Overview

The later Bronze Age and earlier Iron Age (c. 1500 BC – 400 BC) were formative periods in the development of complex societies in Britain. Distinctive elements of the archaeology include the creation of: permanent settlements (based on distinctive roundhouses and settlement enclosures); landscape enclosures (e.g. field systems and linear boundaries); communal foci (e.g. hillforts and middens); new technological practices (e.g. ironworking); conspicuous consumption (e.g. hoards); ceremonial depositional practices (e.g. special pit deposits); elaborate burial practices (e.g. chariot burials); and complex exchange networks based around the movement of elaborate artefacts and natural resources (e.g. gift exchange and trading commodities). All of these elements reflect alternative mechanisms for defining communities and establishing new kinds of relationships in this period.

The course will examine the shifting dynamics underlying society over a period of a millennium in British later prehistory, via an exploration of settlement architectures, land organisation and material culture practices. The course aims to provide students with a critical understanding of the archaeological evidence for different periods and regions and the main theoretical interpretations which have been proposed by different academics. The course will focus on a crucial concept – that archaeology is not simply a record of past activities, it is a material manifestation of the need to create and structure relationships between people in the past.

1. Introduction: the main themes and chronologies;x000D
2. Home is where the hearth is: later Bronze Age settlements;x000D
3. Dividing the land: later Bronze Age land tenure;x000D
4. Metals make the world go round: later Bronze Age practices;x000D
5. The Earliest Iron Age transition (800-600BC): shifting practices and technologies;x000D
6. Creating communities: making middens (c. 900 - 450 BC);x000D
7. Creating communities: making hillforts (c. 900 - 450 BC);x000D
8. Corporate groups: earlier Iron Age farmsteads and enclosures;x000D
9. The substantial roundhouses of Scotland;x000D
10. The rise of the individual: Iron Age burial practices;x000D
11. The first towns? The developed hillforts of Wessex (c. 450 - 100 BC).x000D

Assessment Strategy

-threshold -Threshold students (D- and D) will have done only a minimum of reading, and their work will often be based partly on lecture notes and/or basic textbooks. They will demonstrate in their written assessments some knowledge of at least parts of the relevant field, and will make at least partially-successful attempts to frame an argument which engages with archaeological theories/interpretation, but they will fail to discuss some large and vital aspects of a topic; and/or deploy only some relevant material but partly fail to combine it into a coherent whole; and/or deploy some evidence to support individual points but often fail to do so and/or show difficulty weighing evidence (thereby relying on unsuitable or irrelevant evidence when making a point). Alternatively or additionally, the presentation of the work might also be poor, with bad grammar and/or punctuation, careless typos and spelling errors, and a lack of effective and correct referencing.

-good -Good students (B- to B+) will demonstrate a solid level of achievement and depth of knowledge in all the criteria in the C- to C+ range, and will in addition exhibit constructive engagement with different types of archaeological writing and interpretation. Ideas will be communicated effectively and written work will include a good range of sources/reading and demonstrate a clear understanding of the issues and of the existing interpretations expressed in a well-structured, relevant, and focused argument. Students at the top end of this band will engage with and critique the ideas that they come across, and synthesise the various interpretations they find to reach their own considered conclusions. Written work will be correctly presented with references and bibliography where appropriate.

-excellent -Excellent students (A- and above) will show strong achievement across all the criteria combined with particularly impressive depths of knowledge and/or subtlety of analysis. In written work, they will support their arguments with a wealth of relevant detail/examples. They will also demonstrate an acute awareness of the primary data and give an account of why the conclusions reached are important within a particular archaeological debate. They may show a particularly subtle approach to possible objections, nuancing their argument in the light of counter-examples, or producing an interesting synthesis of various contrasting positions. Overall, the standards of content, argument, and analysis expected will be consistently superior to top upper-second work. Standards of presentation will also be high.

-another level-Students in this band (C- to C+) will demonstrate a satisfactory range of achievement or depth of knowledge of most parts of the module, and will make successful, if occasionally inconsistent, attempts to develop those skills appropriate to the study of History at undergraduate level. In the case of the written assessments, the answers will attempt to focus on the question, although might drift into narrative, and will show some evidence of solid reading and research. The argument might lose direction and might not be adequately clear at the bottom of this category. Written work will be presented reasonably well with only limited errors in grammar, punctuation, and referencing, and not to the extent that they obscure meaning.

Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of the nature of the archaeological evidence of later prehistoric Britain (e.g. site types; material culture).

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the regional characteristics of the archaeological evidence.

• Demonstrate knowledge of the chronological schemes which have been established for the later Bronze Age and earlier Iron Age of Britain.

• Evaluate competing interpretations of social change and social models that have been offered by archaeologists.

• Show a familiarity with the primary archaeological evidence and analyse a data-set (e.g. derived from excavation reports).

• Show an awareness of the changes in society and social organisation which took place during the later Bronze Age and earlier Iron Age of Britain.