Course Details in 2026/27 Session

Module Title	LH Special Subject B: From Stonehenge to Mycenae: the Bronze Age in Europe
School	History and Cultures
Department	Classics, AH and Archaeology
Module Code	09 37368
Module Lead	Paul Garwood
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites	LH Special Subject A: From Stonehenge to Mycenae: the Bronze Age in Europe - (09 37367)
Restrictions	None
Exclusions
Description	This module and its co-requisite (Special Subject A: From Stonehenge to Mycenae: the Bronze Age in Europe) will allow students to engage in in-depth research and study on a topic in Classics, Byzantine Studies, Egyptology, Ancient History, or Archaeology. Like Part A, Part B will involve students learning through research, critique and discussion. Part B aims to develop students’ independence in the application of the research processes and methodologies associated with the module topic and to enable students to deploy this independence in the analysis of key ideas, ideologies, interpretative approaches, or events. European Bronze Age societies are remarkable at a global scale for their sheer diversity and range of social forms (from hunter-fisher bands to states) concentrated in one small area at the western end of Eurasia. Just as striking is the evidence for cultural transformations of such rapidity that most people who existed during this period would have been aware of far-reaching social, economic and technological changes during their own lives. At the same time, alongside exceptional kinds of local creativity we see unprecedented flows of people, artefacts and ideas that linked societies from temperate Europe to the Aegean, Egypt, the Caucasus and beyond. Bronze Age research, at the cutting edge of prehistoric and ‘protohistoric’ archaeology, is producing profound new insights into these social worlds. This module focuses on landscapes of social and political agency, ritual and representation, ranging from settlement, land division and warfare to ceremony and cosmography. Case studies to explore these themes include: the Alpine lake villages; urban places from Spain to the Aegean; hillforts in Britain and Ireland; the Tollense battlefield; elite funerary monuments and cosmovision (including a study visit to the Stonehenge Bronze Age landscape); Scandinavian rock art; and the Nebra Sky Disc.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: analyse and appraise key findings, interpretative approaches, and methodologies relevant to the material under discussion analyse and evaluate a wide range of relevant primary source material offering where appropriate, an explicitly comparative perspective critically evaluate the scholarly context and trends of the subject under exploration summarise and evaluate the subject material with clarity and confidence, in writing
Assessment
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: 1 x 3,000-word take home examination (100%) Reassessment: Resubmission of failed component(s)
Other
Reading List