Archaeology

Archaeology is the study of the human past from our origins several million years ago to recent times.

While historians are primarily concerned with oral, written and transcribed accounts of the past, archaeologists use material remains to study the lives, societies and cultures of past peoples.

What the programme covers

This programme:

• covers current thinking on some of the best known and most significant archaeological sites

• considers the most pressing questions in archaeological research

• provides an introduction to the tools and skills archaeologists use to reconstruct the past

• offers an insight into how past humans interacted with the environment and adapted to periods of climate change

Our teaching is multidisciplinary, reflecting the broad range of disciplines that underpin archaeological method and theory.

You can study a broad range of time periods and different approaches to reconstructing the past. These include:

• human evolution

• later hunter-gatherers

• the first farmers

• the later prehistoric societies of the Iron Age

Our geographical scope reaches from the north of Scotland over central and southern Europe, the western and eastern Mediterranean to Egypt and the Near East. We also specialise in osteology, the study of the skeletal remains of humans and animals.

In Years 3 and 4, you can choose to specialise in a specific time period, geographic area or culture.

Practical skills

We emphasise the importance of training in practical archaeological skills.

You will have an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in artefact identification and analysis in practical sessions using artefacts from our own Vere Gordon Childe collection.

Fieldwork

You will complete three weeks of archaeological fieldwork at the end of Year 1. In later years of study, you will also have the option to do:

• further fieldwork

• projects in heritage management and public engagement

• lab-based analysis of archaeological remains

Programme benefits

• Uncover the latest thinking on the world’s most spectacular archaeological sites.

• Reconstruct the past using the latest archaeological tools and skills.

• Complete archaeological fieldwork in the UK or abroad.

• Gain hands-on experience with the Vere Gordon Childe collection, learning artefact identification and analysis.

• Visit the National Museum of Scotland for classes and field trips.