Archaeology of Late Pleistocene and Holocene Hunter-Gatherers
(ARCLG128 : 0.5 course element)

A detailed examination of some of the key issues in human ecology and behavioural evolution from the emergence of “cognitively-modern” humans in the early Upper Pleistocene until the beginnings of food production in the Holocene. The course will review contemporary debates on issues such as: the emergence of biological and behavioural modernity in Africa, the adaptations of hunter-gatherers to the harsh environmental conditions of the last glacial in Europe, the analysis and interpretation of Upper Palaeolithic cave-art, the emergence of food-storing, semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer communities in the Near East, the colonization of Australia and the Americas and human involvement in megafaunal extinctions.

Early Epipalaeolithic site from glacial maximum in Wadi Jilat, eastern Jordan

• be knowledgable about the central debates concerning the development of hunter-gatherer societies through the late Pleistocene and early Holocene
• have an understanding of the nature of the evidence and the ways in which it has been collected and analysed.
• have a critical appreciation of the range of models which have been used in its interpretation.

• their skills in evaluating archaeological data-bases, and the techniques and models used in their analysis and interpretation.
• their experience in articulating complex ideas and information in written and oral presentations.
• their abilities to design and undertake original research.