74(8): 1137–1163. [e-journal].
Bentley, R. A. & M. J. O’Brien 2012. Cultural evolutionary tipping points in the storage
and transmission of information. Frontiers in Psychology 3: Article 569. [e-journal].
Papers in Hornborg, A. & C. Crumley (eds.) 2007. The World System and the Earth
System: Global Socioenvironmental Change and Sustainability Since the Neolithic. Left
Coast Press., Walnut Creek:. [inst arch bc 100 hor].
International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme 2012.
Anthropocene: The geology of humanity.
Global Change 78.
[http://www.igbp.net/download/18.
1081640c135c7c04eb480001182/1376383108168/NL78-for_web.pdf].
Smith, B. D. & M. A. Zeder 2013.
[e-journal].
The onset of the Anthropocene.
Anthropocene .
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Sörlin, S., S. Van der Leeuw, R. Costanza, S. Aulenbach, S. Brewer, M. Burek,
S. Cornell, C. Crumley, J. A. Dearing, C. Downy et al. 2011. Toward an
integrated history to guide the future. Ecology & society 16(4). [e-journal].
Takács-Sránta, A. 2004. The major transitions in the history of human transformation of
the biosphere. Human Ecology Review, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2004 11: 51–66. [e-journal].
Turchin, P. 2008. Arrise ‘Cliodynamics’. Nature 454: 34–35. [e-journal].
Turchin, P., T. E. Currie, E. A. L. Turner & S. Gavrilets 2013. War, space, and
the evolution of Old World complex societies. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences 110(41): 16384–16389. [e-journal].
Week 2: Past and Future Earth (EG)
Lecture synopsis
Archaeology generally focuses on extracting objects from the soil for analysis. The matrix—
the soil or sediment itself—is generally ignored as an ‘artefact’. In our session I will introduce
you to the hypothesis that our modern landscape—including soils, vegetation and biodiversity—
reflects long-term formation processes to which archaeological remains are an important, if not a
major, contributor. This means that the ways in which soil fertility is measured in assessments
of global agricultural potential needs to take account of these long-term processes. But it
doesn’t. This also means that the management of waste (rubbish, landfill, human waste, dead
bodies in cemeteries) should take in to account the long-term chemical effects of such waste.
Our research is show that detritus resulting from ‘bad’ habits, such as burning vegetation for
fuel, or dumping waste from coal mining, can, over a period of time, transform landscapes by
enhancing soil fertility.
Essential reading
Graham, E. 2006. A neotropical framework for Terra Preta. In W. Baleé & C. Erickson
(eds.), Time & Complexity in Historical Ecology: Studies in the Neotropical Lowlands, pp.
57–86. Columbia University Press, New York. [inst arch df 100 bal].
Graham, E., R. M. S. Turner, J. Crowther, J. Stegemann, M. Arroyo-Kalin,
L. Duncan, R. Whittet, C. Rosique & P. Austin 2015. The Marco Gonzalez Maya
site, Ambergris Caye, Belize: Assessing the impact of human activities by examining
diachronic processes at the local scale. Quaternary International . [e-journal][http:
//dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.08.079].
Rose, G. 2008. The Big Necessity: Adventures in Human Waste. Portobello Books, London.
[inst arch bd ros][issue desk ioa ros 3].
Foley, J. A., N. Ramankutty, K. A. Brauman, E. S. Cassidy, J. S. Gerber,
M. Johnston, N. D. Mueller, C. OConnell, D. K. Ray, P. C. West, C. Balzer,
E. M. Bennett, S. R. Carpenter, J. Hill, C. Monfreda, S. Polasky, J. Rockstr/”om, J. Sheehan, S. Siebert, D. Tilman & D. P. M. Zaks 2011. Solutions for
a cultivated planet. Nature 478: 337–342. [e-journal].
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Week 3: Escaping Inequality: Can the Past Reshape our Future? (DW)
Lecture synopsis
We live in a world that increasingly resembles the Old Regimes of yesteryear. Many feel powerless to resist the rising tide of inequality. Reversing this trend means questioning basic assumptions about human history. In recent decades information has accumulated that could throw
into disarray received understandings of the origins of social inequality, and not least in the
fields of archaeology and anthropology. Hunter-gatherers did not live exclusively in tiny bands,
and often created extreme hierarchies, only to reverse them again on a seasonal basis. Some
of the earliest cities, by contrast, were startlingly egalitarian, and functioned in the absence
of hierarchical management structures. Civilisation and the state were not single entities that
came as a historical package, but uncomfortable amalgams of elements such as sovereignty,
bureaucracy, and urban life that may now finally be in the process of drifting apart. Much
of this information remains locked up in specialised academic journals that are read by only
a handful of professionals. In this class we will consider how archaeology and anthropology
could be put into action, as a contribution to pressing debates over the causes of rising global
inequality, and our possible pathways out of it.
Essential reading
Wengrow, D. & D. Graeber 2015. Farewell to the childhood of man: ritual, seasonality,
and the origins of inequality. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 21: 597–619.
[e-journal].
Mithen, S. 2013. Foursomes and so on. Review of Kent Flannery and Joyce Marcus, 2012,
“The Creation of Inequality: How our Prehistoric Ancestors Set the Stage for Monarchy,
Slavery and Empire”, Harvard. London Review of Books 35(7): 17–18. [http://www.
lrb.co.uk/v35/n07/steven-mithen/foursomes-and-so-on].
Knight, C. 2012. Egalitarianism is hard to find if you pass over anthropology for archaeology.
Review of Kent Flannery and Joyce Marcus, 2012, “The Creation of Inequality: How Our
Prehistoric Ancestors Set the Stage for Monarchy, Slavery and Empire” , Harvard. Times
Higher Education [https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/the-creationof-inequality-how-our-prehistoric-ancestors-set-the-stage-for-monarchyslavery-and-empire/419991.article].
Week 4: The construction of identity (AG)
Lecture synopsis
Archaeology owes its origins as a discipline, and its survival in the present, to the politics of
identity. Established largely in the context of the emergence of national consciousness in postMedieval Europe, archaeology is sustained in the present by governments and other interest
groups primarily because it is believed to be important to the identities of communities, nationalities, and sometimes the whole of humanity. In this weeks session we will examine why this is
so, with the help of some identity theory, and then explore some of the dilemmas this situation
poses for us as archaeologists seeking to and sometimes obligated to contribute to contemporary debates, using case-studies from the recent news. We will also explore the more profound
issue of how archaeological knowledge shapes, and is shaped by, identity at the more individual
level. This is important not only to the ways in which collective identities are experienced, but
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also in terms of the relationships individuals have with the past. Do we seek affirmation or
contradiction in past cultures? Do we identify with the people we study, even if their own sense
of self and identity may have been radically different to ours? These questions are essential to a
deeper understanding of the potential impact of archaeology in contemporary society; exploring
them in the seminar component of this session will involve drawing upon knowledge from other
courses about different past societies as well as a degree of self-reflection on why archaeology
matters to us.
Essential reading
Topical overview
Meskell, L. 2002. The intersection of identity and politics in archaeology. Annual Review
of Anthropology 31: 279–301. [e-journal].
Case study: who identifies with Rome, and why?
Beard, M. 2015.
Why ancient Rome matters to the modern world.
The Guardian
2/10/2015.
[http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/02/mary-beard-whyancient-rome-matters].
Holland, T. 2014.
Why empires fall: from ancient Rome to Putin’s Russia.
The
New Statesman 23/5/14.
[http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/05/whyempires-fall-ancient-rome-putins-russia].
Recommended reading
Additional readings listed on Moodle.
Week 5: Power, violence and inequality (GM)
Lecture synopsis
Power, violence and inequality are fundamental forces in shaping the human past and present,
and their material traces have been studied by archaeologists in a variety of forms. Marxistinfluenced scholarship placed economic power, state violence and socio-economic inequality at
the heart of their interpretations of past societies, but more recently archaeologists have tended
to be more wary of over-simplifications based on Big Ideas. The public on the other hand
love Big Ideas, and some scholars have made their fortunes turning the human past into easily
digestible ‘Just So’ stories that treat power, violence and inequality a bit too simplistically.
Jared Diamond in particular has been criticised for presenting some indigenous communities as
excessively violent, and both his ethics and his data have been challenged. We will examine
Diamond and his critics to consider the attractions and potential hazards of treating power,
violence and inequality as inevitable features of society. Finally I will use examples of my own
current fieldwork projects to illustrate how these themes might be used or, alternatively, ignored
in archaeological scholarship.
Essential Reading
Correia, D. 2013.
journal].
F**k Jared Diamond.
Capitalism Nature Socialism 24(4): 1–6. [e-
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Corry, S. 2013.
Savaging primitives: Why Jared Diamond’s ‘The World Until Yesterday’ is completely wrong.
The Daily Beast 30/1/2013.
[http:
//www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/30/savaging-primitives-whyjared-diamond-s-the-world-until-yesterday-is-completely-wrong.html]. [inst
arch dak 15 cun].
Faulkner, N. 2008. Roman archaeology in an epoch of neoliberalism and imperialist war.
In TRAC 2007: Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology
Conference, pp. 63–73. Oxbow, Oxford. [inst arch daa 170 fen].
Week 6: Communication in public archaeology (GM)
Lecture synopsis
To communicate archaeology effectively we need to identify our audiences, messages, and media.
Who do we want to inform about our work? What do we want them to know? How do we want
to tell them? In your own experience of fieldwork and now of dissertation work you will be in
a position to communicate research to others: family, friends and colleagues. Think about how
you modify your terminology and levels of detail for these different audiences.
Perhaps the best way of understanding the value of communication in archaeology is looking
at how it can go wrong. In this session I will introduce several different kinds of failure in
archaeological communication. The Seahenge excavations in 1998-9 saw communication between
archaeologists and the local community and other stakeholders break down completely, leading
to lingering bad feelings on both sides. The 2014 television programme Nazi War Diggers was
so poorly conceived and presented, and inspired so much protest by archaeologists, that the
broadcast was cancelled.
Essential Reading
Ayers, B., R. Hanley & H. Jackson 2007. “Seahenge”: the Holme timber circle excavation
and public display. Material Religion 3(1): 158–160. [e-journal].
Thomas, S. 2015. Collaborate, condemn, or ignore? Responding to non-archaeological
approaches to archaeological heritage. European Journal of Archaeology 18(2): 312–335.
[e-journal].
‘How to write a blogpost from your journal article’ https://medium.com/@write4research/
how-to-write-a-blogpost-from-your-journal-article-6511a3837caa
Week 7: Introduction to Campus Pack Blog (MV)
We will provide a structured hands-on introduction to Campus Pack Blog so that by the end
of the session you will be up-and-running and ready to post entries.
Week 8: The Use and Abuse of Electronic Resources (KM, CH)
Katie Meheux and Chris Holland (from UCL Libraries) will provide guidance about how to
cite the work of others in blogs, explain how do avoid infringing copyright law when linking
or embedding material available elsewhere on the Internet and discuss a range of electronic
resources that may be useful to you when constructing your blog.
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Week 9: Blogging Workshop (ML)
By now you should have decided on the big theme for your own blog, so we will do some
more work on strategies for linking your detailed case studies to your theme, as will ‘voice’ and
appropriate writing styles. After this you should be ready to submit draft entries for formative
assessment.
Week 10: Formative Feedback (ML)
The final week is devoted to formative feedback on your first entries to ensure that you have
a good understanding of the assessment criteria. There will also be time to ‘mop up’ any
outstanding unresolved issues.
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Online resources
The full UCL Institute of Archaeology coursework guidelines are given here: https://wiki.
ucl.ac.uk/display/archadmin/Students.
The full text of this handbook is available at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/
studying/undergraduate/courses/ARCL3097.
The Moodle pages for this course are available at https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/course/
view.php?id=34395.
The Electronic Reading List can be found at http://readinglists.ucl.ac.uk/lists/
948EA037-C0B3-F6BE-BB63-C125A2815685.html.
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5.1
Additional information
Libraries and other resources
In addition to the Library of the Institute of Archaeology (5th floor), other libraries in UCL
with holdings of relevance to this course include the Science Library and the Main Library on
the cental UCL site, and the UCL Bartlett Library on Upper Woburn Place.
The University of London Senate House Library (http://www.ull.ac.uk/) also has holdings which may be relevant to this course.
5.2
Feedback
This is a new course and we welcome feedback from students during the course of the year. In
addition, all students are asked to give their views on the course in an anonymous questionnaire
which will be circulated at one of the last sessions of the course. These questionnaires are taken
seriously and help the Course Coordinator to develop the course. The summarised responses
are considered by the Institute’s Staff-Student Consultative Committee, Teaching Committee,
and by the Faculty Teaching Committee.
If you are concerned about any aspect of this course we hope you will feel able to talk to the
Course Coordinator, but if you feel this is not appropriate, you should consult your Personal
Tutor, the Academic Administrator (Judy Medrington), or the Chair of Teaching Committee
(Dr. Karen Wright).
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Tutors
The Course Coordinator is:
Mark Lake (ML), who is available for consultation in room 115 at the times posted on his
door, or by appointment.
Tel: 020 7679 1535
Ext: 21535
Email: mailto:mark.lake@ucl.ac.uk
The Course Coordinator will be supported by two Postgraduate Teaching Assistants, who are:
Barney Harris (BH)
Email: mailto:barnabas.harris.14@ucl.ac.uk
Annemieke Milks (AM)
Email: mailto:a.milks@ucl.ac.uk
The theme lecturers are:
Andrew Gardner (AG)
Email: andrew.gardner@ucl.ac.uk
Elizabeth Graham (EG)
Email: e.graham@ucl.ac.uk
Gabe Moshenska (GM)
Email: g.moshenska@ucl.ac.uk
David Wengrow (DW)
Email: d.wengrow@ucl.ac.uk
In addition, the second part of the course will benefit from expert contributions from:
Chris Holland UCL Copyright Support Officer (CH)
Katie Meheux UCL Institute of Archaeology Library (KM)
Mira Vogel SLASH E-Learning Facilitator (MV)
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Appendix A: Policies and Procedures 2015-16
(please read carefully)
This appendix provides a short précis of policies and procedures relating to courses. It is not a
substitute for the full documentation, with which all students should become familiar. For full
information on Institute policies and procedures, see the following website: http://wiki.ucl.
ac.uk/display/archadmin. For UCL policies and procedures, see the Academic Regulations
and the UCL Academic Manual: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/srs/academic-regulations; http:
//www.ucl.ac.uk/academic-manual/.
General Matters
Attendance
A minimum attendance of 70% is required, except in case of illness or other adverse circumstances which are supported by medical certificates or other documentation. A register will be
taken at each class. If you are unable to attend a class, please notify the lecturer by
email.
Dyslexia
If you have dyslexia or any other disability, please discuss with your lecturers whether there
is any way in which they can help you. Students with dyslexia should indicate it on each
coursework cover sheet.
Coursework
Submission Procedures
You must submit a hardcopy of coursework to the Coordinator’s pigeon-hole via the Red Essay
Box at Reception (or, in the case of first year undergraduate work, to room 411a) by stated
deadlines. Coursework must be stapled to a completed coversheet (available from IoA website;
the rack outside Room 411A; or the Library). You should put your Candidate Number (a
5 digit alphanumeric code, found on Portico; please note that this number changes each year)
and Course Code on all coursework. It is also essential that you put your Candidate
Number at the start of the title line on Turnitin, followed by the short title of the
coursework (example: “YBPR6 Funerary practices”).
Late Submission
Late submission is penalised in accordance with UCL regulations, unless prior permission for
late submission has been granted and an Extension Request Form (ERF) completed. The
penalties are as follows:
1. A penalty of 5 percentage marks will be applied to coursework submitted the calendar
day after the deadline (calendar day 1).
2. A penalty of 15 percentage marks will be applied to coursework submitted on calendar
day 2 after the deadline through to calendar day 7.
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3. A mark of zero will be recorded for coursework submitted on calendar day 8 after the
deadline through to the end of the second week of third term. Nevertheless, the assessment
will be considered to be complete provided the coursework contains material than can be
assessed.
4. Coursework submitted after the end of the second week of third term will not be marked
and the assessment will be incomplete.
Granting of Extensions
New UCL-wide regulations with regard to the granting of extensions for coursework have been
introduced with effect from the 2015–16 session. Full details will be circulated to all students
and will be made available on the IoA intranet. Note that course coordinators are no longer
permitted to grant extensions. All requests for extensions must be submitted on a new
UCL form, together with supporting documentation, viaJudy Medrington’s office and will then
be referred on for consideration. Please be aware that the grounds that are now acceptable are
limited. Those with long-term difficulties should contact UCL Student Disability Services to
make special arrangements.
TURNITIN
Date-stamping is via Turnitin, so in addition to submitting hard copy, you must also submit
your work to Turnitin by midnight on the deadline day. If you have questions or
problems with Turnitin, contact mailto:ioa-turnitin@ucl.ac.uk.
Return of Coursework and Resubmission
You should receive your marked coursework within four calendar weeks of the submission deadline. If you do not receive your work within this period, or a written explanation, notify the
Academic Administrator. When your marked essay is returned to you, return it to the Course
Coordinator within two weeks. You must retain a copy of all coursework submitted.
Word Length
Essay word-lengths are normally expressed in terms of a recommended range. Not included
in the word count are the bibliography, appendices, tables, graphs, captions to figures, tables,
graphs. You must indicate word length (minus exclusions) on the cover sheet. Exceeding
the maximum word-length expressed for the essay will be penalized in accordance with UCL
penalties for over-length work.
Citing of Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism
Coursework must be expressed in your own words, citing the exact source (author, date and
page number; website address if applicable) of any ideas, information, diagrams, etc., that
are taken from the work of others. This applies to all media (books, articles, websites, images,
figures, etc.). Any direct quotations from the work of others must be indicated as such
by being placed between quotation marks. Plagiarism is a very serious irregularity, which
can carry heavy penalties. It is your responsibility to abide by requirements for presentation,
referencing and avoidance of plagiarism. Make sure you understand definitions of plagiarism and
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the procedures and penalties as detailed in UCL regulations: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/currentstudents/guidelines/plagiarism.
Resources
MOODLE
Please ensure you are signed up to the course on Moodle. For help with Moodle, please contact
Nadja Abia, Room 411a (mailto:n.abia@ucl.ac.uk).