ARCH51830: CURRENT THEMES IN HUMAN BIOARCHAEOLOGY

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• To provide students with the skills to critically approach current themes and debates within human bioarchaeology. There is a particular emphasis on the contribution of human bioarchaeology to contemporary issues (e.g. UN sustainability goals).

• The module will cover specific themes and debates that are emerging as important topics in bioarchaeology. These themes include: climate change, structural inequalities, care and treatment, migration and trade, decolonisation, repatriation and foodways. This course situates human bioarchaeological evidence within contemporary societal concerns and shows how skeletal analysis can contribute important perspectives. The integration of multiple sources of evidence for contextualising the skeletal data is emphasised.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• By the end of the module, you will be able to:
• Demonstrate a detailed understanding of inter-relationship between the body and society.
• Integrate biological and cultural evidence to explore a variety of themes in palaeopathology and human bioarchaeology.
• Demonstrate a critical approach to the evaluation of multiple forms of evidence for the reconstruction of specific themes.

Subject-specific Skills:

• To critically collect and assess data and information from a wide range of sources such as the skeletal record, documentary evidence, artwork, archaeological materials and structures as well as ethnographic data.
• Experience of the potentials and limitations of skeletal data for examining the themese in question.
• Gain experience of effective communication through group work and oral presentations relating to bioarchaeology.
• Gain an understanding of how to produce and present an affective poster on current themes in human bioarchaeology.

Key Skills:

• Over the course of the module, you will gain direct experience in:
• Accessing library and WWW resources
• Oral and poster presentations
• Data analysis and presentation

• The lectures will provide themed information regarding key debates in human bioarchaeology. All of the lectures, seminars and assignments encourage the students to draw upon a multidisciplinary range of evidence.
• Lectures will be followed up by related seminars in which the students are required to undertake advance preparation, guided by a series of 'exercises', in order to actively participate. The seminars will allow students to develop their critical analysis and oral presentation skills and will include a formative peer oral presentation event in which students are asked to reflect on what constitutes an effective presentation.
• A workshop is provided to critically reflect on poster presentations for conferences in advance of the student assessment. The poster assessment will take the form of a mock conference environment, in which the students will present their work to other students and staff.
• The integration of different types of human bioarchaeological evidence, and broader contextual data-sets, with current theory and debates pertinent to the present is a theme that runs throughout all modes of learning and assessment.

The preparation in the core module Research and Study Skills in Archaeological Science, which precedes this module, is considered to be sufficient formative preparation for the summative assignments in this module.

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