General Pre-History

Recommended Prerequisites

NA

Teaching Methods

Most of the content will be transmitted through expository classes, using keynote presentations, in which images will play a predominant role. These will correspond to the human fossils and archaeological finds most representative of each of the contents to be taught.
We will try to punctuate these classes with other debate classes, where the most “hot” topics in the field will be discussed, such as what truly distinguishes humans from other species, the origins of tool production, art or agriculture and pastoralism.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course, the student must attain the following objectives:A: to know the main elements of the history of human evolution, namely which are the most important hominins, the differences between them and what is known in terms of their behavior.B: to know the positioning of each of these hominins in the phylogenetic tree of modern humans.C: to understand the main issues regarding certain key points of human evolution (what it means to be human and its position among the other beings; the origin of bipedalism; importance of meat consumption; the importance of toolmaking; the origins of modern behavior, for example).D: to know the main theories regarding the adoption of the Neolithic way of life and how this occurred in Southwest Asia.E: to know the routes of the neolithic expansion throughout Europe and North Africa.F: to understand the European megalithic phenomenon.G: to have a comprehensive overview of what Europe was like in the 3rd millennium BC and the Bronze Age.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1.1. The periodization of Prehistory and the chronoclimatic framework.
1.2. Cladistics and the place of humans among other living beings.
2.1. From the explosion of primates in the middle Miocene to the first australopithecines.
2.2. Australopithecines: known species and their distribution.
2.3. The habilines; the first tools. The first exit from Africa
2.4. The erectines. The Acheulean complex and new exit from Africa. Eurasian pre-Neanderthals.
2.5. Neanderthal communities and other coeval humanities. The Mousterian
3.1. Modern humans: how to define it? The emergence of modern humans and their progressive distribution
across the planet.
3.2. The European Upper Palaeolithic.
3.3. The emergence of images.
4.1. The diversity of the European Mesolithic.
5.1. The first neolithic societies. Why do humans abandon hunting and gathering?
5.2. The Neolithization of Europe
5.3. The megalithic phenomenon
6.1. Western Europe in the 3rd millennium BC.
6.2. Western Europe in the Bronze Age.

Head Lecturer(s)

André Tomás Pinto da Silva e Conceição Santos

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Exam: 100.0%

Bibliography

BICHO, N. F., Manual de Arqueologia Pré-histórica, Lisboa, Edições 70, 2006.
CUNHA, E., Como nos Tornámos Humanos. Estado da Arte, Coimbra, Imprensa da Universidade, 2010.
FOWLER, C; HARDING, J.; HOFMANN, D., The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2019.
GRAEBER, D.; WENGROW, D, O Princípio de tudo, Lisboa, Bertrand, 2022.
GAMBLE, C., Las Sociedades Paleolíticas de Europa, Madrid, Editorial Ariel, 2001.
JUAN EIROA, J., Nociones de Prehistoria General, Barcelona, Editorial Ariel, 2000.
LANGDON, J. H., Human evolution: Bones, cultures and genes, Cham, Springer, 2022.
SCARRE, Chris (ed.), 2024, The human past: World Prehistory & the Development of Human Societies. Fifth edition, London: Thames & Hudson.