Learning Outcomes:
1. Have an advanced level of understanding of key themes in Mediterranean Prehistory
2. To understand and critically discuss major technical shifts in Mediterranean Early Prehistory
3. To identify the range of lithic product categories and tool-types in order to understand why recognition of chipped stone artefacts is relevant to the understanding of prehistoric societies
4. Contribute meaningfully to seminar discussion
5. Write an advanced undergraduate essay
Indicative Module Content:
WEEK 1 Session 1 Lecture: Mediterranean - (palaeo)environemental and (paleo)climatic context
Session 2 Seminar: discussion
WEEK 2 Session 3 Lecture: Lithic technology - Innovations, Traditions, Transmissions and Networks
Session 4 Workshop: Lithic technology
WEEK 3 Session 5 Lecture: Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic societies of Mediterranean Europe
Session 6 Workshop/Seminar: Upper Palaeolithic lithic technology
WEEK 4 Session 7 Lecture: Mesolithic last hunter-gatherers of Mediterranean
Session 8 Workshop: Mesolithic lithic technology
WEEK 5 Session 9 Lecture: Mediterranean stream of Neolithisation and the spread of agriculture to Europe
Session 10 Workshop: Neolithic lithic technology
WEEK 6 Session 11 Lecture: Consolidation and regionalisation of the Neolithic way of life in Mediterranean Europe
Session 12 Seminar: discussion
WEEK 7 Session 13 Lecture: The spread of Neolithic harvesting technologies in the Mediterranean (Niccolo Mazzucco and Fiona Pichon)
Session 14 Workshop: use-wear approach to lithics (Niccolo Mazzucco and Fiona Pichon)
Two-week fieldwork/study period
WEEK 9 Session 15 Lecture: Prehistoric economy - from hunter-gatherer to farmer
Session 16 Seminar: discussion
WEEK 10 Session 17 Lecture: Prehistoric migrations and mobility
Session 18 Seminar: discussion
WEEK 11 Session 19 Lecture: Mediterranean islands
Session 20 Seminar: discussion