This module traces the main trends in archaeological interpretation in a range of archaeological traditions (prehistory, classical archaeology and medieval archaeology). The module builds on the first-year module Great Discoveries, but it concentrates on current and recent developments, both analysing the source of ideas, models and paradigms, and discussing their application within archaeology. Agency, gender, the lifecourse, the body, individuals and structures, dwelling, change, and process are prominent among subjects discussed. Attention is also given to older developments within archaeology, going back to the nineteenth century, including models of evolution and social difference. In this way, the module deals with a set of issues central to any interpretive engagement with archaeological evidence. Case studies are drawn from a wide range of periods and places.

The History of Archaeological Thought is designed to introduce students to the development of archaeology as an interpretive discipline. In showing the broad outlines of how the subject has developed up to and including the present, it aims to demonstrate the central role of theory in interpreting the past. A further aim of the module is to help students to use their knowledge of the development of archaeological theory to inform their reading and writing about theory and interpretation, as well as in their other subject areas.

The development of ideas about the past and the emergence of a substantial body of archaeological theory is of crucial importance to modern attempts to interpret the past. The module provides an introduction to the major developments in archaeological theory, practice and interpretation from the period of the first antiquarians to modern uses of structuralism, critical theory and post-modernism.

This module is compulsory for all BA BSc students and optional for BA joint and integrated archaeology; other BA/BSc schemes

 (1) A broad understanding of the development of the subject, and the various traditions of interpretation which it encompasses;

(2) A more specific understanding of the major themes in the recent development of archaeological thought, and of major internal debates and external influences;

(3) An understanding of current issues in archaeological theory, and of the major terms used in such debates;

(4) An ability to place debates and theories in their proper historical context;

(5) An ability to tease out the theoretical assumptions in works that are not explicitly ‘theoretical’.

The principal teaching method will be lectures, with slides/overheads. Lectures will go over all the key themes of the course, and present case studies. Key issues will be discussed in more detail in seminars, where students will be asked to give oral presentations on literature they have read.

20 lectures; 2 seminars; two museum visits.

Attendance at lectures, seminars and the field trips is mandatory, in accordance with practice and regulations set out in the Student Handbook. Lectures are as per the timetable; the museum visit and both seminars will be arranged for separate dates.

Intellectual Skills:

• Evaluate the usefulness of theory when studying the past
• Evaluate different theoretical approaches to different types of evidence
• Synthesise different theoretical approaches

Discipline Specific (including practical) Skills:

• Understand the following theoretical approaches: antiquarianism; culture-history; processualism; post-processualism
• Understand the range of different post-processual approaches to the past

Transferable Skills:

• Write effectively about theoretical issues and problems
• Talk effectively about theoretical issues and problems
• Organise research into questions

One 1000-word précis (15%); one 1000-word object biography (15%); one essay (1500 words: 40%); and one 1-hour exam (1 answer: 30%)

Course outline

Semester 1 (Autumn)

Week 1

Lecture 1: Introduction: aims, scope and link to HS 2117 Great Discoveries (JW/DB)

Week 2

Lecture 2: Recap and development of Great Discoveries: from antiquarianism to archaeology

(DB)

Week 3

Lecture 3: In a state: prehistory from Childe to Piggott, 1925–65 (DB)

Week 4

Lecture 4: Processual archaeology 1: born in the USA? (JW)

Museum tripto Oxford (Object Biography), Saturday 27^th October (JW/DB)

Week 5

Lecture 5: Processual archaeology 2: cloned in the UK? (JW)

Week 6

Reading Week(read Johnson 2010 by the end of this week; start selecting book for précis)

Week 7

Lecture 6: Processual archaeology 3: Clarke and Renfrew and their British context (DB)

Week 8

Lecture 7: Post-processual archaeology 1: the critique of functionalism and the coming of

structuralism (JW)

Week 9

Lecture 8: Post-processual archaeology 2: Neo-Marxism, phenomenology and taskscapes

(DB)

Week 10

Lecture 9: Post-processual archaeology 3: Hodder, Shanks and Tilley, and their British

and wider contexts (DB)

Week 10

Seminar 1: Processual and post-processual archaeologists (DB and JW)

Week 11

Lecture 10: State of the art: current diversity (DB)Précis due in

Semester 2 (Spring)

Week 1

Lecture 11: Classical archaeology 1: Winckelmann to Beazley (JW)

Week 2

Lecture 12: Classical archaeology 2: topography, survey and the ‘corrupting sea’: the

Landscape tradition in Mediterranean studies (JW)

Week 2

Museum visitto National Museum, Cardiff,related to Object Biography (DB and JW)

Week 3

Lecture 13: Classical Archaeology 3: Agency and Classical Art (JW)

Week 4

Lecture 14: (JW) Classical archaeology 4: theories plural and diverse (JW)

Week 4

Seminar 2: Entangled objects: identities and things(DB and JW)Object Biographies due in

Week 5

Lecture 15: Classical archaeology 5: Identity, Imperialism and Romanization (JW)

Week 6

Reading Week

Week 7

Lecture 16: The development of theory and traditions of interpretation in Medieval

archaeology [John Hines]

Week 8

Lecture 17: German archaeology: the divided self (1860 to the present day) (JW or DB)

Week 9

Lecture 18: Theory and practice 1: the prehistoric experience (DB) Essays due in (for

return after the Easter recess)

Week 10

Lecture 19: Theory and practice 2: the Classical experience (JW)

Week 11

Lecture 20: Stock taking: summary, comparisons and future predictions  (JW and DB)

There is no textbook as such for this module, but Johnson 2010 is probably your best single starting point [we will normally expect you to have read this by the end of reading week in the 1^st semester]; Trigger 2006 serves also as back-up. Beyond that, you must get accustomed to picking out central themes from lectures (and seminars) and then following them in a range of sources.

There are various introductions to all this. We have not otherwise listed Renfrew and Bahn 1996 and Dark 1995 in the essential reading lists, as they will not take you very far, but they do have brief definitions, including of post-processual and other jargon. Ingold 1994, Barnard 2000, Barnard and Spencer 1996, Edgar and Sedgwick 2002, Giddens 1997, Harvey 1989, Leach 1982 and Rapport and Overing 2000 are also useful guides to unfamiliar concepts and terminologies shared by and/or borrowed from social anthropology, sociology and cultural theory. Appignanesi and Garratt 1995 cover the post-modernist field in brief but strip-cartoon style; look out in the library for others in this style on particular gurus.

A detailed bibliography is provied in the module documentation