Undergraduate Course: People, landscape change and settlement: the last 15,000 years (GEGR10107)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Geography |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This course is intended to provide an integrated palaeoecological approach to the origin and evolution of temperate and arctic environments during the Lateglacial and Holocene, with particular reference to the interplay between human and natural landscapes. The intention of the course is to ensure that all participants are familiar with the general principles of reconstruction of past environments and the broad outlines and limitations of the wide range of techniques available, in particular the evidence gained from studies of invertebrate faunas. The objective is to understand how the data used to reconstruct the dynamic Lateglacial and Holocene environment are acquired.
Replaces: Reconstructing Late Quaternary Environments (GEGR10090) |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | No |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
1. This course will provide students with:
A comprehensive and integrated knowledge and understanding of the broad pattern of environmental change (both natural and anthropogenic in origin) over the last 15,000 years.
2. An understanding of some of the sources of palaeoenvironmental data, and the various palaeoecological techniques, including vertebrate and invertebrate data, which can be applied to the investigation of environmental change and human activity in the landscape.
3. An understanding of the ways in which the palaeoenvironmental record is created and changed by the processes of fossilisations (taphonomy).
4. An understanding of the interaction of human communities with different facets of the environment and the role of human as agents of landscape change and development.
5. Knowledge of the biogeography of disease.
An understanding of conservation issues.
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Assessment Information
One 2,000 word project (40%) and one two-hour examination (2 questions) (60%).
Overall mark for the course (ie coursework and examinations) of at least 40. |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
1.Introduction-Background to palaeoecological techniques and
palaeoenvironmental reconstruction
2. Taxonomy ¿ naming plants and animals
3. Naming the parts: Insect fossils and palaeoecology
4. Late Quaternary extinctions
5. Palaeoecology and conservation a. The development of Holocene forest. Closed or open? The Vera hypothesis and the insect evidence b. The development of wetlands
6. The biogeography of disease. A historical perspective-Virgin soil epidemics
7. Holocene environments in the Nile valley and desert
8. Late Holocene connections in the Aegean: Neolithic Dispilio and Bronze Age Akrotiri
9. Environmental change in Northern France and the British Isles/man or climate?
(a. Molluscs and Environmental Change- The human dimension to Late Iron Age and Roman changes in the Champagne region-b. Urban Environments)
10. European expansion in the North Atlantic and Northern Scandinavia
11. The end of Norse Greenland
In addition
a. two laboratory practicals will be delivered on the identification of insect and molluscan remains.
b. the students will be requested to deliver a ppt or poster presentation.
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| Transferable skills |
¿ basic observation skills in the laboratory
¿ basic knowledge of how to use a database to collate data and interpret an invertebrate assemblage (using BUGSCEP)
¿ skills of writing a project/essay of their choice (from a list of essays provided in the course)
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| Reading list |
Bell, M. and Walker, M.J.C., 2004. Late Quaternary Environments. Physical & Human Perspectives (2nd ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall, Harlow.
Butzer K. W. (2005) Environmental history in the Mediterranean world: cross-disciplinary investigation of cause-and-effect for degradation and soil erosion. Journal of Archaeological Science 32: 1773-1800.
Diamond J. (2005) Collapse. How societies choose to fail or survive. London, Penguin.
Fitzhugh W. W. and Ward E. I. (2000) Vikings. The North Atlantic Saga. Smithsonian Institute, Washington.
Greenblatt C. and Spigelman M. (Eds) (2003) Emerging pathogens. Archaeology, ecology & evolution of infectious disease. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Hodder K. H., Bullock J. M., Buckland P. C. and Kirby K. J. (2005) Large herbivores in the wildwood and modern naturalistic grazing systems. English Nature Research Report, 648. English Nature, Peterborough.
Kemp B. (1989) Ancient Egypt. Anatomy of a civilisation. London, Routledge.
Lowe J. J. and Walker M. J. C. (1997) Reconstructing Quaternary Environments (2nd ed). Longman, London.
Roberts N. (1998) The Holocene. An Environmental History (Second edition). Blackwell, Oxford.
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| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Lateglacial, Holocene, climate change, extinctions, biogeography, disease, human impact, conservati |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Eva Panagiotakopulu
Tel: (0131 6)50 2531
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Elizabeth Muir
Tel: (0131 6)50 9847
Email: |
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