Pottery Skills: understanding Archaeology's most common material ARCH5123

  • Academic Session: 2025-26
  • School: School of Humanities
  • Credits: 20
  • Level: Level 5 (SCQF level 11)
  • Typically Offered: Semester 1
  • Available to Visiting Students: Yes
  • Collaborative Online International Learning: No

Short Description

The Pottery Skills course develops students' practical skills in a variety of techniques used to record and analyse archaeological pottery and provides the grounding necessary to critically evaluate the life-cycle of vessels, from production to use and discard. Techniques include traditional classification, illustration, and metric analysis combined with digital microscopy, 3D modelling, and experimental vessel making. This hands-on course, involving prehistoric and historic period UK and international collections, will encourage students to reflect on everyday archaeological materials and their importance in framing past communities' lived experiences.

Timetable

5x1hr lectures; 5x1hr seminars; 10x1hr practical classes delivered as part of a weekly 2hr session over 10 weeks as

scheduled on MyCampus.

This is one of the PGT options in Archaeology and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Requirements of Entry

Standard entry to Masters at College level

Excluded Courses

Pottery Skills (Hons)

Co-requisites

None

Assessment

Skills Portfolio equivalent of 3,000 words - 50%

Project Design & Delivery equivalent of 3,000 words - 50%

Course Aims

This course aims to:

■ Provide hands-on training in professional standard pottery recording techniques as applied in archaeology.

■ Develop practical skills in scientific and metric data collection and analysis.

■ Develop transferable skills in technical data analysis and its presentation to specialist and non-specialist audiences.

■ Critically assess methods and applications of pottery analysis in archaeology to build a knowledge base of the development of current practices.

■ Reflect on the role of traditional methods of ceramic recording in comparison with digital alternatives.

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Independently plan and execute simple to medium complexity projects using standard methods of pottery recording and analysis.

■ Evaluate pottery vessels and assemblages, develop appropriate research questions and analytical techniques, and justify proposed approaches orally and in writing.

■ Synthesize the outcomes of technical analysis and communicate the results to specialist and non-specialist audiences.

■ Reflect critically on specific analytical methods and their usefulness for understanding archaeological pottery.

■ Evaluate the benefits and limitations of traditional methods of ceramic recording compared with digital alternatives.

Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.