Beginner’s Guide to Archaeology: Non-Invasive Techniques

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archaeology, Beginners Guide, education, Leicestershire, Loughborough, WEA

In the first session we looked at non-invasive archaeological techniques such as desk-based assessment, fieldwalking, geophysics and landscape survey. This video clip from ‘Time Team’ discusses the use of geophysics in archaeology and the evolution of the different techniques through time:

If you wish to find out more about some of these non-invasive techniques, the following links may be of interest to you:

• A brief introduction to cropmarks
• Introduction to archaeology
• Geophysical survey
• BAJR archaeological guides are free pdfs on a variety of topics including geophysics and field surveying, amongst many others.

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Archaeology of Food – Reading List

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archaeology, Beeston, Britain, education, England, food and drink, Nottinghamshire, WEA

Whilst it is not essential to do any background reading before the course begins, you may find it useful to do so. The reading list below contains books that you can read. You don’t have to read all of these and we don’t specify any that you must read. Instead, these are readings you can use to gain a preliminary understanding of topics, as well as to study in more depth those parts of the course you are particularly interested in. You may also want to take a look at magazines such as British Archaeology, World Archaeology and Current Archaeology.

Further suggestions about ways you can extend your understanding of topics through books, television etc may also be posted as appropriate on this blog.
Barker, G. 2009, The Agricultural Revolution in Prehistory: Why did Foragers become Farmers? Oxford University Press

Black, M. 2012. The Medieval Cookbook. British Museum Press.

Coe, S.D and Coe, M.D. 2013. The True History of Chocolate. Thames and Hudson.

Collingham, L. 2006. Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors. Vintage.

Collingham, L. 2017. The Hungry Empire: How Britain’s Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World. Bodley Head.

Diamond, J. 1999, Guns, Germs and Steel. Vintage Press

Faas, P. 2009. Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome. Chicago University Press.

Fagan, B.M. 2006. Fish on Friday: Feasting, Fasting, and Discovery of the New World. Basic Books.

Flandrin, J-L, Montanari, M and Sonnenfeld, A. 2013. Food: A Culinary History. Columbia University Press.

Hammond, P. 1995. Food and Feast in Medieval England. Sutton Publishing.

Jones, M. 2007. Feast: Why Humans Share Food. Oxford University Press.

Milton, G. 2015. Nathaniel’s Nutmeg: Or, the True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History. Picador.

Rimas, A and Fraser, E.D.G. 2008. Beef: How Milk, Meat and Muscle Shaped the World. Mainstream Publishing.

Standage, T. 2006. A History of the World in 6 Glasses. Walker and Company.

Standage, T. 2010. An Edible History of Humanity. Atlantic Books.

Toussaint-Samat, M. 2008. A History of Food. Second Edition. Wiley-Blackwell.

Turner, J. 2011. Spice: The History of a Temptation. Harper Perennial.

Reading List: A Beginner’s Guide to Archaeology

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archaeology, Beginners Guide, Britain, education, England, Leicester, Leicestershire, Loughborough, WEA

Whilst it is not essential to do any background reading before the course begins, you may find it useful to do so. The reading list below contains books that you can read. You don’t have to read all of these and we don’t specify any that you must read. Instead, these are readings you can use to gain a preliminary understanding of topics, as well as to study in more depth those parts of the course you are particularly interested in. You may also want to take a look at magazines such as British Archaeology, World Archaeology and Current Archaeology.

Further suggestions about ways you can extend your understanding of topics through books, television etc may also be posted as appropriate on this blog.

Aitken, M. 1990. Science-based Dating in Archaeology. Longman. (Introduces several different science-based dating techniques used by archaeologists)

Bahn, P. 2012. Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. (Latest edition of popular, concise introduction to archaeology)

Carver, M. 2009. Archaeological Investigation. Routledge. (General introduction to the process of fieldwork from discovery to publication).

Drewett, P. 2011. Field Archaeology: An Introduction. (2^nd edition). Routledge. (Leading text introducing principles of field archaeology)

Gamble, C. 2015. Archaeology: the basics (revised 3nd edition).Routledge. (A good general introduction to a lot of concepts)

Gater, J & Gaffney, C. 2003. Revealing the Buried Past: Geophysics for Archaeologists. The History Press Ltd. (A good introduction to archaeological geophysics by the Time Team ‘geofizz’ guys)

Greene, K. & Moore, T. 2010. Archaeology: An Introduction (5th edn). London: Routledge. (A good general introduction. You may also wish to check out the associated online resources: http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/greene/).

O’Connor, T. 2005. Environmental Archaeology: Principles and Methods (2^nd edn.) The History Press. (General introduction to environmental archaeology)

Mays, S. 2010. The Archaeology of Human Bones (2^nd edn). Routledge. (General introduction to the archaeological analysis of human remains)

Renfrew, C & Bahn, P (eds). 2004. Archaeology: The Key Concepts. Routledge Key Guides. (Collection of different chapters written by experts in their field)

Renfrew, C. & Bahn, P. 2016. Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice (7th edn). Thames and Hudson.  (Aimed at 1^st year undergraduates, but still very accessible to read and covers a lot of topics)

New course: Archaeology – Food and drink in the past — WEA Leicester

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archaeology, education, food and drink, Leicester, Leicestershire, WEA

The course will examine the social, cultural and economic factors that have influenced consumption in the human past via a wide range of archaeological evidence from around the world. Dates: Monday 4 June – 2 July 2018 Times: 10.00 am – 12.00 pm Number of weeks: 5 Venue: Newarke Houses Museum, The Newarke, Leicester LE2 7BY Tutor: Stephanie Vann Price: £38.50 […]

via New course: Archaeology – Food and drink in the past — WEA Leicester

Rise of Complex Societies: The Assyrians

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archaeology, Bronze Age, Complex Societies, education, Middle East, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, prehistory, WEA

One of the civilisations mentioned during the course was the Assyrians, including one of their Kings, Ashurbanipal, and his library. Before the sun never set on the British Empire; before Genghis Khan swept the steppe; before Rome extended its influence to encircle the Mediterranean Sea; there was ancient Assyria. Considered by historians to be the first true empire, Assyria’s innovations laid the groundwork for every superpower that has followed. Marian H Feldman details the rise and fall of the Assyrian Empire.

Curator Mathilde Touillon-Ricci shares her research into the letters of Old Assyrian traders and the sometimes surprising ways in which they get around paying taxes

In this episode Curator Mathilde Touillon-Ricci explains the ancient Assyrian postal system and shows a number of rare examples of Assyrian envelopes – which don’t differ all that much from those still used today.

Rise of Complex Societies: Religion and Belief

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archaeology, Bronze Age, Complex Societies, education, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, prehistory, stone age, WEA

In our final session, we looked at religion and belief in Mesopotamia and their link to the rise of complex societies. We considered Mesopotamian deities, comparing and contrasting them to other, perhaps more familiar mythologies such as Graeco-Roman and Ancient Egyptian. We also examined case study sites such as Göbekli Tepe and the Royal Cemetery of Ur.

In this video from the British Museum Curator’s Corner series, Irving Finkel talks Mesopotamian demons, ghosts and sprites and how to deal with them:

In this video, artefacts and treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur are re-examined:

 

Iron Age Leicestershire: End of the Iron Age

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archaeology, education, Iron Age, Leicestershire, Loughborough, prehistory, Roman Britain, WEA

In our last session on Iron Age Leicestershire, we looked at the end of the Iron Age and the arrival of the Romans. This English Heritage webpage discusses the Iron Age Kings and their Roman Connections, whilst in this BBC Radio 4 programme from 2003, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Romans in Britain.

Historian Bettany Hughes explores what made Britain so attractive to the ancient Romans that they made it a province of their great empire:

This animation explores life in Britain during the Roman Invasion and Boudica’s rebellion in 60AD:

Rise of Complex Societies: Trade and Money

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archaeology, Bronze Age, Complex Societies, education, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, prehistory, stone age, WEA

In our last session, we looked at trade in ancient Mesopotamia, touching on related concepts such as transportation and money such as the gold coin of Croesus, which was featured in A History of the World in 100 Objects, the podcast of which is available to listen to online.

Overland trade routes to the north and west followed the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, while to the east routes passed through the Zagros Mountains onto the resource rich Iranian plateau and beyond. The sea route via the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea and the Indus Valley was also very active.

Iron Age Leicestershire: Daily Life

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archaeology, education, Iron Age, Leicestershire, Loughborough, prehistory, WEA

In our last session, we discussed the topic of daily life in the Iron Age in Leicestershire. What was life like in an Iron Age village? How did Iron Age people live? What did they eat? What did they wear? For those who are interested in finding out more about the latter, it is possible to search the Portable Antiquities Scheme database to discover more about what small objects e.g. brooches have been discovered in the county.

This video clip on family life in the Iron Age was originally filmed for for the Museum of Liverpool Life.

Rise of Complex Societies: The Origin of Writing

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archaeology, Bronze Age, Complex Societies, education, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, prehistory, stone age, WEA

In our last session we discussed the origins of writing, in particular the development of cuneiform. This included a brief look at the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Cyrus Cylinder as examples of texts written in cuneiform.

Below are two videos which discuss the Cyrus Cylinder and its significance in more detail: