AQA 7016 SP 2017

Topics are clearly and logically structured and learning includes: • an understanding of the nature of archaeological evidence and what examining such evidence can tell us about past hum

DRAFT SPECIFICA

5.6 Access to assessment: diversity and inclusion 22

Are you using the latest version of this specification?

• You will always find the most up-to-date version of this specification on our website at

aqa.org.uk/7016

• We will write to you if there are significant changes to the specification

1 Introduction

1.1 Why choose AQA for AS Archaeology

Archaeology is a great way to explore the past It also helps develop valuable skills to ensure your

students stand out from the crowd Higher education and businesses value the independent

research, teamwork, leadership and project management skills you’ll help your students to

develop

You can find out about all our Archaeology qualifications at aqa.org.uk/archaeology

1.1.1 A specification designed for you and your students

This new qualification retains much of the content that we know you and your students enjoy

Topics are clearly and logically structured and learning includes:

• an understanding of the nature of archaeological evidence and what examining such evidence

can tell us about past human societies

• an understanding and practical application of archaeological techniques, including

contemporary techniques

• the practice of responsible archaeology

• how to analyse archaeological material and data

1.1.2 Clear, well structured exams, accessible for all

To enable your students to show their breadth of knowledge and understanding, we’ve created a

simple and straightforward structure and layout for our papers, using a mixture of question styles

1.2 Support and resources to help you teach

We’ve worked with experienced teachers to provide you with a range of resources that will help

you confidently plan, teach and prepare for exams

1.2.1 Teaching resources

Visit aqa.org.uk/7016 to see all our teaching resources They include:

• specimen papers and mark schemes to show the standards required and how your students’

papers will be marked

• sample schemes of work and teacher guides to help you plan your course with confidence

• a phone and email based subject team to support you in the delivery of the specification

• training courses to help you deliver AQA archaeology qualifications

1.2.2 Preparing for exams

Visit aqa.org.uk/7016 for everything you need to prepare for our exams, including:

• past papers, mark schemes and examiners’ reports

• specimen papers and mark schemes for new courses

• Exampro: a searchable bank of past AQA exam questions

• example student answers with examiner commentaries

1.2.3 Analyse your students' results with Enhanced Results Analysis

(ERA)

Find out which questions were the most challenging, how the results compare to previous years

and where your students need to improve ERA, our free online results analysis tool, will help you

see where to focus your teaching Register at aqa.org.uk/era

For information about results, including maintaining standards over time, grade boundaries and our

post-results services, visit aqa.org.uk/results

1.2.4 Keep your skills up-to-date with professional development

Wherever you are in your career, there’s always something new to learn As well as subject

specific training, we offer a range of courses to help boost your skills

• Improve your teaching skills in areas including differentiation, teaching literacy and meeting

Ofsted requirements

• Prepare for a new role with our leadership and management courses

You can attend a course at venues around the country, in your school or online – whatever suits

your needs and availability Find out more at coursesandevents.aqa.org.uk

1.2.5 Help and support

Visit our website for information, guidance, support and resources at aqa.org.uk/7016

If you'd like us to share news and information about this qualification, sign up for emails and

This draft qualification has not yet been accredited by Ofqual It is published to enable teachers to

have early sight of our proposed approach to AS Archaeology Further changes may be required

and no assurance can be given that this proposed qualification will be made available in its current

form, or that it will be accredited in time for first teaching in September 2017 and first award in

August 2018

1 Archaeology in practice (page 9)

2 Themes in world archaeology: depth study (page 13)

3 Themes in world archaeology: breadth studies (page 14)

2.2 Assessments

Paper 1

What's assessed

• Section A: Archaeology in practice

• Section B: Themes in world archaeology: depth studies

• Section C: Themes in world archaeology: breadth studies

How it's assessed

• Written exam: 3 hours

DRAFT SPECIFICA

3 Subject content

3.1 Archaeology in practice

This section of the specification has been updated to take account of the dramatic impact of

scientific techniques, particularly in reconnaissance and post-excavation and dating, and the

impact of new discoveries on our understanding of human evolution

3.1.1 The nature and types of archaeological evidence

This section underpins all other parts of the specification Students should be familiar with the

range of artefacts, features and environmental evidence most commonly encountered in the

archaeological record and which are used to construct accounts of past human activity They

should be able to explain and illustrate their value and limitations both generally and in given

scenarios They should be familiar with the evidence available in a range of different types of sites

including burials (including human remains), buildings and other structures, sites and settlements,

botanical and faunal remains and landscapes

Students should understand that the principle of stratification is central to all archaeological

investigation and the key concept of archaeological context (referring to the layer in which

archaeological material is found)

Students should become able to understand and translate the recording formats found in site

reports These include maps, plans, sections and matrices, photographs and drawings, data tablesfor ecofacts and artefacts, summative dating tables and written reports

Students should understand the value of secondary sources used by archaeologists, particularly

for desktop surveys They should be able to understand and translate from maps, plans,

photographs (including aerial photography), illustrations, historic accounts and records and written

sources

3.1.2 Site formation processes

The archaeological record is never static and archaeologists need to understand the processes

which shape the evidence from the past which is available to study These are termed

transformation or formation processes

• Transformation processes:

• formation processes

• post-depositional processes

• recovery processes

• How material entered the archaeological record:

• behavioural processes ‒ how was material acquired and used by humans

• depositional processes ‒ how was it discarded or became buried

• curation and structured deposition

• The natural (N-transforms) and cultural (C-transforms) factors which impact on archaeological

sites and materials:

3.1.3 Discovery and survey

This section covers the range of ways that archaeological sites and landscapes are discovered,

explored and recorded without excavation Students will need to understand the principles

underlying each method and their value and limitations to archaeology, both generally and in given

scenarios:

• Desktop survey:

• historic accounts and illustrations

• old maps and plans

• surface survey including transects

• field walking including set up and process

• micro-contour survey

• standing building survey

• the use of total stations and GPS systems

• sampling techniques (random, stratified, systematic and stratified-systematic)

• coring, augering and shovel-pit testing

• geochemical prospection (phosphate, lipids and heavy metals)

• Geophysical survey:

• resistivity

• magnetometry including the use of Caesium Magnetometers and use in underwater survey

• Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)

• metal detectors

• sonar

• Remote sensing:

• aerial photography including the identification of vertical and oblique photographs, crop, soil

and parch marks, shadow sites

• lidar

• satellite survey

3.1.4 Excavation, recovery and on-site recording

This section focuses on the destruction of the archaeological record through excavation and its

translation into the archives and reports of the record preserved by archaeologists Archaeological

sites are individual and once excavated are lost Students should understand the reasons for

excavation and the strategies employed by archaeologists to recover as much data as possible

from the process

• Archaeological decision making:

• reasons for excavation: rescue, salvage and research

• ethical considerations and local community issues

• excavation strategy

• preservation ‘in situ’ and ‘preservation by record’

• Principles of excavation:

• stratigraphy and context

• ethical considerations and local community issues

• excavation strategies including identification of trial trenching, test pits/sondages, open area,box grid, trenches, planum method, block lift and micro-excavation

• Process of excavation:

• tools and techniques

• recovery of artefacts and environmental evidence including sieving, metal detection and

flotation

• features, sections and cuts

• issues related to standing buildings

• issues related to underwater or waterlogged sites

• issues related to urban contexts

• recovery of human remains including techniques and ethical considerations

• on-site ‘first aid’ for fragile finds and materials

• Recording of excavation:

• context sheets, section drawings and plans

• photographs and digital records

• note books

• site matrix

3.1.5 Post-excavation analysis

This section focuses upon the techniques used by archaeologists to analyse and record the most

common types of material recovered from the archaeological record Students should understand

the principles behind each technique and their value and limitation, both generally and in given

scenarios Students should be able to translate from the most common types of illustration and

tables produced by archaeologists

• Processing of finds and samples:

• stabilising and conserving finds and materials

• cleaning

• initial sorting and use of reference materials

• use of specialists and the nature of their reports

• Analysis of lithics, ceramics and metals:

• visual examination including use of microscopes and SEM

• categorisation by physical properties and typology

• characterisation including petrology

• identification of manufacturing techniques including use of x-rays

• drawing finds process and what it can reveal; comparison with photographs

• Analysis of organic materials:

• the nature of organic materials and reasons for their survival

• analysis and recording of organic artefacts

• animal bones: sexing and ageing and how numbers and size are calculated and recorded

• microfauna and their value in reconstructing environments

• soils and sediments

• analysis and recording of plants and pollen and their value in reconstructing past

environments including interpretation of common graphs and tables

• Analysis of human remains:

• hard and soft tissue

• analysis of age, sex, disease and trauma, diet, lifestyle and cause of death

• DNA analysis for relationships and population studies

• Analytical techniques from physics and chemistry:

• basic principles and value and limitations of characterisation and trace-element analysis

using x-ray fluorescence, spectrometry and neutron activation analysis

• basic principles and value and limitations of organic residue analysis including lipid analysis

• basic principles and value and limitations of isotope studies into diet and sources of material

and populations

3.1.6 Dating

This section focuses upon the principles and techniques used to date archaeological sites and

materials Students need to understand the principles underpinning each technique and their value

and limitation, both generally and in given scenarios Students should be able to translate from the

most common types of dating tables produced by archaeologists

• Relative dating:

• archaeological periods and their relationship to geological and historical periods

• historical dating, superposition and the terms Terminus Post Quem and Terminus Ante Quem

• typology and seriation

• varves, sea cores and ice cores

• radiocarbon dating including the application of Bayesian statistical methods

• thermoluminescence dating

• potassium Argon dating

• calibration of radiometric techniques

3.1.7 Interpretation

This section focuses on the techniques archaeologists use to make sense of archaeological data in

order to construct accounts of what life was like in the past, including how tools were used and

what people believed Students need to understand the principles behind these techniques and

their value and limitation, both generally and in given scenarios They need to be able to apply this

understanding synoptically alongside an understanding of archaeological methods in order to

explain and assess reasons for different interpretations by archaeologists

• Identification and interpretation of patterns:

• repeated patterns including both faunal assemblages and assemblages of artefacts

• signatures of different activities

• analysis based on stratigraphy or site formation processes including the concept of

palimpsests and taphonomic studies

• spatial patterns including inter-site and intra-site analysis and activities in ‘off-site areas’ or

the ‘taskscape’

• The use of analogies in archaeology:

• historical analogies

• ethnographic analogies and ethnoarchaeology

• analogies from animal behaviour

• experimental archaeology.

3.2 Themes in world archaeology: depth study

This topic develops students' knowledge and understanding of the culture of a particular past

human society based on what archaeological evidence can tell us The economic basis and

settlements of each culture must be studied along with four other key areas:

• social organisation and why this may have developed

• the belief system(s) and rituals

• art

• technology

Students will study the prescribed archaeological context below This is made up of the five

prescribed sites or pairs of sites also listed below An archaeological context in defined as a time

span and place where the activity of a past human society can be studied using data, buildings,

artefacts and remnants left behind

The archaeological context we have selected for the AS depth study is pre literate to ensure that allstudents can focus upon physical evidence It has distinctive art and ritual practices associated

with it

The study of this depth context will give students a foundation in understanding European

prehistory This understanding will be further developed via their breadth study, either through the

study of later periods in Europe or through contrasting study of contexts on other continents

3.2.1 The Ice Age settlement of central and western Europe

Prescribed sites:

1 Rock shelters and caves of the Vézère Valley

2 Dolní Věstonice and Pavlov

3 Pincevent and the Paris Basin

4 Stellmoor-Meiendorf

5 Star Carr.

This context is best known for the cave art of France and Spain It also saw the spread of a rising

population of humans northwards into hostile habitats and the development of new kinds of tools,

weapons and settlements The most well known debate, which links art and beliefs, continues to

be around the nature and meaning of cave art and associated carvings on stone, bone, ivory and

antler

The use of ethnographic analogies for shamanism have been particularly influential both for cave

sites and the later hunting sites of northern Europe

Another key debate revolves around whether the survival and expansion of human populations

was due more to technological innovations such as fish-hooks or social adaptations such as

division of labour, specialisation and long distance networks

The selection of prescribed sites reflects both key developments during this period as well as

accessibility in terms of resources The sites of the Vézère Valley and those of the Dolní Věstonicecomplex enable exploration of different modes of adaptation at the height of the Ice Age and to

compare and contrast evidence for religion, art and social organisation Pincevent and related sitesand the Stellmoor complex represent movement away from core areas by pioneer groups and

different adaptation strategies for survival in tundra conditions Star Carr, represents the final stage