Archaeological Practice with Professional Placement

The department also has a commercial research consultancy (ARCA), where you can learn from highly-trained specialist staff. The consultancy offers valuable laboratory work experience – an opportunity to combine your academic expertise with delivering high-quality commercial solutions. During fieldwork in the UK and abroad you will use state of the art field equipment – including ground penetrating radar, magnetometers, magnetic susceptibility meters, differential GPS instruments and total stations. In addition, you will learn how to use industry standard computer software such as ArcGIS and Geoplot.

In Year 1, you learn all the basics for a solid foundation in Archaeology, from prehistory to the historic period and cover topics like Archaeological Science and Fieldwork. This is topped off with an exciting four weeks of fieldwork on a research excavation.

You cement your knowledge in Year 2 by acquiring practical and applied skills including in Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing and measured survey, and post-excavation analysis. You prepare for a dissertation with modules on theory and research method. There is also a range of optional modules that explore the entire human story from Early Prehistoric Europe, through Ancient Greece to Medieval, post-Medieval and Modern Eurasia, as well as Human Bioarchaeology, the Archaeology and Anthropology of Death and Burial, and a multi-day field trip module in which you visit sites in another region of Britain.

Delve into what it’s really like to work as a professional archaeologist in Year 3 with a full year’s placement at an archaeological organisation and develop a portfolio of professional practice to demonstrate your experience to future employers.

In Year 4, you engage in more vocational learning during classes on project management and cultural heritage practice, and a module features archaeological debates. You write a dissertation, generally on a practical topic, such as a site survey. You can also choose from optional modules which include examining the archaeology of Europe Prehistory and further afield from a range of perspectives, including religion, society and conflict.

With the course’s focus on vocational archaeology, it’s no surprise that many of our graduates proceed directly into a career in professional archaeology, often with commercial archaeological organisations undertaking developer funded excavation, survey work and research work.