The Department offers a vibrant environment for those wishing to study archaeology at postgraduate level. At research level the Department has particular strengths in landscapes and archaeological materials, though MPhil/PhD level supervision is available in a wide-range of subjects, including:
- Archaeobotany and Zooarchaeology Early
- farming in Europe and the Near East
- Prehistoric societies of the Persian Gulf region
- Greek and Italian prehistory
- Mathematical and statistical applications in archaeology
- British and European prehistory
- Aspects of ethnoarchaeology
- Lake dwellings
- Topics in underwater archaeology
- The science and archaeology of ancient metallurgy
- The scientific analysis of glass from prehistory to post-medieval
- Roman provinces of Europe and the central Mediterranean (including Britain)
- The archaeology of Greek Sicily
- Medieval Archaeology of the British Isles and Europe
Members of staff are currently running excavation and survey projects in Bulgaria, Greece, Sicily, Poland, Syria, Denmark, Belgium and the UK. For research students, the Graduate School offers a comprehensive range of research training courses. Postgraduate students in the Department are also eligible to take the Academic German course offered by the School of Humanities and designed for students with little or no German language experience. The University library has online access to all books published in Britain and Ireland from the beginning of printing to 1800.
Recent Developments
The Department of Archaeology has expanded significantly in recent years, both in terms of staff and available teaching and research space. We have 12 members of full-time academic staff, as well as a tutor in archaeological illustration, a technician, two departmental administrators and special/honorary lecturers and fellows. The recently expanded bioarchaeology laboratory suite is dedicated to teaching and research in zooarchaeology and archaeobotany, while the archaeological material laboratory suite encompasses practical teaching and research in ancient glass, metals and ceramics, as well as offering a fully supported electron microprobe for high resolution elemental analysis.
Current Research Projects
Departmental staff members are engaged in research and field projects extending from the British Isles through northern, central and Mediterranean Europe to western Asia. Chronologically, this research extends from the beginnings of farming in the early Holocene to the development of complex societies and states in later prehistory and the historical societies and empires of the Roman and medieval periods.