Archaeology BSc (Hons)

This module provides an introduction to the history and archaeology of the Near East and Aegean from ca. 4,000 to 800 BC, specifically the ancient cultures of the Near East, Levant and Greece. The module includes artefact handling sessions.

This module introduces students to the archaeology of Classical Greece and the Roman Empire by comparing these two Mediterranean civilisations across common themes relating to the life experiences of people in the ancient world.

ALGY101 introduces students to the concepts, methods and evidence that archaeologists use to study and interpret the past. Students gain core skills essential to building and evaluating knowledge about human material remains of the past.

This module gives a broad outline of World Prehistory from our earliest ancestors 7 million years ago to the beginnings of settled village life just 10,000 years ago. We explore the development of human social and cultural behaviour against a backdrop of climate change. The focus is on the archaeological record, but to understand the origin and spread of our species we also need a broad comparative perspective that includes other primates, genetics and contemporary hunting and gathering societies. That perspective is essential to understand the fate of our closest relatives, the Neanderthals. The development of language, art, society and technology feature in this review of how we came to be the sole surviving human species. Our survey ends with the domestication of a small number of plant and animal species at the end of the last ice age. These early farming villages would be the foundation on which our modern world developed with its 7 billion inhabitants.

This module introduces students to the design and implementation of archaeological projects (and thereby research design more generally). It is concerned with how archaeological questions are addressed through projects, the practices involved in the various stages of archaeological projects, including desk-based assessment, mapping, data collection and analysis, field recording, excavation strategy, interpretation and site/heritage management planning. There is a strong practical element to the module which focusses on the planning and execution of a project relating to a cemetery in Liverpool.

The module considers the visual modes and media by which the Greeks and Romans expressed themselves individually and societally ancient cultures (with some attention to the mediterranean context), laying foundations for critical and methodological skills needed to ‘read’ ancient visual culture.

ALGY109 is designed as an introductory, level one module aiming to provide students with an overview of Ancient Egyptian history from prehistory to AD 395 both in its chronological development and in its environmental and geographical setting, including the fundamentals of the chronology of Ancient Egypt (including the limitations of available evidence), and a good awareness of how major archaeological sites and other forms of primary evidence fit within this framework.

This module will introduce students to the development of early Chinese civilisations. We will investigate the transition from hunter-gatherers to the first sedentary village farming communities and the emergence of the earliest cities and states from these early village societies. We will thus also investigate some formative features of Chinese societies that persisted for millennia. The module will also place developments in China in a broader comparative context and allow discussion of the emergence of social and political hierarchies, complex economies and the appearance and nature of the state. The module will also introduce students to some of the conceptual tools and methodologies needed to investigate these issues in the archaeological record.

This module introduces the history and society of the ancient Greek world, from the liberation of Athens from tyranny in the late sixth century BC through to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. The module offers students a foundation of knowledge in the history of events, as well as exploring a range of aspects of Greek society and culture, including the Greek ‘way of war’, sexuality and religion. It also introduces a range of sources for the study of ancient history, especially the two great Greek historywriters, Herodotus and Thucydides.

This module covers a period of crucial significance for European history, including interactions between Europe and other parts of the world in the premodern period. Much of it will be unfamiliar to many of you, but, we hope, will be all the more interesting for that reason. At its broadest, this module covers more than a millennium, from the rise of Christianity to the European arrival in and settlement of the Americas. We start with the origins of Christianity in the eastern Mediterranean, before moving on to the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Islam. In Europe, we chronicle the rise of post-Roman kingdoms, the settlements of Vikings in Europe and more distant locations, the launching and objectives of the crusades. In light of the expansion of the papacy, we assess the emergence of new forms of spirituality and heresy, political conflicts between nascent states, and the impact of the Reformation and Catholic Reformation on other parts of the world. Underlying these events are some continuous themes, such as the foundation of the Christian Church, the development and evolution of notions of holiness, and the effect of religious belief on methods of education, ideas of difference and deviance, and responses to natural disasters. Another theme that runs through the module is to assess how gender mores affected the experiences of and possibilities for individuals who lived in these periods. Course content also looks at the practice of, and ideology behind, political activity and war. We aim to give you an appreciation of world views and of methods of representation based on the mental horizons possible in the age before modern technology.

This module explores contemporary issues and debates through considering global relationships in the past and how they have shaped the world in which we live. In light of the tremendous impact that modern imperialism and colonialism have had in shaping our world, the module focuses, in particular, on questions relating to race, empire and their legacies.

By exploring some of the ways in which historical investigation enriches urgent contemporary debates, the module aims to introduce students to a range of new ways of approaching the past, both in terms of subject matter and of new approaches to history, and to broaden their historical understanding of both western and non-western history (or what scholars refer to as the ‘Global North’ and ‘Global South’) and the myriad connections between them. In addition, therefore, to preparing students for the range of subject matter, geographical areas and approaches that they will be able to study in the second and third years of their History degree programme, this module also aims to make students better global citizens.

This module deals with the history and society of Rome and the Roman world from the foundation of Rome to the end of the second century AD, i.e. the periods of the ‘Roman Republic’ and the ‘Principate’ (named after the princeps, a title of the Roman emperor). The aims are to provide (1) an introductory survey of the political and military history of Rome and the Roman empire; (2) to build a sound
chronological, geographical and conceptual framework for understanding the ancient Roman world; (3) to introduce students to reading primary sources in translation and evaluating their historical significance; (4) to introduce students to a limited range of scholarly views on ancient Roman history; and (5) to teach fundamental research skills.

ALGY116 is designed as a year one module which aims to provide students with an overview of Ancient Egyptian culture. In particular it has as its core aim the development of students’ understanding of the broader thematic aspects of Egyptian society, such as writing, religion, art and social structure. The emphasis will be on the use of primary data (written and material culture), and on awareness of how major archaeological sites fit within this framework.

Students will learn about the key issues underlying contemporary research in the field of evolutionary anthropology through sets of directed readings given in advance of each seminar. Seminars will be led by each member of the evolutionary anthropology teaching team, ensuring that you receive a broad overview of different chronological periods, geographical areas, and theoretical perspectives. The module will provide essential background on the main contemporary debates in human evolution, introducing themes that will persist throughout your degree. The module will have a broadly anthropological focus, but will integrate data and conclusions from other relevant subject areas such as evolutionary genetics, psychology, and the environmental sciences.

This module provides an introduction to the study of archaeological artefacts and the types of information which they can contribute to our understanding of the past. It will introduce you to a wide range of basic natural materials and the technologies by which they can be worked, shaped and transformed.

With its significant practical component, you will be able to gain valuable experience in object handling and develop your skills in identification, description, analysis and interpretation of both assemblages and artefacts; you will consider how far it is possible to reconstruct the technologies by which different materials were processed, to determine their origins, and to infer details about the
functions of the artefacts they were used to make.

Throughout the course, you will be encouraged to recognise the complex relationships between technology and society and to appreciate the importance of asking meaningful research questions about archaeological artefacts which acknowledge this social context.

ALGY250 is essential for anyone interested in ancient material culture and provides the foundation for further specialisation in archaeological materials research in your final year through ALGY397 and ALGY314.

In this module students are introduced to the use of human skeletal assemblages as archaeology and material culture. Students will handle human remains and gain an understanding of how basic identification, ageing and sexing is done. This module also looks at current techniques such as stable isotope and DNA analysis and ethical regulations.

This course builds on the field experience you have gained as your end of Year 1 training, as we explore the process that follows activity in the field. We will examine the stages of post-excavation, and the creation of published and grey literature – that generated for archiving by many field archaeology professionals. The two assignments consider first your experiences on the fieldwork and what you have learnt, presented as a reflexive essay and other smaller components. The second assignment is where you use the skills gained during the teaching this semester to produce a grey literature style report on selected sets of deposits from the fieldwork.

War was a regrettable yet ubiquitous fact of ancient civilisation. This module provides a diachronic and cross-cultural comparative study of warfare as practiced in Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe and the Near East, including Classical Greece and the East Mediterranean. The study addresses six cross-cultural themes: Technology and Sources, Tactics, Society, Infrastructure, Death and Commemoration, and Religion and Ethics. These themes are then applied to the examination of three case study cultures (Archaic and Classical Greece, Iron Age Europe and the Bronze Age Near East).

This module will introduce students to the development of early Chinese civilisations. We will investigate the transition from hunter-gatherers to the first sedentary village farming communities and the emergence of the earliest cities and states from these early village societies. We will thus also investigate some formative features of Chinese societies that persisted for millennia. The module will also place developments in China in a broader comparative context and allow discussion of the emergence of social and political hierarchies, complex economies and the appearance and nature of the state. The module will also introduce students to some of the conceptual tools and methodologies needed to investigate these issues in the archaeological record.

With a focus on the archaeology of the Eurasian steppe, this module explores the emergence and transformation of steppe societies from their origins in complex huntergatherer communities to the formation of the first nomadic empires. It represents a rare opportunity to encounter the extraordinary archaeological record of Siberia and Central Asia and to focus upon societies whose contribution to global culture has been routinely dismissed in both
Eurocentric and Sinocentric stories of ‘civilization’.

Taught as a combination of lectures and seminars, the course will introduce to key concepts and general trajectories, whilst encouraging you to focus on the literature and to discuss both broad theoretical ideas and specific archaeological evidence from settlements and tombs. Throughout the course, we will investigate critically the changing relationships between steppe societies and
their neighbours, and the transformative role played by pastoralist peoples in conflicts, communication and transcontinental exchange, long before the rise of the Silk Roads.

The module is specifically designed as a broad entry point for students whose primary interests lie in the prehistoric archaeology and ancient history of Europe, Western Asia or China and it will also provide valuable baseline for those going on to study later periods of Eurasian history.

This module provides students with an introduction to the principles and practical applications of archaeobotany, the study of ancient plant remains retrieved from archaeological sites. Students will have the opportunity to learn hands-on how plant remains (wood and seeds) are analysed (including botanical identification and data analysis methods), what sort of information can be gained for reconstructing past plant food use, economies, landscapes and people-environment interactions, and how archaeobotanical research is integrated to fieldwork projects and post-excavation analysis. The module is delivered through a series of lectures and laboratory-based practical sessions. Assessment is through one essay (topic to choose from a range of subjects made available to students in advance), a portfolio of laboratory work, and one laboratory-based assignment (practical test).

Recent and historic hunter-gatherers have played a fundamental role in the development of anthropological and archaeological theory, and remain an essential source of data for modelling early human societies. This module introduces hunter-gatherer societies from historical, ecological and evolutionary perspectives. Case studies will be drawn from societies in the tropics and high latitudes (arctic) to give a comparative overview of the diversity of hunter-gatherer adaptations as a basis for analysing the archaeological record.

The module examines Stone Age Archaeology of the last million years, concentrating on the period of Homo erectus, the emergence of Homo sapiens, and the appearance of anatomically modern humans some 200,000 to 300,000 years ago. In geographic scope, the module deals chiefly with developments in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. It covers the first appearance of art, the interaction between anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals and the archaeology of the Upper Palaeolithic up to the glacial maximum about 20,000 years ago. Its principal aims are to examine Old World Archaeology from the prime time of Homo erectus (>500,000 years) to the time when Homo sapiens sapiens is fully established in Europe (about 40,000 years ago).

This module considers display and public interpretation in museums and galleries on the one hand and publicly accessible sites and monuments on the other. This module examines current UK interpretation theories, policies and practices in an international comparative perspective. Heritage interpretation and display brings understanding of the past to peoples in the present, though what aspects of the past to reveal and emphasise can be highly political and controversial. The module concentrates on current practice, but it also reflects on the selectivity of heritage interpretation decisions, and the ways interpretation can exclude as well as include various sectors of society.

‘Empire’ is not a word that often follows ‘Athenian democracy’. We usually associate democratic origins with equality and fifth century BC Athens with exceptional cultural creativity. So how did ‘empire’ come to be associated with democracy? This module explores the relationship between the evolution of democratic structures and the extraordinary rise of drama, monuments, and art on the one hand; and the emergence of a territorial ‘empire’ across the Aegean Sea on the other. There are lessons, too, for our own understanding of how culture is connected to
politics and resources.

The module CLAH222 provides an opportunity for students to undertake a placement in a setting which matches their academic and possible career / industry interests to develop materials and / or undertake tasks within a practical or vocational context, to apply academic knowledge from their degree and to develop personal and employability skills within a working environment.
Following an application process for work placements, this 15 credit module runs in semester two with a minimum of 24 hours of placement, plus supporting workshops and independent study. There is an element of flexibility in how the placement is scheduled based on the needs of the organisation and taking into consideration individual timetables. This could be half a day for six weeks or two half days for three weeks, for example. Application for the module is via a competitive process, which usually takes the following form: students express interest in the module and preferred sectors of employment; details of the available placements are circulated towards the end of Year One; students submit applications and Curriculum Vitae (CVs) for the employers to consider; the employers invite students to interview and they select the successful candidate(s). The Careers and Employability Service supports students during the application and interview process. Once a student has been successful in the application process, a learning agreement will need to be drafted, Health and Safety pro-forma completed and, where applicable, Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and other checks made on behalf of the student.

The extended essay is an individual, specific research topic in which students take initiative in identifying and researching a specific research question with the aid of, and guidance of, a supervisor. The subject matter relates to any period or area of Chinese archaeology or heritage. Students will plan their research and essay, identify a bibliography and other sources, collect and analyse relevant evidence and write an essay based thereon. Part way through the module they will do a presentation about their topic to the class to get feedback from staff and their peers about the topic and to help them further by sharing the challenges they face.

This module provides an introduction to the Akkadian language and literature

Death and ritual treatment of the dead are a constant for our species. This module is for anyone interested in approaches to understanding how past societies dealt with death and the dead. It provides an introduction to methods and approaches to understanding past mortuary practices from a range of periods and areas. The course will examine different approaches to death and mortuary practice, and the role of the deceased in the lives of the living. Key themes to be discussed include: treatment of the dead, mortuary architecture, food and animals, skull cults, secondary burial, cremations and inhumations, and the use of grave goods.

​ The evolution of the human mind is examined from a multidisciplinary perspective that integrates the often overlooked archaeological record with that of the better known theories and data drawn from other disciplines. Evolutionary anthropology is necessarily a broad subject, and the evolution of human cognition is informed by insights from many disciplines. This module aims to synthesize studies from anthropology, archaeology, psychology, ecology, evolutionary biology, and neuroscience into a complete picture of the leading hypotheses concerning human encephalisation and associated cognitive abilities. The module is rooted in the anthropology of hominins and non-human primates, but will also make use of a broader comparative approach where relevant, drawing on studies of more distantly related taxa.

The Upper Palaeolithic is considered by many as the time of the highest development of the hunter-gatherer way of life as seen through the lens of archaeology. Nowhere is this more evident than in western and central Europe. With the arrival of modern humans, archaeologists witness the extinction of the indigenous hominin line of the Neanderthals, the common appearance of elements of symbolic expression in the form of ‘art’ and personal ornamentation, the appearance of specialist and possibly time-delayed subsistence economies, larger social groups, the burial of individuals with a ‘wealthy’ suite of burial goods, complex and high-investment technology and ‘frequent’ stylistic change in the forms of material culture.
The reason for these changes and developments, however, is still a matter of heated debate. Through the course of this module we shall explore the nature of these changes as they can be observed in the archaeological record, in the context of our current understandings of climate change, chronology, and hunter-gatherer ethnography. In particular we shall the evidence to support these interpretations and whether these developments are; i. intrinsic to the nature of modern human behaviour, ii. an incremental development through time, iii. a response to severe local climatic change, iv. an outcome of the demographic change, v. a combination of the above. This module will also help students to develop a set of essential research skills: the critical analysis of archaeological data, the development of a synthetic background section to a particular research topic, and the use of concept maps to help thinking.

This module covers current debates in British Archaeology for the later prehistoric period – Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age periods, to the advent of Rome. Is what we know about British society in the millennia before Rome correct; how can new work in Archaeology challenge traditional perceptions of the deep past? The course specifically aims at advancing your critical thinking skills in preparation for year three.

This module investigates the nature of the society of third millennium southern Mesopotamia, the first urban society.

This module looks at specific themes in Roman archaeology in their British context. The study of the monuments of Roman Britain is arguably the oldest facet of archaeological research in Britain. With a history than spans over 500 years, Britain as a Roman province possesses an unrivalled data base of archaeological research and its interpretation. In addition to this, recent work on the province has placed it in the vanguard of the on-going debate of the use of archaeological theory to practical applications.

A 10,000 – word dissertation on an original archaeological/Egyptological research topic which is able to demonstrate that the student can: identify a research question, design and conduct a work plan to explore this question, assemble and analyse academic literature (bibliography) and primary evidence (original sources, datasets), and present a coherent set of data and theoretical arguments in order to analyse and interpret the question in hand.

This module will introduce students to the broader context of professional practice in the fields of heritage and archaeology in our contemporary society. Specifically, this module seeks to enhance students’ skills in identifying points of contention or interest between different sections of the community in relation to a series of key themes. The module will also enable students to think clearly through the potential ramifications of following particular courses of action related to the management of heritage assets – including archaeological remains, standing buildings and monuments, and landscapes both human and natural.These themes include the ownership of heritage assets, access to heritage assets, the presentation of heritage assets, issues of sustainability and the development of assets and, lastly, claims to authority over such assets by archaeological and heritage professionals.Teaching methods and assessment will concentrate on helping students to identifying potential conflicts of interest in the study and management of heritage, exploring the political and ethical nature of these conflicts of interest and presenting a specific case for action or resolution. The module will require students to become familiar with the detail of a series of current case studies.

This module builds on the basic introduction to archaeological materials and artefacts offered in ALGY250 to develop a solid foundation in the main analytical techniques (apart from dating) that are used in archaeomaterials research. It is designed to offer students with in an interest in scientific research the chance to build a greater understanding of the ways in which these techniques work and how they can be applied to the archaeological record. It will equip students with the necessary skills and experience to select appropriate analytical methodologies for their work and to critically evaluate published research. It provides an excellent pairing with ALGY314 which offers a more practical introduction to laboratory skills.

This module examines Egypt and the Near East during the Late Bronze Age as part of the world’s earliest well-documented international system. Students are introduced to the key events and political actors of this period, as well as the critical analysis of relevant primary sources. Key issues in International Relations theory are introduced through their application to the Late Bronze Age.  

Greek culture was spread to the furthest limits of the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions by a series of so-called ‘colonies’, including such important modern cities as Marseilles and Istanbul. The motivations and methods behind this huge archaeological phenomenon remain unclear, but in the hands of the scholars writing in an age of neo-classical revivalism, the analogy to their own British Empire was clear and self-evident. This module combines History, Ancient History and Archaeology in its examination this crucial moment in world history and its subsequent use and abuse by imperialist scholars. No prior knowledge is required and the module includes a team presentation that aims to develop transferrable employment skills.

Students in this module will make a close examination of the emergence of human behaviour from primate origins.
This module explores the basic evidence recovered from early hominid living sites aged more than about 0.5 million years. It therefore centres initially on Africa, and deals with earliest stone artefacts, bones and such structures as are (debatably) preserved. We make a close examination of the issues of the emergence of human behaviour. Following a look at ‘pre-archaeological’ evidence – including sites and environments of the Miocene and Pliocene and issues such as the origins of bipedalism and hominid diet – we progress to the mainstream archaeological evidence, starting from
the major Rift Valley sites, and working towards important new evidence in Asia and Europe.

Eleven thousand years ago in the Near East, human societies were transformed by the appearance of the world’s first sedentary villages, agriculture and pastoralism. It has been suggested the effects were revolutionary for human health, demographics, social arrangements, religious beliefs and practices, mortuary practices, gender relations, identities, institutions and economic activity laying the foundations of the modern world. Initial lectures will introduce theories and methodologies of investigating the transition from foraging to farming and the appearance of sedentary communities. Later lectures will provide a chronologically framed survey of principal evidence, returning to major questions of the appearance of sedentism, farming and herding along with a thematic investigation of major areas of past human behaviour that may have changed at this time. The themes we will return to are the Neolithic household and family, ritual practice, engagements with the landscape, craft, specialisation and exchange, social structure, institutions and hierarchy. The archaeology is dramatic and exciting with the first monumental structures, a key role for ancestors, new treatments fo the dead, the first houses and transformed landscapes.

The study of the frontiers of the Roman empire represents one of the oldest branches of European archaeology. Their study has traditionally complimented explanations of Roman history and therefore the foreign policies of the various imperial dynasties. The discipline of Roman Frontiers Studies has, however, tended to be subservient to an interpretative framework derived from historical sources. Today the archaeology of the subject is now sufficiently self-confident to stand independent scrutiny. In turn more recent scholarship on the subject of the frontiers of the empire have focused on them as zones and regions rather than simply as linear barriers. This fresh outlook has, in turn, occasioned a greater awareness of the evidence of life, military and non-military, in frontier situations.

This is practice-based module introducing the laboratory analysis of archaeological materials. Through seminars and practicals you will be offered in-depth tuition in a range of common materials and have the opportunity to experience analytical and technological processes at first hand. You will learn to describe common materials under the microscope and to identify some of the basic indicators of human interaction with these materials (using appropriate analytical instruments). The module is an ideal choice for anyone looking towards a career in archaeological finds processing or research and provides an ideal pairing with ALGY397, offering the chance to put theoretical knowledge into practice.

The module covers the Iron Age in Europe from 800 BC-AD 70. We will focus on Celts in the texts, prehistoric houses/settlement and agriculture, ritual deposition, mortuary traditions (e.g. chariot burials, bog bodies), and social change. With a focus on Britain, we will also look at the continental material (Netherlands, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain), on the development of the field, and the themes of settlement, traditions of artefact deposition, land use, burial traditions, and understanding society.

Our aim in this module is firstly to develop a good knowledge of what is present and, secondly, an appreciation of the difficulties of interpreting objects and images that in many ways seem so similar to contemporary objects. The presence of ‘artworks’ has been recognized as a significant feature of the Upper Palaeolithic since the mid 19th century, whilst the existence of cave paintings and engravings dating to the Upper Palaeolithic was first acknowledged in the early 20th century. These artifacts and images have come to be seen as the evidence for human symbol activity: the communication of meanings between groups and individuals on the basis of mutually comprehensible and possibly abstract ‘images’ in situations of co-presence and possibly co-absence. An understanding of these objects and markings is therefore central to the study of human cognitive and social evolution. Despite the long history of research in this field, there remain real research challenges in recording what is present, understanding how it was made, determining the makers of the imagery, and above all interpreting what it might have meant to Palaeolithic human populations. Recent scientific work in dating,paint analysis and the identification of elements of animal behaviour and human form has transformed what we can learn form these images and markings. The module begins with the discovery of the art, looks at recent developments in dating and recording, and then explores a variety of issues in interpretation. An underlying theme is to look at each of these elements, through three overlapping narratives; the story of the practice of art recording; the story of artistic interpretation; and the story of the interpretation of meaning.

This module introduces students to various anthropological approaches to the study of economic systems, and how they can inform the archaeological and historical study of past economies. The module is designed to provide students with an introduction to: (1) key issues and concepts in the field of economic anthropology; and (2) the theory and applications of economic archaeology through case studies drawn from various periods of the human past, which demonstrate how integrated archaeological-anthropological approaches can inform the comparative analysis of past economies.

This module provides an introduction to the Sumerian language and literature.

This module examines the archaeology of the southern Levant in the Iron Age as the context within which the Hebrew Bible took shape.  Lectures, readings and seminars address current issues of debate within the field, as well as emerging methodologies and recent evidence.

Past, Present and Future will develop your understanding of some of the major societal questions that face us, to reflect on the role our specialisms play in wider contemporary society, and to enhance your ability to think and communicate your ideas about these questions. The expertise needed to participate in the debate about these
questions is an incredibly important attribute for the rest of your lives and an essential part of postgraduate academic research. This module is taught through a series of workshops (mixed format presentations by staff, class discussion and group work). We will start by thinking about the role of academic researchers (all of us who have been to university) as `public intellectuals’, and over the following weeks examine some of the major challenges and societal questions to which our subjects can contribute.