Late Glacial and Holocene Environmental Change (U02839)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : HCA-3-U02839

The Late Glacial and Holocene, approximately the last 15,000 years, is a unique period because of the role of humans. Beginning with fire and later with domestication and the plough, landscapes were transformed, from the natural to ones in which there are few refuges for natural systems. Everything from the fat of Antarctic penguins and Arctic polar bears to tropical rain forest bears the impact of human activity; the modern landscape is as much an artefact as any piece of pottery or worked stone. By using a series of casebook studies, this course will examine the processes by which some of these changes have come about, and explore the palaeoecological evidence for the interaction between natural and anthropogenic environmental change. Issues will be explored by reference to sites in the British Isles, the Atlantic islands and in the Mediterranean; parallels will be drawn from further afield where relevant, and the varying methods of landscape reconstruction through the fossil record considered.

? Keywords : Holocene; Late Glacial; Environmental Change; Palaeoecology;

Entry Requirements

? Pre-requisites : Archaeology 2A and 2B Visiting students must have prior study providing general background in prehistoric or proto-historic archaeology.

? Costs : None

Variants

? This course has variants for part year visiting students, as follows

Late Glacial and Holocene Environmental Change (VS1) (Not being delivered)

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Archaeology, (School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Schedule E)

Other subject areas

Environmental Courses, (School of GeoSciences, Schedule N)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 3rd year

? Delivery Period : Not being delivered

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 11 weeks

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Monday	14:00	15:50	Central

? Additional Class Information : Timetable is arranged annually.

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

This course is intended to provide an integrated palaeoecological approach to the origin and evolution of temperate systems during the Late Glacial and Holocene, with particular reference to the interplay between human and natural environments.

The course will provide knowledge of :
- Some of the sources of palaeoenvironmental data, and the various palaeoecological techniques, which may be applied to the investigation of environmental change and human activity in the landscape.
- The ways in which the palaeoenvironmental record is created and changed by the processes of fossilisation (taphonomy).
- The interaction of human communities with different facets of the environment and the role of humans as agents of landscape change and development.
- The broad pattern of environmental change (both natural and anthropogenic in origin) over the last 15,000 years.