Prerequisite:

Admission open to all students with an interest in medieval history and archaeology. Students are recommended, but not required, to take EUH-3182 (Medieval Archaeology) in advance.

Enrollment:

For a summer period of six weeks, the course enrollment is no more than 10 students. Students taking this course cannot re-take it for more academic credit.
 
 

Credit

This course is offered for six (6) semester hours of coursework. The credit for these hours is to be applied entirely to History (EUH-4186). The course is offered in cooperation with the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at the Lund University and will take place in Uppakra near Lund in southern Sweden. Classes will be taught, using lectures and class discussions, supplemented by on-site visits, laboratory work and fieldwork. Participation in an ongoing research excavation will be an integral part of the course. Two weeks of field trips are included in the course schedule. For more details, see the handout.

Textbooks:
 

• Kevin Greene and Tom Moore. Archaeology. An Introduction, 5th edition. London/New York: Routledge, 2010; ISBN: 9780415496391 [hereafter Greene and Moore]

There is no attendance policy, but you are responsible for attending all lectures and reading the required texts. The basis for evaluation of performance will be class participation, one exam, and satisfactory fieldwork. The exam will consist of  two parts: an identification and/or multiple-choice part, and a short essay, in which you will be asked to synthesize your knowledge of the topic, dropping in facts to show that you understand the concrete aspects of that topic. Make-up exam will be given for very serious reasons, in which case you will have to produce some official proof. The exam counts for twenty percent of the final grade. The fieldwork component will count for 70 percent, of which forty percent represents the journal kept during the four weeks of fieldwork. The remaining ten percent of your overall grade is for participation in class discussions.  

Course weekly schedule (lectures and discussions):

Introduction. Archaeology in the classroom, archaeology in the field.
What is medieval archaeology?

• see also a short essay on artifacts

•  Nancy Edwards, "The archaeology of early medieval Ireland, c. 400-1169: settlement and economy,” in A New History of Ireland, 1: Prehistoric and Early Ireland, ed. by Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (Oxford, 2005), pp. 235-300.

Greene and Moore 7-20

see a brief presentation of Thomsen's Three-Age system, as well as the short biographies of Gustaf Kossinna and Oskar Montelius

see Jennifer Stephens's essay on the influence of A. H. Lane-Fox Pitt Rivers on the development of modern archaeology

• Greene and Moore 21-25, 263-272
• see also Dietrich Hakelberg, "Blicke in die vaterländische Vorzeit - Regional and national identities and the history of German archaeology"

• Greene and Moore 273-293
• see also Holger Grönwald, Raiko Krauß and Gerson H. Jeute, "Ethnoarchaeology in Bulgaria"

• Greene and Moore 55-85
• see some aerial photographs and a few applications of aerial archaeology
• see also a GIS application to an archaeological project in Burgundy (France)

• Greene and Moore 89-145
• visit the site of the Harris Matrix

Greene and Moore 148-189

see a brief presentation of the principles of radiocarbon dating and a short essay on luminiscence dating of pottery

visit the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona

•   Aidan O’Sullivan, " Early medieval houses in Ireland: social identity and dwelling spaces," Peritia 20 (2008), 225-256.

• Aidan O’Sullivan, " Exploring past people's interactions with wetland environments in Ireland," Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C. - Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 107 (2008), 147-203.

• for a minimal bibliography on paleoethnobotany and its applications, see the Dung File; for a complete list of web sources on zooarchaeology, visit the Zooarchaeology Web Page

• Michelle Comber, "Lagore crannog and non-ferrous metalworking in early historic Ireland,” Journal of Irish Archaeology 8 (1997), 101-114

• Thomas McNeill, "Recent research into Irish mottes,” in Motte, Turmhügelburg, Hausberg. Zum europäischen Forschungsstand eines mittelalterlichen Burgentypus, ed. by Sabine Felgenhauer-Schmiedt, Peter Csendes, and Alexandrine Eibner (Vienna, 2007), pp. 9-20.
•  Kieran O’Connor and Johnny De Meulemeester, “The motte-and-bailey castle at Lissardowlan, Co. Longford,” in From Ringforts to Fortified Houses: Studies on Castles and Other Monuments in Honour of David Sweetman, ed. by Connleth Maning (Bray, 2007), pp. 75-94.
• visit the Dundrum, Roscommon (with a plan), Ballintober, Trim, and Greencastle castles
• see examples of Ham Green and Saintonge wares
• visit the mottes in Lismahon, Clough Castle, and Granard
• visit the towerhouse in Aughnanure (with reconstruction)
  

• Eamon Cody, " A brief look at ringfort morphology and distribution," in From Ringforts to Fortified Houses: Studies on Castles and Other Monuments in Honour of David Sweetman, ed. by Connleth Maning (Bray, 2007), pp. 1-8.

• Jonathan M. Wooding, “Island and coastal churches in medieval Wales and Ireland,” in Ireland and Wales in the Middle Ages, ed. Karen Jankulak and Jonathan M. Wooding (Dublin, 2007), pp. 201-228
• Tadgh O’Keefe, “The built environment of local community worship between the eleventh and the early thirteenth century,” in The Parish in Medieval and Early Modern Ireland. Community, Territory, and Building, ed. by Elizabeth Fitzpatrick and Raymond Gillespie (Dublin, 2006), pp. 124-146.

• Maurice F. Hurley, “Excavations at the Dominican Priory, St. Mary’s of the Isle, Cork,” in Dominikanie. Gdańsk -- Polska -- Europa: Materiały z konferencji międzynarodowej pt. “Gdańskie i europejskie dziedzictwo. Zakon Dominikanów w dziejach Gdańska” zorganizowanej przez Klasztor OO. Dominikanów w Gdańsku, ed. by Dariusz Alexander Dekański Andrzej Gołembnik, and Marek Grubka (Gdańsk, 2003), pp. 389-395.
• see a view of the Irish monastery of Clonmacnoise (with a detailed view of the tower)

Airfare tickets, passports, visas, adequate medical insurance (including emergency repatriation insurance), and other travel expenses are the responsibility of students. Upon request, assistance with group rates for airfare may be provided.

© 2011 Florin Curta