Winchester is home to experienced archaeologists who provide stimulating and engaging teaching materials. In a supportive environment, you learn key fieldwork techniques and undertake rigorous academic training. To make sure you make the most of fieldwork, we have excellent field equipment, including a ground penetrating radar, magnetometers, magnetic susceptibility meters, differential GPS instruments, total stations, and an X-ray fluorescence analyser. In addition, you will learn how to use industry standard computer software such as ArcGIS and Geoplot. Futher, our department has a geoarchaeological consultancy (ARCA), whose staff will also teach you. The consultancy offers valuable laboratory work experience – an opportunity to combine your academic expertise with delivering high-quality commercial solutions. 

 

Year 1 provides a sound foundation in the theory and practice of archaeology and considers the history of humanity from our earliest ape ancestors to the twentieth century. The year finishes with a four-week excavation in the summer. During Years 2 and 3, you focus on the archaeology of specific periods and/or places while you also undertake a dissertation, for which you are prepared by modules on theory and method, and consider the public role of archaeology. 

 

Popular Year 2 modules include the Greek World, Early and Later Prehistoric Europe, Archaeology of Roman and Medieval Britain, Human Bioarchaeology, The Archaeology and Anthropology of Death and Burial, The Archaeology of Religion and Ritual, and a multi-day residential fieldtrip module in which you visit sites in another region of Britain. Year 3 modules include Puzzling the Past, Public Archaeology and Careers, The Celts, and The Archaeology of Medieval Religion and Belief, Minoans and Mycenaeans and Battlefield Archaeology. You undertake fieldwork and post-excavation work in Year 2 and may do a further fieldwork module in Year 3. You will pool all your learning in a final-year dissertation.

 

As we become more attuned to how the past is able to help shape our future, archaeologists are increasingly playing key roles in policy development and decision-making. Graduates enter the archaeological profession and work in museums, heritage organisations, commercial archaeology and local authorities. Others find careers within applied science, for example environmental management, geomatics and remote sensing.