UCL Institute of Archaeology

Neolithic

In the early post-glacial period, plant and animal domestication developed in several widely separated regions of the Old World including the Near East, South and East Asia, and parts of Africa (as well as the Americas). This was often in populations which had become partially sedentarised and were living in formative village-based communities. These major economic and demographic developments were often associated with significant changes in social organisation as well as ritual and ideological practices and were accompanied by a wide range of other technological innovations. In time, components of the Neolithisation process spread into adjacent regions either as a result of direct colonisation or selective adoption of its various features by indigenous communities. Staff are involved in research on this period in several areas of the world.

Research

Projects

• The Ancient Levant
  
• Antikythera Survey Project
• Archaeology of growth and development in children
  
• Azraq Project, Jordan
• The Blackden Project
  
• Boncuklu Hoyuk Project
  
• Çatalhöyük
• Ceramic Temper and identity groups
• Commensality, Cooking, Dining and the Politics of Gastronomy in the Near East
• Cultivating Societies
• Cultural Evolution of Neolithic Europe (EUROEVOL)
  
• Early Farming in Dalmatia
• The Emergence of Craft Specialisation in the Near East
  
• Examination and Conservation of the 'Ain Ghazal plaster cache
• Gender and the Emergence of Villages, Cities and States in the Ancient Near East
  
• The Making of the Middle Sea
• Origins and Spread of Stock-Keeping in the Near East and Europe
• Personal Ornaments in the Ancient Near East
  
• Pre-Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlements and subsistence economy
• Qadisha Valley Project, Lebanon
• Upper Esino Valley Survey
• Yiluo Basin Project, Henan, China
  

Networks

• AG Forschungsgeschichte/History of Archaeology (external network)
• Arbeitsgemeinschaft Neolithikum/Neolithic Workgroup (external network)
• Hunters and Herders - Global Perspectives (IoA network)
• Out of Africa, Into Asia (external network)

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People

• Banu Aydinoglugil
• Cyprian Broodbank
• Sue Colledge
• Kevan Edinborough
• Shahina Farid
• Dorian Fuller
• Andrew Garrard
• Sue Hamilton
• Susanna Harris
• David Jeffreys
• Tim Kerig
• Katie Manning
• Louise Martin
• Arlene Rosen
• Stephen Shennan
• Ulrike Sommer
• David Wengrow
• Todd Whitelaw
• Katherine Wright

Degrees

• BA in Archaeology and Anthropology
• BA or BSc in Archaeology
• BA in Egyptian Archaeology
• MA in Archaeology of the Mediterranean and the Middle East
• MA in Egyptian Archaeology
• MA in Maritime Archaeology
• MSc in Environmental Archaeology
• MSc in Palaeoanthropology and Palaeolithic Archaeology

Courses

undergraduate

• Introduction to Egyptian Archaeology
• Peoples and societies of the ancient Near East
• Introduction to European prehistory
• Structure and Change in Later European Prehistory
• Archaeology of Ancient Egypt
• Archaeology of the Near East: prehistory – 2000 BC
• Origins of Agriculture
• The Early Prehistory of the Near East
  
• Understanding complex societies: Egypt and Mesopotamia in 3rd millennium BC

graduate

• Themes and issues in the archaeology of the E Mediterranean and Middle East
• Evolution of Palaeolithic and Neolithic Societies in the Near East
• The Aegean from first farmers to Minoan states
• The Late Bronze Age Aegean
• The Archaeology of Early Egypt and the Sudan, c. 10,000 to 2500 BC
• British and European Prehistory: Neolithic to Iron Age
• Climate Change and Human Responses in Holocene Africa

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