ARK2140 – The Archaeology of Migration and Mobility

The course provides a general understanding of mobility and migration patterns in the past. Why do people move, how has this affected the ways people live their lives, and how can we explore this in the archaeological past? Examples will include discussions on Scandianvian Bronze age maritime encounters, Viking Age mobility and other diasporas.

The course will be transdisciplinary in effort and comparative in approach and will draw on theoretical and methodological insight from anthropological models, historical studies and the natural sciences (e.g. aDNA and isotope analysis).

The course is organised around case-based lectures and full-day ‘interventions’ that explore human adaptation towards societal change and other processes related to migration and mobility. It has a prominent explorative component where students will be asked to reflect on human responses to migration and mobility through various ‘interventions’ in the form of excursions, artistic interpretations, scholarly controversies and/or guest appearances. Critical thinking, comparative approach and personal reflection will be encouraged throughout the course work.

In this course you will:

• Gain a broad understanding of archaeological approaches toward migration and mobility of past societies.
• Gain introductory knowledge to key anthropological concepts and case studies of migration and mobility from around the world and over time.
• Learn to engage in cross-comparative analyses of social issues.
• Learn to think source-critically about the interdisciplinarity of archaeology, anthropology and the natural sciences.
• Understand the connection between theoretical interpretation and applied methods that work with the mobility of humanity on a broad scale.
• Understand the social and political causes and causations behind individual and large-scale movements.
• Acquire a general understanding of scientific tools and methods used to study migration and mobility in the past.

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.

There will be approximately 10 lectures and 4 exploratory "interventions". Active student participation is expected.

Qualifier

Students must submit two reflection notes (2 pages) from anyone of the four interventions and one 3-page personal essay to be permitted to take the final exam.

Access to teaching

A student who has completed compulsory instruction and coursework and has had these approved, is not entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework. A student who has been admitted to a course, but who has not completed compulsory instruction and coursework or had these approved, is entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework, depending on available capacity.

The exam will consist of an independent paper on a given topic with a limit of 5 pages, 2250 words +/- 10% (not counting spaces).

In the exam, the students are expected to develop their argument from case studies and methods discussed in the course and/or the reading list.

Hand-in procedures: The exam paper is to be uploaded in Inspera. The file must be in pdf-format. The candidate number should be on every page as heading text. You will find your candidate number in Studentweb.

The student is responsible for uploading the document on time according to guidelines. Unreadable or unfinished documents will be graded thereafter for a reduced grade.