FF:AEA_01 Introduction to Archaeology - Course Information

AEA_01 Introduction to the Study of Archaeology

Extent and Intensity

1/1/0. 2 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).

Teacher(s)

Mgr. Martin Hložek, Ph.D. (lecturer)
prof. PhDr. Vladimír Podborský, DrSc. (lecturer)

Guaranteed by

prof. PhDr. Zdeněk Měřínský, CSc.
Department of Archaeology and Museology – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Jitka Šibíčková
Supplier department: Department of Archaeology and Museology – Faculty of Arts

Timetable

Mon 10:50–12:25 C43

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with

there are 9 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display

Course objectives

Course description: The basic terminology, archaeological sources, the prehistoric system of periods, the history of archaeology, basics of methodology, bibliography and the transfer of information in archaeology and working with specialized literature.

Syllabus

• 1. Subject and object of the study. Archaeology, prehistory, protohistory, Early and High Middle Ages. Position of archaeology in the system of branches. Specialization in archaeology (Pleistocene, primeval, early historic, medieval, post-medieval, industrial, classical, Mediterranean, biblical; nautical, mountain, montane, aerial, gene, experimental, spatial, acoustic, utopian; A. of death; A. of lost (undiscovered) etc. Auxiliary and boundary branches (speleoarchaeology, petroarchaeology, archaeobotanics, paleozoology, paleoanthropology, paleometallurgy, ethnoarchaeology etc.). Interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach. – Value of primeval age study. 2. Archaeological sources, their characteristic, content and classification. Field relics (settlement, sepulchral, deposits, the other) and prehistoric movables (stone artefacts, pottery, metals, organic materials, glass, amber, shell material etc.). Raw material in the primeval age. Informative value of AS and their differences from written sources. The “archaeological culture” phenomenon and its spatial and temporal model. 3. The principle of periodization of history. Periodization criteria. The development of technological (archaeological) periodization of the primeval age. Types of periodizations and their specific forms. Basic historical concepts. Idealistic and materialistic approaches to history. Biblical, antique, ethnographic and contemporary philosophical model of the origins of the world. Evolutionistic and creationistic concepts of anthropogenesis and sociogenesis. 4. An outline of European archaeology history. Antiquarian, archaeological (empirical), prehistoric (rational) stages. Contemporary archaeology and its schools of thoughts. History of Czech and Moravian archaeology. Common and diverse development traces. Important persons and their works. Current organization of the Czech archaeology. 5. Fundamentals of the branch methodology. Method; technique; methodology; methodics. 4 degrees of archaeological practise: prospection, excavation, musealia, analytical and synthetic degree and its possible resulting at historiosophic or philosophic level. Fundamentals of the theory of knowledge. General methods of knowledge (induction, deduction, analogy, experiment, questionnaire). Empirical and rational types of knowledge in archaeology. - Expert (destructive and non-destructive) analyses of archaeological relics and their contribution to chronology and technology of the primeval era (X-ray, spectral analyses, chemical analyses, thin sections, neutronography etc.). 6. Strategy of analytical and synthetical degree of archaeological practise: dating, ethnicity, economic structures, spiritual life, social culture. – Methods of dating (chronology) of primeval and early historic eras. Relative and absolute chronology. Calendar systems. 7. Classical methods of relative chronology: stratigraphy, its substance and application in archaeology. Vertical and horizontal stratigraphy (incl. examples). Problems of excavations of tells. Typology, its principles (O. Montelius, his predecessors, contemporaries and pursuers), outcomes, criticism and contemporary usage. Typological association lines. Combination statistics. Cybernetization of the typological method. Typology in the electronic computer era. 8. Comparative methods in archaeology. Principles of analogy. The most significant technical methods of relative chronology determination. – Classical methods of absolute dating determination of archaeological relics: method of estimate, comparative method, chronological “horizons”. 9. Contemporary scientific and technical methods of absolute chronology: radiometry, its emergence, development, problems, outcomes and current situation; calibration procedures. Palaeomagnetism. Thermoluminiscence. Older and newer scientific and linguistic methods (“Milankovič curve” of solar radiation, geochronology, dendrochronology, method of pollen spectrum - palynology, glottochronology etc.). 10. Ethnicity in the primeval and early historic eras. 11. Methods of reconstruction of economic life and economy of the primeval era. 12. Possibilities of understanding the spiritual life of primeval people. 13. Sources of scientific information.

Literature

• Bouzek, J. a kol., Dějiny archeologie I-II, Praha 1983, 1984

Teaching methods

lectures

Assessment methods

Teaching: 1 hour lecture + 1 hour seminar per week Assessment: Test, oral examination II

Language of instruction

Czech

Further comments (probably available only in Czech)

Information on completion of the course: Informace ke způsobu ukončení viz sylabus.
The course is taught annually.

Listed among pre-requisites of other courses

• AEB_A08 Computing technology in archaeology
  AEB_A01 || AEB_A03 || AEA_01  

• Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2014, recent)
  
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