Undergraduate Course: Caves: A Natural and Cultural History (LLLE07031)
Course Outline
| School | Centre for Open Learning |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 7 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | This interdisciplinary course brings together insights from the earth sciences, ecology, archaeology, ethnography and cultural studies to look at the formation, evolution, ecological significance and human uses of caves.
The course discusses caves as,
-landforms, evolving over long periods of time and containing records of past landscapes and climates;
-habitats of cave-dwelling organisms with fascinating evolutionary histories;
-places, used by humans and, in earlier times, other hominis, and thus preserving unique records of the biological evolution, ecologies and cultures of our (and related) species.
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| Course description |
Not entered
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
¿ Understand processes of cave formation, clastic sediment and speleothem deposition, and geomorpohic change in caves.
¿ Appreciate the significance of caves and their sediments as proxies for past climates, landscapes and habitats, and outline the main approaches to their analysis and dating.
¿ Appreciate the ecological significance of caves as unique and fragile habitats;
¿ Understand the significance of caves as inhabited places and cultural resources, and describe aspects of the long interaction of humans and other hominins with cave environments.
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Reading List
De Waele, J., Plan, L., and Audra, P. (eds.) (2009) Recent Developments in Surface and Subsurface Karst Geomorphology. Geomorphology 106.
Gillieson, David (1996) Caves: Processes, Development and Management, Oxford, Blackwell.
Onac B.P. and Forti P. (2011) Minerogenetic mechanisms occurring in the cave environment: an overview. International Journal of Speleology 40: 79-98.
White, W.B. (2007) Cave sediments and palaeoclimate. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 69: 76¿93.
Bonsal, Clive, and Tolan-Smith, Christopher, eds. (1997) The Human Use of Caves, Oxford, Archaeopress.
Chapman, Philip (1993) Caves and Cave Life, London, Colins.
Goudie, Andrew. (ed.) (2010). Encyclopedia of Caves and Karst Science. Oxford, Blackwell.
British Cave Research Association portal, with many links and access to journals: http://bcra.org.uk
Portal of the UIS Commission on Karst Hydrology and Speleogenesis, with many links and access to an extensive list of journals: http://www.speleogenesis.info
International Journal of Speleology: http://www.ijs.speleo.it
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Ms Martine Pierquin
Tel: (0131 6)51 1182
Email: m.pierquin@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Sabine Murdoch
Tel: (0131 6)51 1855
Email: Sabine.Murdoch@ed.ac.uk |
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