AAP239   Europe's First Farmers   (20 credits)

Description

This module explores the social, cultural and economic worlds of Europe's first farmers, during the first 500-1000 years from the beginnings of the Neolithic, ranging from the 7th millennium BC in the southeast to the 4th millennium BC in the northwest of the continent. A series of paired lectures and seminars examines topics including settlement, land use, subsistence, craft production and exchange, material culture and identity, and warfare, and the long-standing debate between colonisation and acculturation as mechanisms of Neolithisation. Geographically, the module ranges widely across Mediterranean and temperate Europe, focussing on case studies selected for their richness of data or their potential to illustrate regional contrasts. Throughout emphasis is placed on integration of 'conventional' and 'scientific' archaeological data, interpreted in the light of analogy with recent small-scale farming societies.

Reading List