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060105 VU Studying human behaviours through soils and sediments an introduction to Geoarchaeology (2025S)
Continuous assessment of course work
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Details
Language: English
Lecturers
Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N
- N Monday 03.03. 09:00 - 10:30 Seminarraum 13 Franz-Klein-Gasse 1 4.OG
- Monday 10.03. 09:00 - 10:30 Seminarraum 13 Franz-Klein-Gasse 1 4.OG
- Monday 17.03. 09:00 - 10:30 Seminarraum 13 Franz-Klein-Gasse 1 4.OG
- Monday 24.03. 09:00 - 10:30 Seminarraum 13 Franz-Klein-Gasse 1 4.OG
- Monday 31.03. 09:00 - 10:30 Seminarraum 13 Franz-Klein-Gasse 1 4.OG
- Monday 07.04. 09:00 - 10:30 Seminarraum 13 Franz-Klein-Gasse 1 4.OG
- Monday 28.04. 09:00 - 10:30 Seminarraum 13 Franz-Klein-Gasse 1 4.OG
- Monday 05.05. 09:00 - 10:30 Seminarraum 13 Franz-Klein-Gasse 1 4.OG
- Monday 12.05. 09:00 - 10:30 Seminarraum 13 Franz-Klein-Gasse 1 4.OG
- Monday 19.05. 09:00 - 10:30 Seminarraum 13 Franz-Klein-Gasse 1 4.OG
- Monday 26.05. 09:00 - 10:30 Seminarraum 13 Franz-Klein-Gasse 1 4.OG
- Monday 02.06. 09:00 - 10:30 Seminarraum 13 Franz-Klein-Gasse 1 4.OG
- Monday 16.06. 09:00 - 10:30 Seminarraum 13 Franz-Klein-Gasse 1 4.OG
- Monday 23.06. 09:00 - 10:30 Seminarraum 13 Franz-Klein-Gasse 1 4.OG
- Monday 30.06. 09:00 - 10:30 Seminarraum 13 Franz-Klein-Gasse 1 4.OG
Information
Aims, contents and method of the course
Assessment and permitted materials
Independent reading, group discussions of topics introduced during the lecture parts and in the readings, written assignments and papers, short oral presentation. Power Point slides, reading materials, and additional background information will be made available via Moodle. A practical session and a laboratory visit will help to gain insights on specific methodological and practical aspects of geoarchaeology.The assignments consist of active participation in group discussions, regular independent readings, 1 short oral presentation, individual written assignments (1 research topic (title + keywords), 1 abstract + bibliography), and a written research paper (ca. 3000 words).Permitted aids for this course are the use of specialist literature (print and digital versions), specialist media formats (exhibition catalogues, cultural guides/folders/flyers, newspapers, magazines, brochures, homepages, and social media formats with serious academic content), and Wikipedia (only as an introductory format to a specialist topic; Wikipedia cannot be cited as a source in the assignments!). The use of AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT) for text production is only permitted if this is explicitly requested by the course instructor (e.g. for individual assignments). The use of machine translation services such as DeepL Translator or Google Translate is permitted. The use of machine translation services for course assignments must be specified in the bibliography section of the respective assignment and the service used must be cited correctly. All used aids must be cited with exact references and quotations.
Minimum requirements and assessment criteria
The workload for this VU is 4.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS) per week (100 working hours). Approximately 1.00 ECTS is accounted for by class attendance and approximately 3.00 ECTS by preparatory work for class (self-study), the reading assignments, and the preparation of the written and oral assignments.
Students are expected to attend all lectures, 2x excused absence is permitted.Course requirements
Active participation in class: 15 %
Oral presentation: 20 %
Individual written assignments: 20 %
Written paper: 45 %Grading key*
100-88 Sehr Gut (1)
87-75 Gut (2)
74-62 Befriedigend (3)
61-50 Genügend (4)
< 50 Nicht Genügend (5)
* Positive completion of each assignment is a prerequisite for an overall positive grade.
The written paper must be submitted by July 6th 2025.Students are strongly recommended to participate in or to have completed the course "UE Vertiefende Übung zur wissenschaftlichen Praxis".
Students are expected to attend all lectures, 2x excused absence is permitted.Course requirements
Active participation in class: 15 %
Oral presentation: 20 %
Individual written assignments: 20 %
Written paper: 45 %Grading key*
100-88 Sehr Gut (1)
87-75 Gut (2)
74-62 Befriedigend (3)
61-50 Genügend (4)
< 50 Nicht Genügend (5)
* Positive completion of each assignment is a prerequisite for an overall positive grade.
The written paper must be submitted by July 6th 2025.Students are strongly recommended to participate in or to have completed the course "UE Vertiefende Übung zur wissenschaftlichen Praxis".
Examination topics
Reading list
Required readings for the course from journal articles and book chapters will be made available via Moodle. In addition, a list of introductory literature is provided:Arroyo-Kalin, M. (2014) ‘Anthropogenic sediments and soils: Geoarchaeology’ in Smith, C. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. New York: Springer, 279-284.Contreras, D. A. (ed.) (2017) The Archaeology of Human-Environment Interactions. Strategies for Investigating Anthropogenic Landscapes, Dynamic Environments, and Climate Change in the Human Past, New York: Routledge.Cordova, C.E. (2018) Geoarchaeology: The Human-Environmental Approach. London/New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.French, C.A.I. (2015) A Handbook of geoarchaeological approaches to settlement sites and landscapes. Studying Scientific Archaeology 1. Oxford: Oxbow.Gilbert, A.S. (2017) Encyclopedia of Geoarchaeology. Dordrecht: Springer Reference.Goldberg, P. and Macphail, R.I. (2022) Practical and Theoretical Geoarchaeology. 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell.Karkanas, P. and Goldberg, P. (2019) Reconstructing Archaeological Sites: Understanding the Geoarchaeological Matrix. Oxford: Wiley.Salisbury, R.B., Bull, I.D., Cereda, S., Draganits, E., Dulias, K., Kowarik, K., Meyer, M., Zavala, E.I. and Rebay-Salisbury, K. (2022) Making the Most of Soils in Archaeology. A Review. Archaeologia Austriaca, 106, 319-334.Schiffer, M.B. (1987) Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Siart, C., Forbriger, M. and Bubenzer, O. (eds.) (2018) Digital Geoarchaeology. New Techniques for Interdisciplinary Human-Environmental Research. Cham: Springer.Stolz, C. and Miller, C.E. (eds.) (2022) Geoarchäologie. Berlin: Springer Spektrum.
Association in the course directory
Last modified: Mo 20.01.2025 15:05
The aim of this introductory course is to give students an overview of geoarchaeology, its concepts, methods, benefits, and practical applications. Students will learn how geoarchaeology uses earth-science concepts and techniques to study past human behaviours. In the first part of the course, they will get an introduction to key concepts and terms in geoarchaeology, focusing specifically on soils and sediments and their respective properties, formation processes and depositional environments, and (site) stratigraphy. Moving forwards, students will learn about geoarchaeological field and laboratory methods for sampling and analysis, including soil and sediment sampling, dating, thin-section analysis, geochemistry, geophysical prospection and remote sensing techniques. During the final part of the course, they will gain insights on practical applications of geoarchaeology with examples from site- as well as landscape-scale settings.Methods
Lectures, readings, group discussions, individual written assignments, short oral presentation, written paper.