ObjectivesTo provide experience and advanced training in the methods and theories of Aegean archaeology. To introduce students to current issues in Aegean Archaeology, with an emphasis on later prehistory.
Entry requirementsApplicants for this MA should normally be in possession of, or about to be awarded, a good Honours Degree (at least a 2:1, or its equivalent such as GPA 3.0 in the USA) in archaeology, history or a related discipline (such as classical studies, geography). A reading knowledge of a European language would also be advantageous.
Academic titleMA Aegean Archaeology
Course descriptionPostgraduate Courses: MA Aegean Archaeology (research track)
The University of Sheffield houses the largest group of Aegean archaeologists in the UK. This course aims to produce students capable of doctoral research, and focuses on the archaeology of the Aegean from the advent of farming at the beginning of the Neolithic onwards. The course introduces students to issues of theory and method in archaeology that are then explored in the context of the archaeology of the Aegean. The course draws heavily on the department´s research strengths in landscape archaeology, archaeological science and the integration of textual and material evidence to explore a range of issues in the later prehistory of the Aegean. In tune with the department´s commitment to the study of the diversity of humanity, students are encouraged to place the later prehistory of the Aegean in the broader context of societies in other times and places.
The course may be taken over one-year (full-time) or two-years (part-time).
Staff and research interests:
-Dr Gianna Ayala, Geoarchaeology, historic human societies, landscape change in Italy and Sicily.
-Prof John Bennet, Aegean archaeology, archaeology and text, Linear B.
-Emeritus Prof Keith Branigan, Minoan Crete, early metallurgy, Minoan funerary behaviour.
-Dr Peter Day, Bronze Age ceramics, Crete and the Cyclades.
-Dr Roger Doonan, Early iron working.
-Dr Paul Halstead, Neolithic and Bronze Ages of Greece, archaeozoology, ethnoarchaeology.
-Dr Jane Rempel, Greek archaeology, the Black Sea and Armenia, Greek colonisation.
-Dr Susan Sherratt, Late Bronze and early Iron Age of the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean; trade and interaction.
Course Structure and Assessment
Core Modules
-Reinventing Archaeology (What archaeology does, what it could do and how it could develop, consideration of all aspects of archaeology from theory to fieldwork and conservation policy)
-Research Methods in Archaeology (Project management, research design, dissertation preparation) Introduction to archaeological theory, field survey, the study of archaeological remains, material culture, environments.
-Mediterranean landscapes
-Current Issues in Aegean Prehistory
Option Courses (students choose three from those listed below)
-The Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean
-Archaeology and Texts in the Aegean, 1700-700BC
-Archaeological Practice
-Archaeology of Classical Athens
A Dissertation on a topic of the student´s own choosing
Assessment by a combination of essays and a dissertation