BA Archaeology / Course details

Archaeology offers you the opportunity to explore humanity, from its prehistoric origins to industrialisation and globalisation, and to consider key challenges of modern society - from climate change and new technologies, to gender identities, cultural interactions and conflict. Through scientific analysis and interpretation of artefacts, ancient texts and inscriptions, architecture, human remains and landscapes, our courses have the study of past people at their heart, ranging geographically from Egypt and the Near East, across the Mediterranean, to the British Isles and North-West Europe.

As part of the department of Classics, Ancient History, Archaeology and Egyptology (CAHAE), the largest of its kind in the country, you will have the unparalleled opportunity to draw upon staff expertise in material culture analysis, ancient history, language and literature, social complexity, ancient writing, belief systems and funerary rites, monuments and landscapes, within your study.

You'll explore artefacts, architecture and ancient texts, handling our object collections within our well-equipped laboratories, getting exclusive access to the archives and expertise of the Manchester Museum, and going on fieldtrips to awe-inspiring sites. Fieldwork training is integral to all of our courses: you will have the opportunity to dig for at least four weeks, joining expert research teams across the UK, Mediterranean and the Near East, who will train you in excavation techniques.

Our students have worked on sites of global importance including Stonehenge, Star Carr and Easter Island, and have uncovered everything from the earliest British Mesolithic art to a Viking boat burial in Scotland. Use our dedicated collections, laboratories, study spaces and libraries to pursue your own interests, supported by our award-winning teachers and world-leading researchers, and guest speakers from across the globe, to become part of our interdisciplinary community that is passionate about understanding the ancient world.

Experience digs in the UK and abroad

Fieldwork training is an integral part of our course in all years, and you'll be introduced to excavation techniques by experienced archaeologists.

Placement year option

Apply your subject-specific knowledge in a real-world context through a placement year in your third year of study, enabling you to enhance your employment prospects, clarify your career goals and build your external networks.

Study abroad

You may apply to spend one semester studying abroad during Year 2. You'll have the opportunity to join research teams and help make discoveries that shape our knowledge of the world.

Destination-specific specialisms such as Inuit material culture, Australian rock art, or Scandinavian hoards could shape your final year dissertation.

Explore in-depth collections on campus

Discover artefacts, architecture, ancient texts and beliefs using our well-equipped laboratories, our own departmental teaching collections and the exclusive archives and curatorial expertise of Manchester Museum .

Outreach and engagement

You'll have the opportunity to share your passion for archaeology through community and public engagement projects.

You will be taught by world-class researchers with archaeological specialisms in identity, landscapes, monuments, material culture and social complexity.

As an archaeology student you'll benefit from a breadth of teaching methods designed to develop your transferable skills, including:

• tutorials;
• seminars;
• laboratory sessions;
• lectures;
• fieldwork;
• one-to-one tutorials;
• group exercises;
• presentations;
• reports;
• original research guided by academic tutors.

Subsidised fieldwork includes one-day site visits as well as extensive periods of excavation in locations as close as Stonehenge and Orkney or as distant as Africa and the Middle East. You'll also learn within our archaeological labs, where you'll be trained to use a wide range of equipment to analyse and record objects. You can access training in digital illustration and GIS packages to support this activity and loan landscape survey and geophysics equipment for fieldwork.

Assessment methods include:

• written examinations;
• coursework essays;
• research reports;
• practical tests;
• fieldwork workbooks;
• individual projects;
• oral presentations;
• third year dissertation;
• digital posters;
• audio performances.

In addition, archaeology field training involves a variety of assessment over a range of skills and techniques.

Manchester Museum

Manchester Museum is home to important prehistoric, classical and ethnographic collections. You'll go behind the scenes to handle, analyse and interpret rare artefacts, including one of the finest Egyptology collections in Britain.

Our ongoing collaboration between the museum and the global work of archaeology staff offers unique opportunities for students to get involved in the design of major exhibitions.

Whitworth Art Gallery

The Whitworth Art Gallery holds important archaeological textile collections, and art and sculpture on themes such as landscape as part of its broader internationally significant collections.

The Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology

The Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology is home to a film library with some 1,500 titles, from classic ethnographic film to contemporary documentary and world cinema.

Archaeological laboratories

You'll learn within our archaeological labs, where you'll use microscopes, digital cameras, delicate measuring equipment and portable XRF to analyse and record objects. You can also access training in digital illustration and GIS packages to support this activity and loan landscape survey and geophysics equipment for fieldwork. Our labs are supported by a dedicated technician who can offer training and assistance.

Field survey equipment

Equipment to support your studies includes three total stations and a traverse kit, a sub metre GPS survey system, a drone and professional photography equipment. Several of our lab-based resources can also be used in the field, including our PXRF instrument, ProScope and 3D scanner.

Find out more on the facilities page.