Undergraduate Module Descriptor

ARA2014: Regions and Empires in Islamic Archaeology

This module descriptor refers to the 2024/5 academic year.

Module Aims

Students will develop critical skills in understanding Islamic archaeology as it contributes to reconstructing the history of large parts of the globe. They will gain an appreciation of regional differences and similarities in Islamic archaeology and an enriched understanding of Islamic heritage and monuments.

Through analysis completed in the Islamic galleries of major UK museums (e.g. the British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum) students will be introduced to critical appreciation of public heritage narratives and displays, and pertinent debates in museology associated with representing Islam.

Individual short presentations on agreed Islamic archaeological topics will permit students to engage in-depth in researching a specific site or body of material. This can help in developing other dissertations, and projects, and enhances research skills transferable across course units in power point presentation, library and web based research, and group based discussion.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.

On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. Understand the key different empires and regions that have been significant in Islamic history from an archaeological perspective
2. Analyse Islamic archaeology and material culture museum displays from a critical perspective
Discipline-Specific Skills3. Evaluate the value of different categories of archaeological evidence in reconstructing past societies
4. Demonstrate understanding of regional differences in approaches within archaeology
Personal and Key Skills5. Develop enhanced confidence in completing independent research
6. Critically evaluate different categories of textual, visual, and material culture evidence