Unit information: The Archaeology of Buildings in 2014/15

Unit name	The Archaeology of Buildings
Unit code	ARCH35004
Credit points	30
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Dr. Nash
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Anthropology and Archaeology
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit will introduce the student to the study, recording and interpretation within buildings archaeology; commencing with structures in prehistory and finishing with the development of post-medieval and modern vernaculars. It will explore the development of building technology and materials, and will involve the analysis and interpretation of excavated building remains. The unit will also introduce techniques and methodologies for recording standing structures and will examine the interpretation of theoretical space within these structures. The relationship of buildings to the landscape, townscapes and cityscapes in which they are set will also be explored.

Intended Learning Outcomes

At the end of this unit a successful student will be able to:

1. Describe the preferred methodologies employed with historic building survey and recording.
2. Recognise the archaeologies associated with the major architectural developments from Palaeolithic to modern times.
3. Discuss attributes and problems associated with traditional recording and survey methods.
4. Explain the complexity associated with building phasing and to identify a chronology within building behaviour.
5. Explain the role of local, regional and national architectural developments, and when they emerge.
6. Summarise the regional architectural styles and place them into a national and international context.
7. Discuss the complexities and limitations of the archaeological/architectural record, especially when considering prehistoric buildings/structures.
8. Assess and evaluate current theoretic debate concerning architectural style, space (and place).
9. Synthesise evidence from a wide range of sources, both historical and archaeological in order to make a judgement on building ethics.
10. Appraise the quality and reliability of the various datasets available for studying the archaeology of buildings/structures.

Teaching Information

Lectures

Seminars

Fieldtrips (5 x 6-hour fieldtrips)

48 hours contact time in teaching block 1, plus field trips

Assessment Information

6 pieces of work to include 3 essays; 1 x 20 minute seminar; 1 x excavation notebook and 1 x final dissertation.

Reading and References

Alcock, N.W., M.W. Barley, P.W. Dixon and R.A. Meeson. 1996. Recording Timber-framed Buildings: An Illustrated Glossary. Practical Handbooks in Archaeology 5, revised edition. York: Council for British Archaeology.

Alcock, N.W. 2003. Documenting the History of Houses. British Records Association Archives and the User 10. London: British Records Association.

Beaudry, M.C. 1999. House and Household: The archaeology of domestic life in early America, in G. Egan and R.L. Michael (eds.) Old and New Worlds. Oxford: Oxbow, 117-126.

Brodie, A., J. Croom and J. Davies. 2002. English Prisons: An Architectural History. Swindon: English Heritage.

Buchanan, T. 1993. Photographing Historic Buildings for the Record. London: HMSO.

Buchli, V. and G. Lucas 2001. The Archaeology of Alienation: a late twentieth-century British council house, in V. Buchli and G. Lucas (eds.) Archaeologies of the Contemporary Past. London: Routledge, 158-167.

Clark, K. 2001. Information Conservation: Understanding Historic Buildings and their Landscapes for Conservation. London: English Heritage.

Crossley, D. 1990. Post-medieval archaeology in Britain. London: Leicester University Press.

Chapelot, J. and Fossier, R. 1985. The Village House in the Middle Ages. London: Batsford.

Dallas, R. (ed.). 2003. Measured Survey and Building Recording for Historic Buildings and Structures. (Guide for Practitioners 4) Edinburgh: Historic Scotland.

DeCunzo, L. 2006. Exploring the institution: reform, confinement, social change, boundaries and crossings, in M. Hall and S. Silliman (eds.) Historical Archaeology. Oxford: Blackwell, 167-190.

English Heritage. 2003. Measured and Drawn: Techniques and practice for the metric survey of historic buildings. Swindon: English Heritage.

English Heritage. 2006. Understanding Historic Buildings: A Guide to Good Recording Practice. London: English Heritage.

Foucault, M. (trans. A. Sheridan). 1991. Discipline and punish: the birth of the modern prison. London: Penguin.

Glassie, H. 1996. Folk Housing in Middle Virginia. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.

Hall, M. 2006. Identity, Memory and Countermemory: the archaeology of an urban landscape Journal of Material Culture. Vol. 11 (1/2): 189-209.

Hicks, D. and A. Horning. 2006. Historical Archaeology and Buildings in D. Hicks and M.C. Beaudry (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Historical Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 273-293.

IFA. 2001 (2nd edition). Standards and Guidance for the Archaeological Investigation and Recording of Standing Buildings of Structures. Reading: Institute of Field Archaeologists.

IFA. 1999. Standard Guidance for archaeological investigation of standing buildings or structures.

Johnson, M. 1993. Housing Culture. London: UCL Press.

Johnson, N. 2000. Forms of Constraint: a history of prison architecture. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Knoop, D. and Jones, G.P. (3rd edition) The Medieval Mason. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Lucas, G. 1999. The Archaeology of the Workhouse: the changing uses of the workhouse buildings at St Mary’s Southampton in S. Tarlow and S. West (eds.) The Familiar Past? Archaeology of later historical Britain. London: Routledge, 125-140.

Morris, N. and D. Rothman. 1998. The Oxford History of the Prison: the practice of punishment in Western Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Morriss, R. 2001. The archaeology of buildings. Stroud: Tempus.