Postgraduate Course: Before Scotland: The Transformation of Northern Britain in the First Millennium CE (Online) (PGHC11631)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Before Scotland became Scotland, the north of Britain was home to many kingdoms, whose inhabitants spoke different languages and possessed different identities. Over the course of the first millennium CE, this variegated landscape was transformed by social and political changes, resulting in the eventual emergence of a 'kingdom of Scotland' by the tenth century. This course guides students through this fundamental period of Northern Britain's history, looking particularly at issues of identity, ethnicity and kingdom-building in the period c.400-950 CE. |
| Course description |
During the first 1000 years of the common era, the north of Britain was transformed. Powerful kingdoms rose and fell; new ethnic identities emerged; and by the tenth century, a 'kingdom of Scotland' had begun to take shape. This course explores the processes by which these developments came about, as well as the challenges which we as modern scholars face in studying them. Neither the textual nor the archaeological record for Northern Britain in these centuries is as full as it is for many other parts of the early medieval world, and this course will require us to think about the way that historians and archaeologists alike must respond to that fact. Students enrolled on this course will not only, therefore, extend their understanding of a fundamental period in the histories of Scotland and of Britain: they will also gain a greater understanding of the way that scholars must necessarily respond to a difficult and diffuse body of source material, drawing on multiple disciplines and multiple perspectives to generate new understandings of the history of Scotland before Scotland.
The study of History inevitably involves the study of difficult topics that we encourage students to approach in a respectful, scholarly, and sensitive manner. Nevertheless, we remain conscious that some students may wish to prepare themselves for the discussion of difficult topics. In particular, the course organiser has outlined that the following topics may be discussed in this course, whether in class or through required or recommended primary and secondary sources: violence, including sexual violence. While this list indicates sensitive topics students are likely to encounter, it is not exhaustive because course organisers cannot entirely predict the directions discussions may take in tutorials or seminars, or through the wider reading that students may conduct for the course.
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Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Online Activities 22,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
174 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Coursework:
Discussion forum participation (20%)
One 4000-word essay (80%) |
| Feedback |
Students are expected to discuss their coursework with the Course Organiser at least once prior to submission, and are encouraged to do so more often. Meetings can take place with the Course Organiser during their published office hours or by appointment. Students will also receive feedback on their coursework, and will have the opportunity to discuss that feedback further with the Course Organiser. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Show detailed knowledge of the history of northern Britain over the first millennium CE
- Analyse a diverse range of sources from antiquity and the Middle Ages
- Reflect upon the challenges faced by historians and archaeologists in bringing together those diverse but fragmentary sources in their analyses
- Evaluate and reflect critically upon existing scholarship relating to the topics covered by this course
- Plan and execute a substantial written analysis in an aspect of the history of Northern Britain in the period covered by the course
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Reading List
- Leslie Alcock, Kings and Warriors, Craftsmen and Priests in Northern Britain, AD 550¿850 (2003)
- Alice Blackwell (ed.), Scotland in Early Medieval Europe (2019)
- David Clarke, Alice Blackwell and Martin Goldberg, Early Medieval Scotland: Individuals, Communities and Ideas (2012)
- Ewan Campbell, Saints and Sea-Kings: The First Kingdom of the Scots (1999)
- James E. Fraser, From Caledonia to Pictland: Scotland to 795 (2009)
- James Graham-Campbell and Colleen E. Batey, Vikings in Scotland: An Archaeological Survey (1998)
- Fraser Hunter, Beyond the Edge of Empire: Caledonians, Picts and Romans (2007)
- Gilbert Márkus, Conceiving a Nation: Scotland to AD 900 (2017)
- Gilbert Márkus (trans.), Adomnán¿s Law of the Innocents: Cáin Adomnáin. A Seventh-Century Law for the Protection of Non-Combatants (1997)
- Gordon Noble and Nicholas Evans, Picts: Scourge of Rome, Rulers of the North (2022)
- Anna Ritchie, Viking Scotland (1993)
- Alex Woolf, From Pictland to Alba: 789¿1070 (2007) |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Richard Sowerby
Tel: (0131 6)50 3854
Email: Richard.Sowerby@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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