ARCH30900 Intro to Human Bioarchaeology

Academic Year 2020/2021

This module is designed to provide you with basic knowledge of recognising and recording human bones and teeth, as well as to provide a critical understanding of how past lifeways can be recreated from the analysis of human skeletal remains. A basic objective is to provide a holistic comprehension of the relationship between the human skeleton and the physical and socio-economic environment that form the basis of bioarchaeological investigation.

Human skeletal remains provide direct evidence for everyday life and health as well as for activities surrounding death and the burial of past populations. The biological dataset produced from the analysis of human bones and teeth includes information on age-at-death, biological sex, ancestry, metric and non-metric data and palaeopathology. Key issues, such as mobility, kinship, crisis, diet and conflict, which lie at the heart of archaeological as well as more contemporary population research, constitute basic fields of bioarchaeological investigation. This module will focus on theoretical aspects of osteoarchaeological research including the following subjects: Health patterns in relation to sex, age, social status and type of economy; impact of crisis and malnutrition to human skeleton; palaeopathology of violence; combining human osteology with laboratory analyses (i.e. aDNA, stable isotopes); mortuary practices; experimental bioarchaeology; curation of human skeletal collections and ethics. This module will also offer laboratory tutoring regarding skeletal anatomy, sex and age-at-death estimation, basic palaeopathological recording and basic recording of non metric morphological features.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

1) Will be able to ethically and safely handle human remains

2) Will be able to identify human bones and teeth and differentiating them from animal bones in an archaeological assemblage

3) Will be able to conduct basic biological profiling (age, sex and stature estimation)

4) Will be able to have demonstrable knowledge of how health and diet indicators interplay and can offer valuable information of the socio-economic status of past societies.

5) Will be able to critically evaluate interdisciplinary research implemented for human mobility investigation.

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

12

Conversation Class

2

Laboratories

10

Specified Learning Activities

40

Autonomous Student Learning

36

Total

100

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Teams of 3-4 people will be given particular roles to play in a conversation related to the scopes of the module and in particular to the merits of integrated holistic approaches. Members of each team will be primarily asked to present their “case” through a brief power-point presentation and then engage to a group discussion. Preferably, this activity will be open to the entire School of Archaeology (students and staff) forming an important School event.

Additionally, students will also be asked to choose three journal articles -that are related to the scope of the role playing action- from the official reading list and critically compare their methodologies and overall conclusions. The review should be 3000-3500 in length excluding bibliography.
 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations
Learning Recommendations:

A genuine interest in human osteology. Prior experience in power point presentations and academic writing.




Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Practical Examination: You will be examined on human skeletal remains that are easier to identify and will be expected to recognise them, siding large elements (left/ right) and perform basic age and sex estimation. Week 12 n/a Graded No

40

Presentation: Role playing related to the scopes of the module. It will include brief power-point presentation and group discussion. An essay related to the scope of the role playing action is also included. Week 7 n/a Graded No

60


Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 
Remediation Type Remediation Timing
In-Module Resit Prior to relevant Programme Exam Board
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.

Name Role
Ms Linda Fibiger Lecturer / Co-Lecturer