PREHISTORIC ECOLOGY
Academic year and teacher
If you can't find the course description that you're looking for in the above list,
please see the following instructions >>
- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2022/2023
- Teacher
- MARCO PERESANI
- Credits
- 12
- Curriculum
- ARCHEOLOGIA E ARTI
- Didactic period
- Secondo Semestre
- SSD
- BIO/08
Training objectives
- The course concerns the climatic variability and the ecological diversity during the Human Evolution, with main focus on the african and european continents. Strating with the definition of human eology, the course gives an introduction on the main methodological aspects and presentes several examples of palaeoclimatic and paleoenvironmental reconstruction before treating the interactions occurred between man and the environment during the long story of human evolution from the first hominins to the development of the prehistoric and protohistoric agricultural societies. Topics related with the present-day climatic situation will be considered also with reference to the Anthropocene.
Prerequisites
- Basic notions of geography, geology, ecology chronology and archaeology.
Course programme
- Ecology and human ecology: definition and brief history of the discipline. Conservation of materials with respect to depositional environments and methods of study. Methods for the palaeogeographic, palaeoclimatic and palaeoecological reconstruction. The climatic variability during the Pleistocene in Africa and the appearance of the hominins. The lower Pleistocene and the diffusion of Homo. Territories and glacial and interglacial environments from 800ky and 11ky: the eco-cultural niches of Neanderthals and sapiens. The Holocene warming, the ecological contexts of the last hunter-gatherers and the environmental impact of Neolithization. Protohistoric environments and contexts. The Anthropocene. Seminars on different topics to be defined during the course.
Didactic methods
- Seminar and excursions
Learning assessment procedures
- The exam mode will be the same for both attending and non-attending students.
Reference texts
- - Minutes from the lessons
- Anthropocene: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2018
- Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2014
- Landscapes and Geomorphology: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2010
Prehistory: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2018
- The Ice Age: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2014
- Glaciation: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2018
