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Archaeology of Hunting and Gathering Societies

Code: 106876 ECTS Credits: 6
2025/2026
Degree Type Year
Archaeology OP 3

Contact

Name:
Rafael Mora Torcal
Email:
rafael.mora@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

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


Prerequisites

The own that marks the norm of the degree.


Objectives and Contextualisation

The aim is to approximate the students to the interpretative complexity of hunter-gatherersocieties from an archaeological perspective and:
- To reflect on the theoretical and methodological capacity of Archeology.
- To raise awareness among students about the criteria that define the human groups,as well as of the different forms of life in which they are organized.
- To generate a critical view of current knowledge status


Learning Outcomes

  1. CM18 (Competence) Identify social, economic and environmental impact in the past and present of the different processes of change that occurred in prehistory based on a critical evaluation of the archaeological evidence from different periods and geographical areas.
  2. CM19 (Competence) Expose the participation of women in the prehistoric societies of Africa, Eurasia and America and the social construction of gender relations and the sexual division of labour.
  3. KM29 (Knowledge) Chronologically arrange the appearance of different architectural types, the main complexes of lithic industry, and the most relevant ceramic, archaeozoological and archaeobotanical assemblages of European prehistory.
  4. KM30 (Knowledge) Characterise the main historical processes of prehistoric societies in relation to paleoenvironmental and social effects, identifying the contributions of recent archaeological research to previous knowledge.
  5. SM30 (Skill) Critically analyse prehistoric societies to identify inference processes, the biases of the different theoretical models and the potential and limitations of existing records.
  6. SM31 (Skill) Synthesise the contribution of different factors to the processes of social change and environmental impact in the different periods of prehistory, especially European.
  7. SM32 (Skill) Produce hypotheses about periods of the prehistory of Africa, Eurasia and America from the recognition, critical interpretation and synthesis of records from archaeological projects.

Content

1. Key concepts in the study of hunter-gatherer societies. Reflecting on the meaning ofthe past and the role of Prehistoric Archeology.
2. The role of objects, mobility and taxonomies in the compression of hunter-gatherergroups.
3. The first hominids. Models of behavior. Milestones in the evolutionary context.
4. The concept of humanity.
5. The first instruments: The Lomekwianense and the Olduvai. The environment andway of life of the first hominids: Powerful hunter or carronyer marginal.
6. Meaning of the accumulation of bones and stones.
7. H. ergaster / H. erectus and the origin of Achelià in Africa.
8. Settlements of the Euro-Asian continent.
9. Environment and culture in the Middle European Paleolithic. The Neanderthal modeof life.
10. The appearance of Homo sapiens and the problem of the recent Neanderthals.
11. Environment and culture in the Upper European Paleolithic. The Homo Sapiens wayof life.

Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Research seminars 10 0.4 CM18, CM19, KM29, KM30, SM30, SM31, SM32, CM18
Theoretical classes led by the teacher 30 1.2 CM18, CM19, KM29, KM30, SM30, SM31, SM32, CM18
Type: Supervised      
Moodle on Document Tools. Modules 1, 2, 3 and 4 4 0.16 CM18, CM19, KM29, KM30, SM30, SM31, SM32, CM18
work in group and of the individual workswritings tutorials 13 0.52 CM18, CM19, KM29, KM30, SM30, SM31, SM32, CM18
Type: Autonomous      
Bibliographic research 10 0.4 CM18, CM19, KM29, KM30, SM30, SM31, SM32, CM18
individual studies 62.5 2.5 CM18, CM19, KM29, KM30, SM30, SM31, SM32, CM18
Writting texts and coments 17.5 0.7 CM18, CM19, KM29, KM30, SM30, SM31, SM32, CM18

Guided activities: 40 hours

Attendance to theoretical classes
Attendance at seminar and internship sessions

Autonomous activities: : 90 hours

Self-study:
Preparation of oral presentations
Search of bibliography and reading of texts
Making reviews work and comments.

Supervision of Works: : 15 hours
Monitoring of individual and group work

Evaluation: 5 hours
Written and oral tests
Review of the results

Assessment
Students have to actively participate in the discussions that arise in class and in theseminars (5%)
Students will have to submit a group work and present it for class discussion (40%)
To deliver abstracts, reviews, comments on the texts and documents related to the subjecttopics (55%)

15 minutes of a class of the academic calendar established by the center/title, will bereserved for students to complete the surveys of the teacher's performance and the evaluation of the subject.

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
Practical Case 1 25 1 0.04 CM18, CM19, KM29, KM30, SM30, SM31, SM32
Practical case 2 10 1 0.04 CM18, CM19, KM29, KM30, SM30, SM31, SM32
Practical Case 3 30 1 0.04 CM18, CM19, KM29, KM30, SM30, SM31, SM32

Description
Students have to actively participate in the discussions that arise in class and pass modules1, 2, 3 and 4 on Moddle's research tools (20%).
Students will have to develop three case studies. Case 1 individual (10%), case 2 (25%) andcase 3 (30%).
To deliver abstracts, reviews, comments on the texts and documents related to the subjecttopics (15%)

Evaluation calendar

At the beginning of the course students will be informed of the deadlines for completion /delivery of the assignments and the date of the written test

Requirements to pass the subject
• Presentation / completion of the evaluation exercises within the established deadlines.
• Achieve an average score of the evaluation exercises of five or more on a scale of 10
• A student will be considered not presented if he does not deliver or submit to one or moreof the assessment modules within the established deadlines.

Grading Review
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.
On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of theprocedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such areview will take place.

Re-evaluatio

The same assessment method as continuous assessment will be used.

Students who have performed / presented supervised and autonomous activities within theestablished deadlines and have a minimum mark of 3.5.

Conditions for the rating ‘Not evaluable’:
The student will be classified as Non-evaluable when he/she has delivered less than 30% ofthe evaluation assignments

Plagiarism
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation inthe gradeawarded toanassessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity,regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of severalirregularities in assessment activities ofthe same subject, the student will be given a zero asthe final grade for this subject.


Bibliography

Bailey, G. 1983: Hunter-Gatherer Economy in Prehistory: A European Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  

Bettinger, R. L. 1991. Hunter-Gatherer. Archaeological and Evolutionary Theory. Plenum Press, New York.  

Binford, L. R. 1967. Smudge Pits and Hide Smoking: The Use of Analogy in Archaeological Reasoning. American Antiquity, 32 (1): 1-12.  

Binford, L.R.: En busca del pasado. Ed. Crítica, Barcelona 1988 

Campbell, B.G.: Humankind emerging. Ed. Harper Collins Publishers. London 1992. 6a edició. 

Carbonell, E., Arsuaga, J. L. y Bermúdez de Castro, J. M. (1999). "Monográfico Atapuerca." Journal of Human Evolution 37(3/4). 

Cela, J. y Ayala, F. J. (2013). Evolución Humana. El camino de nuestra especie. Madrid, Alianza. 

Dennell, R. R., W. (1996). "The earliest colonization of Europe: the short chronology revisited." Antiquity 70(269): 535-542. 

Dennell, R. W. (2003). Dispersal and colonisation, long and short chronologies: how continuous is the Early Pleistocene record for hominids outside East Africa? Journal of Human Evolution, 45: 421-440.  

Fleagle, J., Shea, J., Grine, F. E., Baden, A. L. y Leakey, R., Eds. (2010). Out of Africa I. The First Hominin Colonization of Eurasia. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. 

Foley, R. 2001. In the Shadow of the Modern Synthesis? Alternative Perspectives on the Last Fifty Years of Paleoanthropology. Evolutionary Anthropology, 10: 5-14.  

Gamble, C. (2001). Las Sociedades Paleolíticas de Europa. Barcelona, Ariel. 

Gamble, C. (1993) Timewalkers. The prehistory of global colonisation. Stroud: Alan Sutton (Chapter 7). (BB 1 GAM)  

Gould, R. A. 1980. Living Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 

Gowlett, J. A. J. y Wrangham, R. W. (2013). "Earliest fire in Africa: towards the convergence of archaeological evidence and the cooking hypothesis." Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 48(1): 5-30. 

Isaac, G. Y Isaac, B., Eds. (1997). Koobi Fora: Research project. Plio-Pleistocene Archaeology. 

Isaac, G. y Isaac, B., Eds. (1997). Koobi Fora: Research project. Plio-Pleistocene Archaeology. 

Jones, S.; Martin R.; Pilbeam, D. (Eds.):Human Evolution. Cambridge Univ. Press. 1992. 

Kelly, R. L. 1995. The foraging spectrum: diversity in hunter-gatherer lifeways. Smithsonian Institution, Washington. 

Larsen, C. S. (2023). A Companion to Biological Anthropology Second Edition. 

Lee R.B.  & DeVore I., Eds. (1968) Man the hunter.  Chicago, Aldine. (chapters by: Lee, Woodburn, Suttles, Balikci). (HB LEE)  

Klein, R. G.: The Human Career. Chicago,University of Chicago Press. 1999. 

Leakey, M. D. & Clark, J. D. (1971). Olduvai Gorge. Excavations in beds II, 1960-1963 and I. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 

Lee R.B. & Daly, R. (eds.) (1999) the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers. Cambridge Univ.  

Leroi-Gourhan, A (1971). El gesto y la palabra. Publicaciones de la Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas. 

Lewin, R. &  Foley. R.: Principles of Human Evolution. Oxford Blackwell. 2004. 

Mcgrew, W. C. 1998. Culture in Nonhuman Primates? Annu. Rev. Anthropol., 27: 301-328. Anthro Pers and also available online 

Mithen, S.  (1996). The Prehistory of the Mind. London, Thames & Hudson. (BB 1 MIT)  (chapters 7-10)  

Morgan, T. J. H., Uomini, N. T., Rendell, L. E., Chouinard-Thuly, L., Street, S. E., Lewis, H. M., Cross, C. P., Evans, C., Kearney, R., de la Torre, I., Whiten, A. y Laland, K. N. (2015). "Experimental evidence for the co-evolution of hominin tool-making teaching and language." Nat Commun 6. 

Morwood, M. J. 1975. Analogy and the Acceptance of Theory in Archaeology. American Antiquity, 40 (1): 111-116. Inst Arch Pers and also available online 

Plummer, T. W., J. S. Oliver, E. M. Finestone, P. W. Ditchfield, L. C. Bishop, S. A. Blumenthal, C. Lemorini, I. Caricola, S. E. Bailey, A. I. R. Herries, J. A. Parkinson, E. Whitfield, F. Hertel, R. N. Kinyanjui, T. H. Vincent, Y. Li, J. Louys, S. R. Frost, D. R. Braun,J. S. Reeves, E. D. G. Early, B. Onyango, R. Lamela-Lopez, F. L. Forrest, H. He, T. P. Lane, M. Frouin, S. Nomade, E. P. Wilson, S. K. Bartilol, N. K. Rotich and R. Potts (2023). "Expanded geographic distribution and dietary strategies of the earliest Oldowan hominins and Paranthropus." Science 379(6632): 561-566. 

Roebroeks, W. (2006). "The human colonisation of Europe: where are we?" Journal of Quaternary Science 21(5): 425-435. 

Sackett, J. 2000. Human antiquity and the Old Stone Age: the nineteenth century background to palaeoanthropology. Evolutionary Anthropology, 9: 37-49. (Anth-Per and also available online) 

Schick, K. & Toth, N.: Making silent stones speak. Human evolution and the dawn of technology. Ed. Touchstone. 1994 

Schiffer, M. B. (1987). Formation processes of the archaeological record. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press. 

Slimak, L. (2024). El neandertal desnudo: Comprender a la criatura humana, Debate. 

Smith, A. R., Carmody, R. N., Dutton, R. J. y Wrangham, R. W. (2015). "The significance of cooking for early hominin scavenging." Journal of Human Evolution 84(0): 62-70. 

Stringer, C. & Andrews, P. (2005). The Complete World of Human Evolution. Thames & Hudson, London 

Stringer, CH.; Gamble, CL.: En busca de los Neandertales. Ed. Crítica. Barcelona 1996. 

Stringer, C. & Andrews, P. (2005). La evolución humana. Akal  

Torre, I. de la: La Arqueología de los Orígenes humanos en África. Madrid, Akal. 2008. 

Trigger, B. G. (1992). Historia del pensamiento arqueologico. Barcelona, Critica. 

Tattersall, I. 2000. Paleoanthropology: The Last Half-Century. Evolutionary Anthropology, 7: 2-16.  

Whiten, A., Boesch, C. (2001). "The Culture of Chimpanzees." Scientific American 61. 

Whiten, A. (2015). "Experimental studies illuminate the cultural transmission of percussive technologies in Homo and Pan." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 370(1682). 

Wrangham, R. W., McGrew, W. C., Waal, F. D. y Heltne, P. (1996). Chimpazee cultures, Harvard University Press. 


Software

Not necessary


Groups and Languages

Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Spanish second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Spanish second semester morning-mixed