This version of the course guide is provisional until the period for editing the new course guides ends.

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Prehistory II: from the First Rural Societies to State Societies

Code: 106845 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2504611 Archaeology FB 1

Contact

Name:
Maria Saña Segui
Email:
maria.sana@uab.cat

Teachers

Pedro Castro Martínez
Roger Alcantara Fors

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

There is not any prerequisite


Objectives and Contextualisation

The subject has as a main objective expose the social developments between the first Neolithic societies and
the emergence of the classical States. Go in these developments, highlight the origins of the patriarchal
relations, of the sedentary and urban life, of the first social classes, and the institutionalization of the political
power and of the shapes of violence.
The territorial field centres in Asia, Africa and Europe, although they will do punctual references to other
regions of the planet.
The contents include empirical descriptions and relative syntheses to the concrete social dynamics and, at the
same time, they expose the methodological and inferencials bases in which support the current state of the
knowledges in prehistoric archaeology. In this second aspect will result fundamental the practical activities
programmed.


Learning Outcomes

  1. CM01 (Competence) Understand problems in the study of prehistory and protohistory associated to the need to avoid androcentric perspectives and sex or gender inequalities.
  2. KM01 (Knowledge) Identify the most characteristic material remains of prehistoric and protohistoric societies.
  3. KM02 (Knowledge) Recognise the main historical processes experienced by human societies in prehistory and protohistory and the factors that influenced them.
  4. KM03 (Knowledge) Contextualise historical processes from the prehistoric and protohistoric archaeological record in an introductory manner.
  5. SM01 (Skill) Synthetically explain the periods of prehistory and protohistory, both empirically and interpretively.
  6. SM02 (Skill) Identify the main archaeological materials in the prehistoric and protohistoric time-frame.
  7. SM03 (Skill) Effectively express oneself by applying the typical procedures used to present arguments in formal discourse when producing written work or making oral presentations on introductory aspects of prehistory and protohistory.

Content

PART 1. INTRODUCTION ON THEORY AND METHODS.

THEME 1: Prehistoric Archaeology: object of study and structure of the research.

 

PART 2. DEVELOPMENT OF FIRST FARMER SOCIETIES

THEME 2: economic and social Implications of the agriculture and the cattle.

THEME 3: The economic and social consequences of the starts of the agriculture in the Near East.

THEME 4: The first farming communities in Europe: the Neolithic in the Aegean zone.

THEME 5: Introduction and development of the farming economies in the central and Western Europe.

THEME 6: Megalitism in Europe.

 

PART 3. BETWEEN THE IIIrd AND THE Ist MILLENNIA B. C.

THEME 7: The formation of the First States,

THEME 8: Increasing Social Dissymmetries in Western Europe.

 


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Theoretical classes 40 1.6
Type: Supervised      
Clasroom practices 20 0.8
Field practices 15 0.6
Type: Autonomous      
Autonomous work 42 1.68

Methodology

1. Expositive lectures about the contents billed in the programme. Frequently they will pose subjects of
discussion in the classroom.
2. Practical activities related to the course content.
3. A practical field activity:
3.1. Visit to one or several archaeological sites of the recent Prehistory of Catalonia and realization of a
practical exercise around a series of questions posed by the teaching staff.
Within this chapter of external activities to the Campus, it contemplates the possibility to realize visits to
exhibitions, museums, ... that treat aspects notable related with the contents of the course

 

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.

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.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Classroom practices 40 15 0.6 CM01, KM01, KM02, KM03, SM01, SM02, SM03
Field practices 10 15 0.6 KM01, SM02
Final examination 50 3 0.12 CM01, KM01, KM02, KM03, SM01, SM02

1. Practical activities of classroom (40% of the final note).
2. One practical field activiti (10% of the final note).
3. Written test (50% of the finalnote).

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.

The student will be classified as Non-evaluable when he has not delivered more than 30% of the evaluation activities.

Written tests: if in any of the written tests a grade equal to or less than 3 is obtained that part of the subject will have to be revaluated, regardless of whether the average of all the grades obtained that are taken into account for the final grade of the course is 5 or higher.

Attendance at practical classes and practical activities, as well as the delivery of the corresponding practices and papers, is required.

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.

Reevaluation: Test written or critical comment of an extensive work related with the course.

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.

Unique assessment

The student willbe able to ask for the single assessment in this subject.

The single assessment activities will be:

1. Two practical classroom activities (50% of the final grade).
2. A written test (50% of the final mark).


Bibliography

General readinga

 

BOGUCKI, Peter I. & Pam J. Crabtree (eds.) (2004), Ancient Europe 8000 BC - AD 1000: Enciclopedia of the Barbarian World. Charles Scribner's Sons, Nueva York.

CHILDE, Vere G. (1984), Los orígenes de la civilización. Fondo de Cultura Económica, México

CUNLIFFE, Barry (ed.) (1998), Prehistoria de Europa Oxford. Crítica, Barcelona.

FOWLER, Chris, Jan Harding & Daniela Hofmann (Eds.) (2015): The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

GRAEBER, David, & David Wengrow (2021), El amanecer de todo: Una nueva historia de la humanidad, Ariel, Barcelona.

KRISTIANSEN, Kristian (2001), Europa antes de la Historia. Península, Barcelona.

REDMAN, Charlles (1990), Los orígenes de la civilización. Desde los primeros agricultores hasta la Sociedad urbana en el Próximo Oriente. Crítica, Barcelona.

RENFREW, Colin 6 BAHN, Paul (1993), Arqueología. Teorías, Métodos y Práctica. Akal, Madrid.

RENFREW, Colin & BAHN, Paul (eds.) (2014), The Cambridge World Prehistory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

SERVICE, Elman (1984), Los Orígenes del Estado y de la Civilización, Alianza, Madrid.

 

(The list of titles will be able to expand in treating concrete aspects)


Software

Word Processor, Presentation Program, PDF Reader, Internet Browser.

Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(PAUL) Classroom practices 2 Spanish second semester morning-mixed
(PCAM) Field practices 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(PCAM) Field practices 2 Spanish second semester morning-mixed
(PCAM) Field practices 3 Catalan/Spanish second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan/Spanish second semester morning-mixed