Introduction to Archaeology

3 ECTS credits
75 h study time

Offer 2 with catalog number 1020886AER for all students in the 1st semester at a (A) Bachelor - preliminary level.

Semester

1st semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Possible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Taught in

Dutch

Faculty

Faculty of Languages & Humanities

Department

History, Archaeology, Arts, Philosophy and Ethics

Educational team

Ralf Vandam (course titular)

Activities and contact hours

18 contact hours Lecture
40 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study

Course Content

What is archaeology! Few disciplines appeal more to the imagination than archaeology, thinking about Indiana Jones and mummies. But what does an archaeologist do exactly? Behind the imaginative cliché lies a very complex and sound science, with questions, paradigms, methods, techniques and material sources. In this course, I want to take you along this search to what archaeology exactly contains, through a series of intriguing findings and superb sites, in search of the nature and coherence of our science.

In lesson 1, we will go deeper into the question what archaeology is, and why the study of the material culture is the true core of archaeology as a science.

In lesson 2-3, we will look at the history of our discipline and, we will cover the movements of the paradigms, the questions and insights in archaeology in the 20th century, away from cultural history towards a contextual archaeology focused on the understanding of the artefacts as part of a society and the perception of people of their environment.

In lesson 4, we will see that formation processes are essential to exercise archaeology as a science, because it is exactly these formation processes that determine the content, form and capacity of the archaeological object: what we as archaeologists find can be interpreted as a sample of a sample of a sample of the complete material environment of a society of the past.

In lesson 5-6, we will zoom on what sites, contexts and stratigraphic layers are. Also what can we learn from a profile?

In lesson7-8, we will discuss our main field methods, from aerial photography to excavation.

In lesson 9-10, we will look at the materials we can research and what they can learn as.

In lesson 11-12, we will research how we can determine archaeological time, and how we can move on to dating what we have excavated and analysed on the site.

In lesson 13, we will end with the issue of public heritage of material culture. In the end, as an archeologist, we work for a public and you will notice that also that translation of the archaeological story towards this public is not without consequences for how archaeology functions as a science, and what the tension zone between imagination and science is.

The course consists of 26 hours HOC. In addition to the professor, guest lectures will teach on several topics

Course material

Handbook (Required) : Archaeology, Theories, Methods and Practice., Colin Renfrew & Paul Bahn, 8de, London: Thames & Hudson, 9780500294246, 2020
Digital course material (Required) : Powerpointpresentaties + stukken syllabus van bepaalde onderdelen

Additional info

Learning Outcomes

General competencies

The student:

O1: Has knowledge of what archeology is and its aims, works and methods.

O2: Has a critical understanding of the development of the major movements within archeology and the challenge facing the discipline today

O3: Understands the importance of archaeological formation processes and can apply them through a case study

O4: Understands the methods and the interdisciplinary nature of archeology

O5: Has knowledge of what information archaeological materials contain and can apply this through a case study

O6: Has insight into the different dating techniques and can apply various relative dating techniques

O7: Can correctly use, explain and illustrate the main archaeological terms by using concrete examples

O8: Can interpret the debate on archeology as a social actor

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 100% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Examen schriftelijk with a relative weight of 100 which comprises 100% of the final mark.

Note: Schriftelijk examen bepaalt 100% van het eindcijfer

Additional info regarding evaluation

It is a written exam

Part one is aimed at knowledge and understanding of the course and the agreed chapters in the handbook (80% of the total).

Part 2 deals with the SELF-ativities. The student has know the most important information contained in the chapters. Connenctions between themes and the classes will be questioned as well (20% of the total).

The second exam session is a new exam and none of the different aspects of the exam is transferrable to the next examperiod if the general result is a fail.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context