BA Archaeology and Anthropology

Program Overview

The BA Archaeology and Anthropology degree from the University of Reading explores human origins, cultures, and societies, focusing on critical issues such as inequality, climate change, and human health. Students engage in hands-on learning through field schools, lab work, and museum access, developing skills in excavation, GIS, and anthropological research. Graduates have diverse career prospects in archaeology, heritage, anthropology, and other sectors, including healthcare, business, and government.

Program Outline

Objectives:

• Provide insight into what it means to be human
• Relationship between humans and environmental change
• Inequality, migration, and identity
• Population growth and development
• Human diets and health
• Politics, economics, and sustainability
• Develop a broad range of subject-specific and transferable skills that span the humanities and sciences

Outline:

Year 1

• Compulsory Modules:
• Revolutions and Transitions: The Human Journey from 6 Million Years Ago to the Present Day
• Archaeology Today: Methods and Practice
• Forensic Anthropology and the Archaeology of Death
• Contemporary World Cultures: an Introduction to Social Anthropology
• Global Challenges
• Optional Modules:
• Presenting the Past: An Introduction to Museum Studies
• Landscapes and Resources
• Approaching Human Geography
• Geographical Imaginaries
• Optional Language Modules

Year 2

• Compulsory Modules:
• Archaeology and Heritage: Past, Present and Future
• Archaeology Field School and Professional Practice
• Changing the Face of the Earth: Past, Present and Future Sustainability
• Living with Each Other: Social and Cultural Geography
• Optional Modules:
• Ancient Objects: Materials and Meanings
• Prehistoric Europe: the First Million Years
• Celts and Romans: Northern Europe and Britain
• Medieval Europe: Power, Religion and Death
• Bioarchaeology
• Summer Placement
• Museum Learning and Engagement
• Curatorship and Collections Management
• Optional Language Modules

Year 3

• Compulsory Modules:
• Dissertation in Archaeology
• Optional Modules:
• The Anthropology of Heritage and Cultural Property
• Objects and Identities in the Roman Empire
• Biological Anthropology
• Post-excavation: Assessment, Analysis and Publication in the Profession
• Emergence of Civilisation in Mesopotamia
• The First Europeans: Archaeology of the Lower Paleolithic
• The Archaeology and Anthropology of Food
• Living in Medieval Towns
• Science and the Dead: Taphonomy and Chemistry in Human Remains
• Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain
• Archaeology of the Dark Ages
• Deathscapes and Dark Tourism

Teaching:

• A supportive, collaborative learning environment
• Join the University of Reading’s Department of Archaeology, a community of passionate and inquisitive staff, students, and alumni.
• We’re an international, research-intensive department with expertise that spans the sciences, humanities, and social sciences.
• You’ll learn about global issues, enhanced by the latest developments and thinking within social and scientific archaeology and anthropology.
• Field School and field trips
• You will have the opportunity to put your learning into practice through your time with the Archaeology Field School.
• Gain hands-on experience in all aspects of an archaeological excavation, including:
• Excavation
• Surveying
• Geophysics
• Mapping
• Planning
• Finds processing
• Studying ancient plant and animal remains.
• Many of our modules include field trips to sites and museums around England.
• You’ll be encouraged to get involved with research excavations in the UK and Europe, spanning prehistoric monuments, Roman cities, and medieval castles.
• Hands-on learning
• Use specialist equipment and GIS (geographical information systems)
• Work in laboratories
• Access the University’s three on-campus museums
• Flexible study options
• Cultural and social diversity
• Inequality and sustainable living
• Biological and evolutionary anthropology
• Environmental and climatic change
• Material culture, heritage, and museums

Careers:

• Archaeology careers
• More than 40 major infrastructure projects are planned over the next 17 years, and archaeologists are required for exploratory excavations and analysis before construction begins.
• Graduates have gone on to work within the archaeological and heritage sector for companies such as:
• Museum of London Archaeology
• Thames Valley Archaeological Services
• Cambridge Archaeological Unit
• Victoria and Albert Museum
• Colchester Museum
• Portable Antiquities Scheme
• Graduates have also found careers with a diverse range of employers outside the heritage sector, including:
• NHS
• Department for Culture, Digital, Media and Sport
• Metropolitan Police
• The Daily Telegraph
• Mott MacDonald (engineering consultancy)
• Hargreaves Lansdown (financial consultancy)
• Humanity First (charity)
• Anthropology careers
• Anthropology can be a path into the civil service, international development, agriculture, social research, the arts, and social policy.
• Graduates have used their expertise across the humanities and sciences to enter careers such as teaching, policing, industry, and commerce.

Other:

• Ranked 1st in the UK for research quality and research outputs in Archaeology (Times Higher Education Institutions Ranked by Subject, based on its analysis of REF 2021)
• Top 3 in the UK for teaching quality in Archaeology (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024)
• 100% of students in the Department of Archaeology said our teaching staff were good or very good at explaining things (National Student Survey, 2023)
• Overall, 97% of graduates from Archaeology are in work or further study within 15 months of graduation (based on our analysis of HESA data © HESA 2023, Graduate Outcomes Survey 2020/21; includes all Archaeology responders)

New UK/Republic of Ireland students:

£9,250

New international students:

£27,650