Course description
Postgraduate Courses: MA Archaeology
This department has a long tradition of welcoming students at Masters level whose first degree is in another subject and who wish to convert to the field of archaeology, whether for career purposes, future research or for interest. The MA in Archaeology provides an advanced conversion course which aims to give students a broad and critical understanding of the current practice of archaeology and allows them to investigate the subject through specialist study of their own choice. Students choose from a range of thematic and period-based modules from a wide selection on offer in the department and the course also provides an opportunity to undertake archaeological fieldwork. One of the greatest strengths of this course is the diversity of experience and knowledge which students educated outside of the discipline can bring to the subject.
The course is flexibly designed and provides a choice of two routes in which the students can either complete an archaeological work placement, or take a research training module and prepare a dissertation. The course may be taken over one-year (full-time) or two-years (part-time).
Staff and research interests:
-Prof John Barrett, Later prehistory, Britain and Greece, archaeological theory and practice.
-Prof John Collis, Iron Age, Celts
-Dr Roger Doonan, Archaeometallurgy.
-Dr Dawn Hadley, Funerary Archaeology, Anglo-Saxon, Vikings, gender
-Prof Mike Parker Pearson, Funerary Archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, later prehistory.
-Dr Paul Pettitt, Palaeolithic, lithic technology
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 (Introduction to archaeological theory, field survey, the study of archaeological remains, material culture, environments)
Optional modules
Students take four optional modules from a wide range including:
-Archaeology of the Palaeolithic
-Roman Europe
-Funerary Archaeology
-Viking-Age Europe
-Ethnography and Anthropology of Modern Hunter-Gatherers
-Iron Age Europe
-Mediterranean Landscapes
-The Archaeology of Classical Athens
-Material Life and Culture in the Early Modern World
-The Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean
-Archaeology and History of the British Isles, 400-1000
-Palaeolithic Art
-Contacts, Mobility and Exchange Across the Northern World
Students taking this programme may choose to study a broad range of options or to specialise in their chosen area of interest.
Dissertation or Fieldwork Placement
The option of undertaking practical fieldwork will still be available to those undertaking a dissertation
Assessment by a combination of essays, project reports and dissertation (if taken).
Field projects run by the Department of Archaeology will be open to students
