BA Archaeology / Course details

Year of entry: 2024

Course description

History always interested me, but I found reading books about it a bit dull.

When I realised you could touch, interact and discover history, I instantly fell in love with Archaeology; that alongside the excellent staff really makes this course at Manchester stand out!

Jason Walton / Archaeology undergraduate
Archaeology offers you the opportunity to explore past humanity, from its prehistoric origins to industrialisation and globalisation, and to consider key challenges of modern society - from climate change and the impact of new technologies, to subtle understandings of gender, cultural identity 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), you will have an 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 our courses: you will have the opportunity to dig for at least four weeks, joining expert research teams across the UK who will train you in excavation techniques.

Our past 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, to become part of our interdisciplinary community that is passionate about understanding the ancient world.

Special features

Experience digs in the UK and abroad

Fieldwork training is an integral part of our course throughout the degree, 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 could support research on Inuit material culture, Australian rock art, or Scandinavian hoards, enriching 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 .

Flexible Honours

Flexible Honours may allow you to study an additional arts, languages or cultures subject.

Outreach and engagement

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

Teaching and learning

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;
  • group exercises;
  • presentations;
  • reports;
  • one to one academic support sessions;
  • original research guided by academic tutors.

Subsidised fieldwork includes one-day site visits as well as extensive periods of excavation in locations such as Herefordshire, Yorkshire and Scotland. You'll also be trained in our archaeological labs and museum archives 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.

Coursework and assessment

Assessment methods may 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.

Course content for year 1

Gain a broad-based understanding of archaeological history and the methods and theories involved in the interpretation of past societies. 

Discover the process of archaeological fieldwork and the principles of excavation through lab-based study, artefact handling sessions, and hands-on field trips. 

Explore additional units in archaeology from both Britain and the wider world.

Course units for year 1

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

TitleCodeCredit ratingMandatory/optional
Discoveries and Discoverers: Sights and Sites CAHE10282 20 Mandatory
Doing Archaeology 1 CAHE10502 20 Mandatory
Constructing Archaic Greek History CAHE10012 20 Optional
From Republic to Empire: Introduction to Roman History, Society & Culture 218-31BC CAHE10021 20 Optional
Introduction to Egyptian Hieroglyphs  CAHE10032 20 Optional
The Making of the Mediterranean CAHE10131 20 Optional
Cities and Citizens CAHE10231 20 Optional
Introduction to the History and Culture of Pharaonic Egypt CAHE10651 20 Optional
Standing on The Shoulders of Giants: Foundations for Study in The Arts SALC10002 20 Optional
Ice Age to Baroque: Artworks in History SALC10041 20 Optional
Climate change and societal response: Lessons from the past SALC11011 20 Optional
Displaying 10 of 11 course units for year 1

Course content for year 2

Explore the emergence of archaeology from antiquarianism, and the 'big ideas' from philosophy and theory - power and ideology, phenomenology and materialism - that help analyse past societies.

Acquire the skills to frame your research questions, collect and analyse data, and present your results. Use this knowledge to develop a research topic of your own choice, which can include discoveries from your fieldwork.

Begin to explore period and thematic specialisms through a wide breadth of optional course units which cover huge expanses of time and space. From the prehistoric origins of farming and monuments in the Neolithic and the beginnings of civilizations in the Near East, to the classical Mediterranean world, Ancient Egypt, or mortuary archaeology through time, our specialist courses offer an amazing opportunity to pursue the topics that inspire you.

Course units for year 2

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

TitleCodeCredit ratingMandatory/optional
Thinking Archaeology CAHE20111 20 Mandatory
Artefacts and Interpretation CAHE20362 20 Mandatory
Doing Archaeology 2 CAHE20502 20 Mandatory
Data Literacy in a Digital World SALC20081 20 Mandatory
The World of Late Antiquity: Europe and the Med from the Severan Dynasty to the Rise of Islam CAHE20022 20 Optional
The Conquering Hero: The Life, Times and Legacy of Alexander The Great CAHE20041 20 Optional
The Roman Empire 31BC - AD313 Rome's Golden Age CAHE20052 20 Optional
Politics and Society in Classical Greece CAHE20061 20 Optional
Social Life in Ancient Egypt  CAHE20072 20 Optional
Literature, Literacy, and Textual Transmission in Pharaonic Egypt  CAHE20091 20 Optional
Greco-Roman Society and Technology  CAHE20122 20 Optional
Neolithic Britain CAHE20131 20 Optional
From Cloud Cuckoo Land to Atlantis: Utopian thinking in the Ancient World CAHE20142 20 Optional
Intensive Greek 1 CAHE20151 20 Optional
Intensive Latin 1 CAHE20171 20 Optional
The Emergence of Civilisation: Palaces, Peak Sanctuaries, and Politics in Minoan Crete CAHE20221 20 Optional
Roman Women in 22 Objects CAHE20532 20 Optional
Greek Tragedy CAHE21012 20 Optional
Ovid: the Mythological Poems CAHE21261 20 Optional
National Identity and the Roman Past CAHE23022 20 Optional
Men, Beasts and Marvels: the Limits of Nature in Classical Antiquity  CAHE23361 20 Optional
Nature, Poetry, and Art: Ancient Pastoral and its Reception CAHE24201 20 Optional
Education and Schools in the Greek and Roman Worlds CAHE25211 20 Optional
Advanced Latin Language 1 CAHE30110 20 Optional
Advanced Greek Language 1 CAHE30120 20 Optional
Intensive Greek 2 CAHE30162 20 Optional
Intensive Latin 2 CAHE30182 20 Optional
Advanced Latin Language 2 CAHE30210 20 Optional
Advanced Greek Language 2 CAHE30220 20 Optional
Displaying 10 of 29 course units for year 2

Course content for year 3

Gain an understanding of the power of the past and the importance of heritage in the modern world, addressing the issues faced by archaeologists. You also will enhance your skills in artefact analysis, learning methods of recording and interpretation of materials that will let you understand the past in greater depth.

Continue to develop your own expertise through a range of optional course units and complete a dissertation based on your own independent research.

Course units for year 3

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

TitleCodeCredit ratingMandatory/optional
Classics, Ancient History, Archaeology and Egyptology Dissertation CAHE30000 40 Mandatory
Artefacts and Interpretation CAHE30362 20 Mandatory
The World of Late Antiquity: Europe and the Med from the Severan Dynasty to the Rise of Islam CAHE30022 20 Optional
Social Life in Ancient Egypt  CAHE30072 20 Optional
Literature, Literacy, and Textual Transmission in Pharaonic Egypt  CAHE30091 20 Optional
Neolithic Britain CAHE30131 20 Optional
From Cloud Cuckoo Land to Atlantis: Utopian thinking in the Ancient World CAHE30142 20 Optional
The Emergence of Civilisation: Palaces, Peak Sanctuaries, and Politics in Minoan Crete CAHE30221 20 Optional
The Roman Army and the North-West Frontiers CAHE30882 20 Optional
Greek Tragedy CAHE31012 20 Optional
Ovid: the Mythological Poems CAHE31261 20 Optional
National Identity and the Roman Past CAHE33022 20 Optional
Men, Beasts and Marvels: the Limits of Nature in Classical Antiquity  CAHE33361 20 Optional
Education and Schools in the Greek and Roman Worlds CAHE35211 20 Optional
Displaying 10 of 14 course units for year 3

Facilities

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.

Disability support

Practical support and advice for current students and applicants from the Disability Support Office. Email: disability@manchester.ac.uk