BA Archaeology (V401)

Overview

What is archaeology?

Archaeologists study the material remains of the human past - the ‘stuff’ that tells us about everyday life. This includes the landscapes, settlements and buildings in which people lived, worked, prayed and played, the art and artefacts they made, including their clothes, jewellery, cooking pots and weapons, and the graves and monuments they used to commemorate their dead. We're also interested in the natural environments of human communities, as well as people themselves.  Their bodies, diet, diseases, and relationships to geography, climate, plants and animals all provide evidence helping us discover more about past societies. Alongside studying what happened in the past, we're also concerned with the role of the past in the present. We are passionate about how historic sites are conserved, presented and accessed by the public – with making history matter in today’s society.

The BA in Archaeology allows you to explore the past and its people from a primarily humanities-based perspective, although all of our degree courses involve learning skills and techniques in both the sciences and the humanities.  The BA in Archaeology offers you the widest range of module options to choose from, and you can follow your interests in any time period, from the Palaeolithic to the 21st century. 

Teaching

A wide-ranging approach

At York we use a wide range of lectures, seminars, workshops, practicals, and independent learning projects in our teaching. First year courses are a mixture of all of these formats, but to start, we put more emphasis on group work and less on individual projects. However, as the course progresses, you will begin to spend more time on intensive small group teaching and individual study, culminating in leading and chairing a seminar, researching and writing a dissertation, and organizing and presenting an academic lecture during your final year.

Throughout your three years, our modules will demand that you sometimes cooperate in teams, and at other times take full individual responsibility for your work. You will be asked to take notes in lectures, participate in and even lead group discussions, and perform a range of practical skills and fieldwork. Using this wide-ranging approach to teaching and learning, we help you to develop confidence in your own abilities, and cultivate the transferable skills which are in high demand amongst your future employers, both inside and outside archaeology.

Highly rated teaching

York is well known for its flexible patterns of study and the variety of choices we offer in our options. Our course structure pages will give you specifics about the modules you can take over your three years in archaeology, and York's modularized curriculum also allows you to take modules from designated courses in other disciplines if you like. In this way, with the help of your supervisor, you can tailor your degree course to suit your individual interests and career aims. The archaeology department's teaching approach has been consistently highly rated in both student feedback and peer review. We achieved a score of 24/24 on the Teaching Quality Assessment, and in the National Student Survey, we have been the overall #1 ranked archaeology department for student satisfaction every year since 2008.

Small group teaching

York prides itself on a wide variety of teaching methods, but the most distinctive is our commitment to small-group teaching. But what does 'small group teaching' mean in practice? Seminars are a key component of our teaching and learning strategy, and may be a format that's new to you, as most school curriculum focuses on formal lectures. In seminars, reading and preparation in advance of the class are essential. In a few cases the class will simply be open, directed discussion, but in most seminars the content is delivered by you to your fellow students, in the form of short, topical presentations.

Responsibilities and rewards

The lecturer is responsible for setting out the themes of the session and directing discussion, but in the seminar format, the students themselves have a lot of responsibility for their classmates' and their own learning experience. This may seem challenging and a little bit daunting at first, but we know York students are up to it! We feel strongly that being able to read, understand, distill, and succinctly present a topic to an audience of your peers is a skill that will serve you throughout your life, in whatever career you end up pursuing.

Some students take to the seminar format quickly, while others need more time and practice, but graduating students always cite their small group learning experiences as one of the most highly regarded and beneficial aspects of their degree. In your first year, you will give presentations in small groups, with the emphasis on practice, learning to divide the work equally, and working effectively as a unit. As you progress through your course, you will start to prepare seminar presentations on your own, and by your third year, in your Assessed Seminar, you will run a whole seminar yourself!

Assessment

Challenges and opportunities

Along with a wide variety of teaching methods, York emphasizes a diverse range of assessment. These include traditional exams, short and long essays, a variety of innovative writing tasks, online assignments, team and independent projects, portfolios, and presentations. We know that every student has their strengths, and we believe firmly in allowing you to shine in what you already do well, but also in training you and challenging you to improve in all forms of academic expression. The range of assessments that you undertake at York is fundamental to developing highly sought-after transferable skills, and preparing you for future success in any career.

Fieldwork

Fieldwork and practicals

York places a lot of emphasis on the theoretical aspects of archaeology, but we also give you ample practical experience in the field and in labs. You will jump straight into fieldwork in your first year, as fieldtrips introduce you to the modern and historic landscape around you, considering the relationship of humans and the natural world over time, and thinking about issues of investigation, conservation, and presentation. Throughout the year, you will participate in various field activities, including fieldwalking, geophysical survey, and buildings recording, and you will also have a chance to learn how to process these records. In the summer term, you will spend an intensive session on a departmental excavation, and then afterwards take on the post-excavation processing of finds, field records, and environmental samples.

Putting theory into practice

In your second year, you will be allowed to specialize in a particular archaeological method or technique, by choosing one of our practical skills modules.  These modules then lead into a group project undertaken in the summer term.  The fieldwork you undertake in your first and second years helps you gain the fundamental skills you need to undertake your own archaeological recording and analysis for your dissertation. All of our fieldwork modules provide you with a chance to put theory into practice, and to be involved first hand in the recovery of evidence and the development of new ideas. Archaeological fieldwork enables you to build your self-discipline and team-working skills, and, we admit, is famous for its social side as well!

Facilities

A place to work and play

The archaeology department is not housed on the Heslington campus, but rather in our own building in the centre of the city of York - the historic King's Manor. Archaeology students benefit enormously from having full access to their own dedicated space, which they can choose to use in addition to all the facilities the main campus has to offer.

In the department, you have access to a range of in-house facilities, including:

  • our own seminar rooms and lecture theatres
  • computer labs with printers, scanners, and specialized photo, digital drawing, and mapping software
  • a dedicated library with subject-specific books, access to the York Library System resources, and plentiful study space
  • a large lab space for working with artefacts, soil and environmental samples, and skeletal remains
  • an extremely wide range of archaeological equipment available for student use, including fieldwork tools, Total Station theodolites, geophysical survey equipment (resistivity, magnetometry, ground penetrating radar), handheld GPS systems, a laser scanner, and a variety of photo and imaging technology

The King's Manor also has dedicated social spaces for your use, including a refectory offering hot and cold drinks, snacks, and light lunches and a senior common room in which you can relax and read a paper, chat with your friends, study on your own or in groups, or peruse the regular exhibitions of local and national artists that we host in the SCR.  The King's Manor building is built around two courtyards, both of which provide ample space to work, socialize, or just relax and enjoy the sunshine.

Archaeology on your doorstep

Furthermore, the city of York and the wider region offer wonderful resources of historic buildings, world-renowned archaeological sites, heritage institutions, and museums and galleries. York is home to several archaeological units, and one of the biggest urban archaeology units in the country - York Archaeological Trust, and its subsidiaries JORVIK and DIG. It is also the home of the Council for British Archaeology, and the northern headquarters of English Heritage. The Yorkshire Museums Trust encompasses the Yorkshire Museum, the Castle Museum and the York Art Gallery, all in the city, and we also have access to facilities provided by the library and archives at York Minster and the Borthwick Institute for Archives.

Further afield, we are surrounded by archaeology, from famous sites like Star Carr, the East Yorkshire chariot burials, and Wharram Percy, to a wealth of castles, monasteries, National Trust properties, and country houses.

Entry

Who does archaeology?

Archaeology is one of the few subjects that is equally relevant to those whose interests lie in the humanities and those who prefer the sciences, as the discipline incorporates methods, theories, and approaches from historical disciplines, the social sciences, and the hard sciences. For that reason, we accept students with a wide range of academic backgrounds, and we are popular with mature students and those who have non-traditional academic and work experience. We also don't require you to have done any archaeology before you apply. If you have an interest in the past, its people, and its material culture, you can pursue a degree in archaeology.

We accept any combination of A-levels, including General Studies and Critical Thinking, and we encourage you to undertake independent projects and experiential learning. We also accept a wide variety of equivalent overseas qualifications, and request a 6.5 IELTS score for non-native English speakers. Please see our typical offers page for more information about the grades we require for entry onto our courses.

Our degrees train you in the latest archaeological methods, techniques, and theories, preparing you to pursue a career in the archaeology or heritage fields. However, archaeology is also a good general degree course, which provides you with excellent transferable skills. For example, you’ll learn how to carry out primary research in libraries, archives, the internet, and in the field. You'll also develop excellent written and verbal communication skills through regular essays, seminar presentations and discussions, and ultimately, through an assessed lecture in your 3rd year. You’ll be able to organise and manage meetings, having chaired an assessed seminar in your 3rd year, and throughout, you will learn how to work closely with others, both as a leader and a team-player in the classroom and in the field.

Students with a BA in Archaeology can enter a variety of heritage professions, from museums and galleries, to archives and archaeological units. In addition, many of our students go on to become education officers in museums or public archaeology groups, or provide archaeological expertise to local authorities and heritage bodies. However, students might also use the skills they develop here to enter a wide range of professions outside of archaeology, particularly those which value problem solving, creative thinking, analysis and interpretation of evidence, project management skills, engagement with the public, good IT literacy, equal aptitude in writing, verbal communication, and numeracy, and a global perspective. A degree in archaeology will make you competitive in today's employment environment.

 
Fieldwork

Typical offer: ABB-AAB

Our course always has interesting lecture topics and enthusiastic staff.

Liz Duncalf