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2021/2022

Prehistory in the Mediterranean

Code: 100739 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500241 Archaeology OB 2 2
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Roberto Risch
Email:
Robert.Risch@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
spanish (spa)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
No
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Teachers

Roberto Risch
Ignacio Soriano Llopis

Prerequisites

The course "Prehistoric Archaeology" (100740) devoted to Neolithic societies and the origin of the State, or its equivalent in other universities, should have been passed.

Objectives and Contextualisation

Understanding of the main social, economic and political changes of Later Prehistory in the Near East and the Mediterranean. Key aspects to be considered are the economic and social impact of metallurgy, the "secondary products revolution" (mainly the introduction of wheel, plough and horse riding), the "Jamnaja migration", the beginning of organised warefare, and the importance of "cooperative affluent societies" in history.  

This course is conceived as the continuation and extension of the first year course "Prehistoric Archaeology" (100740)

Competences

  • Contextualizing and analysing historical processes.
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethic relevant issues.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Applying both knowledge and analytical skills to the resolution of problems related to their area of study.
  2. Autonomously searching, selecting and processing information both from structured sources (databases, bibliographies, specialized magazines) and from across the network.
  3. Identifying main and supporting ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
  4. Identifying the characteristic methods of Archaeology and its relationship with the historical analysis.
  5. Identifying the context of the historical processes.
  6. Identifying the specific methods of History and its relationship with the analysis of particular facts.
  7. Mastering the Universal Ancient History.
  8. Mastering the diachronic structure of the past.
  9. Mastering the processes of change produced in Prehistory.
  10. Recognising the importance of controlling the quality of the work's results and its presentation.
  11. Using specialized knowledge acquired in an interdisciplinary context when debating.

Content

 

TOPIC 1: Understanding pre-capitalist societies: evolutionist typologies and new alternative approaches.

TOPIC 2: Varna and the first metallurgical societies in Eastern Europe (5th millennium BCE).

TOPIC 3: The development of metallurgy: technology, origin(s) and transfer.

TOPIC 4: Economic intensification and social re-structuring during the 4th millennium BCE: the wheel, the plough and the derived products.

TOPIC 5: The emergence of individualised power and violence in the Caucasus and the Circumpontic region during the 4th millennium: Maikop and the northern peripheries of Uruk.

TOPIC 6: New forms of power and social relations at the time of the “Ice Man”: the circumalpine region ca. 3300-2500 BCE.

TOPIC 7: The Copper Age of the Iberian Peninsula (ca. 3100-2200 BCE).

TOPIC 8: The Corded Ware Group and the “Bell-Beaker Phenomenon” I (ca. 2750-2200 ANE): Materials, settlements, burials rites and ancient DNA.

TOPIC 9: The “Bell-Beaker Phenomenon” II (ca. 2750-2200 ANE): Social elites, sex/gender system and interpretation.

TOPIC 10: The Northeast of the Iberian Peninsula during the 4th and 3rd millennium: Evolution, involution and social organization.

TOPIC 11: Metrology, monetization and trading systems during the Bronze Age (III-II millennium).

TOPIC 12: The society of the Cyclades during the 3rd millennium BCE: Production of wealth through exchange.

TOPIC 13: Rise and decline of the first Aegean State: the Minoan society.

TOPIC 14: Africa and the Mediterranean during Later Prehistory: Independent or sheared trajectories?

Methodology

a. Lactures on teoretical issues, assited by TIC and debates.

b. Seminars devoted to the discussion on epistemology in archaeology, historical notions and interpretative models.

c. Study and discussion of archaeological information and publications.

d. Acomplishment of specific exercises.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Debates, elaboration of a chronological table, etc. 30 1.2 1, 2, 11, 9, 8, 5, 4, 3, 10
Type: Supervised      
Supervised execises 20 0.8 1, 2, 5, 4, 10
Type: Autonomous      
Completion of a joint research project on a topic of the syllabus 65 2.6 2, 11, 9, 8, 3

Assessment

ASSESMENT:
 
The subject will be assessed based on the following exercises:


a.   Active participation in the theoretical classes and seminars (5%)
b.   Completion of a chronological diagram (max. DIN-A3) in which a summary of the substantial contents of the subject is reflected (5%)
c.    Completion of an individual essay on a specific topic emerging in class (15% of the exam)
d.   Completion of a joint research project on a topic of the syllabus (40%)
e.   Final written or spoken test (50%). It is indispensable to pass the exam in order to pass the subject
 
The reassessment implies the submission or revision of all scheduled assignments (points c. and d.), as well as the completion of an additional test. In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

At the time of completion/delivery of each assessment activity, the teacher will inform (Moodle, SIA) of the procedure and date of revision of the grades.

Note: In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.

 

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Diagrama cronològic 5 10 0.4 1, 11, 9, 5, 4, 6, 3, 10
Exams 50 10 0.4 1, 2, 11, 9, 8, 7, 5, 4, 6, 3, 10
Practical excercises 40 5 0.2 2, 9, 8
Presentations and active participation in class 5 10 0.4 1, 2, 11, 9, 7, 3

Bibliography

BASIC REFERENCES

 

TOPIC 1

CASTRO, P.V., GILI, S., LULL, V., MICÓ, R., RIHUETE, C., RISCH, R. & SANAHUJA YLL, Mª.E. (1998), “Teoría de la producción de la vida social. Mecanismos de explotación en el Sudeste Ibérico”, Boletín de Antropología Americana 33, pp. 25-77.

KARATANI, K. (2014), The structure of World History – From modes of production to modes of exchange. Duke Univ. Press, Durham.

RISCH, R. (2016), “How did wealth turn into surplus profit? From affluence to »scarcity« in prehistoric economies” en H. MELLER, H. P. HAHN, R. JUNG & R. RISCH (eds), Rich and Poor - Competing for resources in prehistoric societies. Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle 14, Halle, 34-48.

 

TOPIC 2

CHAPMAN, J., HIGHAM, T., SLAVCHEV, V., GAYDARSKA, B. & HONCH, N. (2006), “The Social Context of the Emergence, Development and Abandonment of the Varna Cemetery, Bulgaria”, European Journal of Archaeology, 9, pp. 159-183.

KRAUß, R., ZÄUNER, S. & PERNICKA, E. (2014), “Statistical and anthropological analysis of the Varna necropolis”, en H. MELLER, R. RISCH & E. PERNICKA (ed.), Metalle der Macht – Frühes Gold und Silber. Metals of Power – Early Gold and Silver. Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte 11, Halle, pp. 371-187.

MANOLAKAKIS L. (2007), “Varna et le Chalcolithique de Bulgarie”, en J. GUILAINE (ed.), Le Chalcolithique et la construction des inégalités. t. 1, Le continent européen. Séminaires du Collègede France, Paris, Edition Errance, pp. 25-46.

 

TOPIC 3

MOHEN, J. P. (1992), Metalurgia prehistórica. Introducción a la paleometalurgia. Masson, Barcelona.

RADIVOJEVIĆ, M., REHREN, Th., PERNICKA, E., ŠLJIVAR, D., BRAUNS, M. & BORIĆ, D. (2010), “On the origins of extractive metallurgy: new evidence from Europe”, Journal of Archaeological Science, 37, pp. 2775-2787

ROBERTS, B. W., THORNTON, Ch. P. & PIGOTT, V. C. (2009), “Developments of metallurgy in Eurasia”, Antiquity, 83.322, pp. 1012-1022

 

TOPIC 4

GREENFIELD, H. (2010), “The Secondary Products Revolution: the past, the present and the future”, World Archaeology, 42 (1), pp. 29-54.

SHERRATT, A. (1981), “Plough and pastoralism: aspects of the secondary products revolution”, en HODDER, I., ISAAC, G. & HAMMOND, N. (ed.), Patterns of the Past. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 261-306.

SHERRATT, A. (1983), “The Secondary Exploitation of Animals in the Old World”, World Archaeology, 15 (1), pp. 90-104.

 

TOPIC 5

HANSEN, S. (2013), “The Birth of the hero – The emergence of a social type in the 4th millennium BC” en: E. STARNINI (ed.), Unconformist Archaeology. Papers in honour of Paolo Biagi, Oxford, pp. 101-112. 

Arslantepe: http://w3.uniroma1.it/arslantepe/index.php/en/home 2 

 

TOPIC 6

BARFIELD, L. (1986), “Neolithic burial in Northern Italy- problems of social interpretation”, Dialoghi di Archeologia, 2, pp. 241-248. 

SPINDLER, K. (1995), El hombre de los hielos: el hallazgo que revela los secretos de la edad de piedra. Círculo de Lectores, Barcelona. 

DOLFINI, A. (2013), “The Emergence of Metallurgy in the Central Mediterranean Region: A New Model”, European Journal of Archaeology 16 (1) 2013, pp. 21–62. 

 

TOPIC 7

CHAPMAN, R. (2017), Arqueologías de la complejidad. Bellaterra Arqueología. Barcelona (cap. 5).

DÍAZ DEL RÍO, P. (2004), Copper Age ditched enclosures in Central Iberia, in Oxford Journal of Archaeology 23, pp. 107–121.

GARCÍA SANJUÁN, L., VARGAS JIMÉNEZ, J.M., HURTADO PÉREZ, V., CRUZ-AUÑÓN BRIONES, R., RUIZ MORENO, T. (eds.) (2013), El asentamiento prehistórico de Valencina de la Concepción (Sevilla)investigación y tutela en el 150 aniversario del Descubrimiento de La Pastora. Sevilla : Secretariado de Publicaciones, Universidad de Sevilla.

RISCH, R. 2017, “Archaeological limits or missed opportunities? The monumental settlement structures of Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic Iberia” in Cupitó, M., Vidale, M. & Angelini A. (eds.) Beyond Limits. Studi in onore di GiovanniLeonardi. Padova: UP Padova, 205-216.

VALERA, A. C. 2013a “Recintos de fossos da Pré-História Recente em Portugal. Investigação, discursos, salvaguarda e divulgação”, Almadan, Segunda Série, 18, Almada, Centro Arqueológico de Almada, 93-110.

 

TOPIC 8

HAAK, W. BRANDTA, B., DE JONGB, H., MEYERA, CH., GANSLMEIER, R., HEYD, V., HAWKESWORTHD, CH., PIKEB, A., MELLER, H. y ALT, K. (2008), “Ancient DNA, Strontium isotopes, and osteological analyses shed light on social and kinship organization of the Later Stone Age”, PNAS 25,105, 47.

HAAK, W. et al. (2015), “Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe”, Nature 522, pp. 207–211. 

DELIBES, G. & GUERRA, E. (ed) (2019), ¡Un brindis por el príncipe! El vaso campaniforme en el interior de la Península Ibérica (2500-2000 A.C.), vol. 2. Museo Arqueológico Regional, Comunidad de Madrid, Madrid. 

OLALDE, I. et al. (2018), “The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe”, Nature, 555, pp. 190-196. 

 

TOPIC 9

TUREK, J. (2016), “Sex, Transsexuality and Archaeological Perception of Gender Identities”, Archaeologies: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress, 12 (3), pp. 340-358. 

VANDER LINDEN, M. (2006), Le phénomène campaniforme dans l’Europe du 3ºème millénaire avant notre ère. Synthèse et nouvelles perspectives. BAR International Series 1470, Oxford.

 

TOPIC 10

MARTÍN, A. (2003), “Els grups del neolític final, calcolític i bronze antic. Els inicis de la metal·lúrgia”, Cota Zero, 18, pp. 76-105. 

SORIANO, I. (2016), “Les pràctiques funeràries durant el calcolític i el bronze antic i mitjà”, en La fi és el principi. Pràctiques funeràries a la Catalunya prehistòrica, Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya, Arqueoxarxa, pp. 79-101. 

 

TOPIC 11

IALONGO, N. (2019), “The Earliest Balance Weights in the West: Towards an Independent Metrology for Bronze Age Europe”, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 29 (1), pp. 103-124.

RAHMSTORF, L. (2016), “From “value ascription” to coinage: A sketch of monetary developments in Western Eurasia from the Stone to the Iron Age”, en C. HASELGROVE & S. KRMNICEK (ed), The Archaeology of Money. Proceedings of the Workshop Archaeology of Money, University of Tübingen, October 2013. Leicester Archaeology Monograph 24, University of Leicester, Bristol, pp. 19-42.

 

TOPIC 12

STAMPOLIDIS, N. & SOTIRAKOPOULOU, P. (2007), Aegean Waves. Museum of Cycladic Art, Milano. 

 

TOPIC 13

CHERRY, J. F. (1984), "The Emergence of the State in the Prehistoric Aegean", Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society, 30, pp. 18-48.

SCHOEP, I. (2010) “The Minoan ‘Palace-Temple’ Reconsidered: A Critical Assessment of the Spatial Concentration of Political, Religious and Economic Power in Bronze Age Crete”, JMA 23.2, 219-244.

RISCH, R. & MELLER, H. (2015), “Change and Continuity in Europe and the Mediterranean around 1600 BC”, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 81, 239-264.

 

TOPIC 13

 

DIAMOND, J. (2007), Armas, gérmenes y acero: breve historia de la humanidad en los últimos trece mil años, DeBolsillo, Barcelona (cap. 5-10). 

RISCH, R. (2007), “La Prehistoria Reciente entre el Sahara y el Sudán”, Revista de Arqueología, 315, pp. 14-23. 

 

 

 ON LINE RESOURCES

- Campus Virtual

- Prehistoria Activa

http://seneca.uab.es/prehistoria/PREHISTORIA ACTIVA 3

Software

SYLLABUS

TOPIC 1: Understanding pre-capitalist societies: evolutionist typologies and new alternative approaches.

TOPIC 2: Varna and the first metallurgical societies in Eastern Europe (5th millennium BCE).

TOPIC 3: The development of metallurgy: technology, origin(s) and transfer.

TOPIC 4: Economic intensification and social re-structuring during the 4th millennium BCE: the wheel, the plough and the derived products.

TOPIC 5: The emergence of individualised power and violence in the Caucasus and the Circumpontic region during the 4th millennium: Maikop and the northern peripheries of Uruk.

TOPIC 6: New forms of power and social relations at the time of the “Ice Man”: the circumalpine region ca. 3300-2500 BCE.

TOPIC 7: The Copper Age of the Iberian Peninsula (ca. 3100-2200 BCE).

TOPIC 8: The Corded Ware Group and the “Bell-Beaker Phenomenon” I (ca. 2750-2200 ANE): Materials, settlements, burials rites and ancient DNA.

TOPIC 9: The “Bell-Beaker Phenomenon” II (ca. 2750-2200 ANE): Social elites, sex/gender system and interpretation.

TOPIC 10: The Northeast of the Iberian Peninsula during the 4th and 3rd millennium: Evolution, involution and social organization.

TOPIC 11: Metrology, monetization and trading systems during the Bronze Age (III-II millennium).

TOPIC 12: The society of the Cyclades during the 3rd millennium BCE: Production of wealth through exchange.

TOPIC 13: Rise and decline of the first Aegean State: the Minoan society.

TOPIC 14: Africa and the Mediterranean during Later Prehistory: Independent or sheared trajectories?