Studying Archaeology at Undergraduate Level: Courses

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What sort of degree courses include archaeology?

Archaeology is a broad subject linking with many others, including geography, history, social sciences, maths, physics, biology, chemistry, art, religion, landscape management, conservation, forensic science and technology; it therefore can be studied from many different perspectives. Generally however these break down into period/location-related perspectives (Medieval Archaeology, Roman Archaeology, Egyptian Archaeology etc) or discipline ethos based perspectives: Archaeological Science, Marine Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology etc).

To help you find courses the following is a list of the possible degree titles related to archaeology. This list provides most of the degree titles although the exact wording may vary from university to university:

Single subject degrees:

  • Archaeology
  • Archaeological Science
  • Archaeological Practice / Field Archaeology
  • Bioarchaeology
  • Biological Anthropology
  • Conservation / Restoration
  • Conservation of Objects in Museums / Museum Conservation
  • Egyptology / Egyptian Archaeology
  • Environment and Heritage / Landscape
  • Evolutionary Anthropology
  • Forensic Anthropology
  • Forensic Archaeology
  • Geoarchaeology
  • Heritage Studies / Heritage Conservation
  • Historical Archaeology
  • Marine Archaeology
  • Medieval Archaeology
  • Nautical Archaeology
  • Region/country-based archaeology (ie Scottish Archaeology, Welsh Archaeology, etc)

Combined degrees:

  • Archaeology and a language
  • Archaeology and a science
  • Archaeology and Ancient History
  • Archaeology and Anthropology / Social Anthropology
  • Archaeology and Art History
  • Archaeology and Biblical Studies
  • Archaeology and Byzantine Studies
  • Archaeology and Classics / Classical Civilization studies
  • Archaeology and Geography
  • Archaeology and Geology
  • Archaeology and History
  • Archaeology and Landscape / Landscape History
  • Archaeology and linguistics
  • Archaeology and Palaeoecology
  • Archaeology and Prehistory
  • Archaeology and Slavonic Studies
  • Archaeology of the Ancient World
  • History and Landscape Archaeology

Some of these courses may be offered in both a 3-year and a 4-year degree (ie with a year’s placement working in archaeology). In Scotland, they may be 4- or 5-years and lead to an undergraduate MA degree.