Overview
Lecturer
Mihai Gligor
Seminar tutor
Ana Fetcu
Type of course
Compulsory
Language of instruction
Romanian
Erasmus language
English
Domain
History
Field of study
History
Form of education
Full-time
Form of instruction
Class
Credit awarded by
Grade
Teaching methods
Lecture, conversation, exemplification. PowerPoint presentation
Entry requirements
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Aims
World Prehistory is a course that presents a global survey of the human past from the earliest evidence of tool use by hominid species to the emergence of stratified chiefly societies. This course tells the story of humanity from two million years ago to the present. Understanding that story require
We will emphasize the complex diversity of past life ways, including the development of many different social systems over time, and the wide range of cultural responses human groups have made to the longer term environmental changes of the past 300.000 years. Case studies will focus on the nature
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Course contents
Introduction to the course, course format, requirements, content. Studying the Past (Dating, Fossils, and Archaeology)
Early human pre-cultural ancestors (Australopithecus). Earliest humans (Homo habilis) and origins of culture (Oldowan) in Africa
Geologic Ages. Pleistocene. Holocene. Glaciations Phenomenon.
Holocene Period. Intensification of Hunting/Gathering/Fishing. Changes in Climate
Lower Paleolithic Hominid Origins. Middle Paleolithic (Neanderthals in Europe). Upper Paleolithic (Evolution of Homo sapiens. Europe and Asia).
Art and Spirituality in Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Paleolithic Cave Art. Paleolithic Mobiliary Art. Totem and Shamanism. First burials.
Neolithic. Village Life. Plant and Animal Domestication. The Origins of Agriculture and Inequality.
Old European Civilization. Fertility Cult. Symbols and Artifacts.
Copper Age. Copper Ores, Crucibles and Slag. Coppersmiths.
Burial Practices and Grave Goods in Prehistory.
Osteoarchaeology and Bioarchaeology. Human Remains in Prehistory.
Bronze Age. A New Elite. Axes, Symbols of Power.
Aegean Prehistoric Archaeology.
Iron Age. Metal Works, Chiefdoms, Social Structure, the Trade Explosion.
Learning outcomes
retrieval of written sources on the historical past;
establishing historical facts on the basis of historical sources and outside of these;
the concrete production of new historical knowledge on the basis of deeper insights within the study of an epoch and/or of a medium complexity historical subject.
Assessment
oral examination - 80%; paper presentation from the seminar themes - 20%
Recommended reading
The Lost World of Old Europe. The Danube Valley, 5000-3500 BC
Anthony, D. W., Chi, J. (Eds.)
Princeton University Press, New York, 2010
Balkan Prehistory
Bailey, D. W.
Routledge, London, 2000
First Farmers. The Origins of Agriculturals Societies
Bellwood, P.
Blackwell Publishing, London, 2005
The Neolithic Demographic Transition and its Consequences
Bocquet-Appel, J.P., Bar-Yosef, O.
Springer, 2008
European Societies in the Bronze Age
Harding, A. F.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000