Specialism: Societal collapse...and how to avoid it - ARC00106H

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Module summary

Archaeology is in essence the study of societal change through time, and this means that as archaeologists we can see examples where societies have either ceased to exist, or have changed so fundamentally that we can reasonably describe them as having collapsed. Using examples from around the world and from the last 10,000 years, we will explore the factors that can lead to societal collapse, how these factors can interact in complex ways, and ask what lessons we can learn from previous collapses to inform society today.

Related modules

A directed option - students must pick a Specialism module and have a choice of which to take

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 1 2026-27

Module aims

3rd year specialism modules focus upon the archaeology of a well defined time, space or theme - in this case the archaeology of societal collapse - and the modules support students to work in small groups to focus upon primary source material and to apply to it the theoretical and thematic perspectives learned over your first and second years. The aim is to facilitate the acquisition of deeper knowledge of one aspect of the past than has been possible in more general courses.

Specifically this module aims:

• To examine the scholarly approaches to, and range of evidence for, societal collapse and societal resilience; exploring what archaeologists and others mean by collapse and resilience, and why many archaeologists are hesitant to use the term collapse.

• To evaluate and critique existing models and theories of societal collapse by assessing the empirical data used to support them, and by exploring their causational plausibility.

• To develop skills in research, analysis and communication.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• demonstrate a broad and comparative knowledge of theories of societal collapse

• critically discuss and assess the key theories, methods, and debates, and their limitations

• critically evaluate primary data and evidence

• communicate an in-depth, logical and structured argument, supported by archaeological evidence

Module content

We will start with a general discussion of what archaeologists mean by societal collapse and the factors that could lead to dramatic changes in societal structures, and in subsequent weeks we will discuss a range of case studies of increasing complexity in order to build, critique and test models and theories of societal collapse. This will allow us to explore the role of resource degradation, environmental change, invasion, over-specialisation, natural disasters, elite capture of resources/societal inequality, fragmentation, the spread of new ideas/revolution, and the range of factors that can make it difficult for a society to adapt to changing circumstances such as inflexible bureaucracies or belief systems.

The module and assessment allows you to follow your existing interests in particular periods, regions, data types and research techniques, or to develop new interests, or to produce comparative studies that employ insights from different periods, regions or research techniques to understand societal collapse elsewhere. To this end, the final two weeks comprise problem-based exercises to share ideas, refine your assessment submissions, and to ask how examples of societal collapse in the past can inform responses to societal challenges today.

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Oral presentation/seminar/exam	100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Oral presentation/seminar/exam	100.0

Module feedback

Formative - summative plan / practice presentations

Summative - Option of pre-recorded presentation (10 minutes) or essay (2500 words).

Indicative reading

For a recent overview of archaeological research on societal collapse see:

• Middleton, G.D. Collapse Studies in Archaeology from 2012 to 2023 (2025). Journal of Archaeological Research 33, 57–115.

For ‘classics’ on the subject of archaeology of collapse see:

• Butzer, K. W., and Endfield, G. H. (2012). Critical perspectives on historical collapse. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109: 3628–3631.

• Tainter, Joseph A. (2006) The Archaeology of Overshoot and Collapse. Annual Review of Anthropology 35 (1): 59-74

• Yoffee, Norman (2016). “The Power of Infrastructures: A Counternarrative and a Speculation.” Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 23 (4): 1053–65.

And for why this all matters to modern societies see:

• Dearing, J., Cooper, G., and Willcock, S. (2023). Ecological doom-loops: Why ecosystem collapses may occur much sooner than expected – New research. The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/ecological-doom-loops-why-ecosystem-collapses-may-occur-much-sooner-than-expected-new-research-207955.