Program Overview

---

Historical Archaeology F411

Overview

This exciting degree enables you to develop your passion for studying history in combination with archaeological training in historic-period material and visual culture, museum collections, buildings, landscapes, and world heritage. With a particular focus on the archaeology of the last 600 years, this course offers a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary learning and skills, providing an opportunity across all three years to study a combination of modules in the Departments of Archaeology and History, and complement this with modules from other subject areas.

Key Details

• Degree type: BA
• Course length: 3 years full-time
• Location: Durham City
• UCAS code: F411

Typical Offers

• A Level: AAB
• BTEC: DDD
• International Baccalaureate: 36

Course Details

This course allows you to develop your passion for studying history in combination with archaeological training in historic-period material and visual culture, museum collections, buildings, landscapes, and world heritage. With a particular focus on the archaeology of the last 600 years, this course offers a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary learning and skills.

Course Structure

Year 1 Modules

Core Modules

• Introduction to Archaeological Methods: Provides an opening introduction to archaeological analysis, from stratigraphic excavation and artefact analysis to geographic information systems and scientific analysis.
• Medieval to Modern: An Introduction to the Archaeology of the Medieval to Post-Medieval World: Introduces the archaeology of early medieval to post-medieval worlds from the end of the Roman Empire to the Modern World in Europe and beyond, through focusing on key case-study artefacts and sites.
• Archaeology Practicals: Introduces you to the practical side of archaeology, including assessing primary archaeological materials, sites, and monuments through hands-on recording, analysis, and scientific techniques.
• Historical Archaeology: Methods and Sources: Provides a grounding in a range of investigative methods and techniques relevant to the archaeology of the historic era and contemporary archaeology, allowing you to develop a basic critical awareness of the potential and limitations of each.

Optional Modules

In recent years, optional modules have included:

• Archaeology in Britain
• Cities in Antiquity
• Ancient Civilizations of the East
• Discovering World Prehistory
• Up to two modules available in History
• Up to one module in any department, including a modern language module.

Year 2 Modules

Core Modules

• Professional Training: (Incorporating three weeks of fieldwork in the summer before starting Year 2) uses practical experience to give you an understanding of the objectives and operation of a fieldwork project, and how data and material produced by archaeological projects are processed.
• Developing Archaeological Research: Develops your understanding of how to carry out research on different scales of materials, from sites to artefacts, how to present visual information, and assess quantitative information, and develop an effective research plan.
• Debates in Archaeology of the Historic World: Allows you to learn about key themes and engage debates in historical archaeology, including the uses and abuses of different kinds of evidence, narratives about migration, identity, and diversity, gender, and the body, categorisations of social groups, the state, and economic strategies.

Optional Modules

In recent years, optional modules have included:

• Archaeology of Medieval and Post-Medieval Britain
• Advanced Skills (Single or Double)
• East Mediterranean in the Bronze Age
• Becoming Roman
• Ancient Mediterranean Civilisations: East and West
• Scientific Methods in Archaeology 2
• Up to two modules available in History
• Up to one module in any department, including a modern language module.

Year 3 Modules

Core Modules

• Archaeology Dissertation: Significantly develops your skills in independent research, the analysis, and presentation of evidence, and how to structure a persuasive argument. This will involve writing an extended dissertation in your chosen specialist area of archaeology.
• Specialised Aspects in Archaeology: Will help you develop an understanding of specialised aspects of archaeology, chosen from a list of topics representing the main areas of research in the Department.

Optional Modules

In recent years, optional modules have included:

• Current Archaeology
• Advanced Professional Training (incorporating placement)
• Interpreting Heritage
• Museum Representation
• Archaeology and Global Sustainable Development
• Scientific Methods in Archaeology 3
• Up to one module available in History
• Up to one module in any department, including a modern language module.

Additional Pathways

Students can apply to be transferred onto either the with Year Abroad or with Placement pathway. Places on these pathways are in high demand, and if you are chosen, your studies will extend from three years to four or four to five, depending on the course.

Learning

Learning is supported by lectures, small group seminars, tutorials, and practical classes, as well as fieldtrips and fieldwork. Outside of class hours, you will engage in independent research, reading, and writing. All of these are supported by a virtual learning environment, Learn Ultra.

This degree is designed to move to more independent research as you move from your first to your final year, when you will develop a dissertation on a topic of special interest to you, supported by one-to-one supervision.

This transforms you from a consumer of knowledge in the classroom to a generator of knowledge, ready for professional or postgraduate life.

Assessment

On this course, you will be assessed through traditional coursework, such as essays and exams, but also through presentations and hands-on practical exercises, including archaeological fieldwork, as well as other kinds of alternative assessments. Depending on the department running particular modules, coursework assessment tends to predominate in Years 2 and 3, and in the final year, your dissertation makes up a third of your final year credits.

Entry Requirements

• A-level offer: AAB
• Contextual offer: BCC

We welcome applications from those with other qualifications equivalent to our standard entry requirements. Please see our ‘Alternative qualifications’ section below.

You are welcome to apply if you are taking resits; resitting your qualification(s) will not negatively affect your application.

We are willing to consider applications for deferred entry. You can find further information regarding changes to your application here.

If you have any questions regarding the entry requirements for this programme, please contact us via our Ask Us form.

You can find further information on how we assess your application in our Admissions Policy.

Alternative Qualifications

• Other UK qualifications
• EU qualifications
• International qualifications

International students who do not meet direct entry requirements for this degree might have the option to complete an International Foundation Year.

Home students who do not meet our direct entry requirements may be eligible for our Foundation Programme, which offers multidisciplinary programmes to prepare you for a range of specified degree programmes.

English Language Requirements

• Country-specific information

Fees and Funding

The fees for this academic year have not been confirmed yet.

The tuition fees shown for home students are for one complete academic year of full-time study and are set according to the academic year of entry. Fees for subsequent years of your course may rise in line with an inflationary uplift as determined by the government.

The tuition fees shown for overseas and EU students are for one complete academic year of full-time study, are set according to the academic year of entry, and will be subject to an annual inflationary increase expected to rise throughout the programme of study.

More information is available here: Tuition Fees - Durham University

Please also check costs for colleges and accommodation.

Scholarships and Bursaries

We are committed to supporting the best students irrespective of financial circumstances and are delighted to offer a range of funding opportunities.

Find out more about Scholarships and Bursaries.

Career Opportunities

Archaeology embraces a wide range of skills, which means excellent transferable skills, including in traditional areas of literacy, communication, research, and critical thinking, but also in professional visual presentation and close analysis, numeracy, and statistics, and uses of computing applications and scientific techniques. These skills are valued in numerous fields.

For those interested in pursuing careers in archaeology and heritage, links with industry specialists coupled with in-house facilities give you a great introduction to the sector. Subject-specific skills training includes excavation, survey, remote-sensing techniques, Geographic Information Systems, and digital visualisation, as well as a common room for social activities of staff and students.

Our alumni work in various sectors after graduation: law, civil service, publishing, teaching, commercial archaeology, heritage institutions, and academia.

Department Information

Unlock the past to understand the present. At this world-leading Department at the heart of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, we will help you gain an array of intellectual and practical skills that archaeology combines in an interdisciplinary subject like no other.

Archaeology at Durham is an exciting and diverse discipline that delves into the past and informs our understanding of the present. It brings together multiple techniques and methods and covers a wide range of themes and periods, from the earliest human development through classical civilisations to colonialism, the built environment, and heritage in the modern world.

We are an inclusive international scholarly community offering opportunities for you to get involved, from seminars and reading groups to field projects. Our research-led approach to learning means you will be taught by world specialists and explore archaeological sites and historic buildings, cutting-edge scientific methods, theories, debates, and computing techniques.

Fieldwork takes you around the world, with previous projects ranging from Iceland to Africa. Closer to home, you will learn about the rich and varied past of the UK. Our location provides a great environment for studying archaeology and heritage, with UNESCO World Heritage Sites such as Durham Cathedral and Hadrian’s Wall on our doorstep.

We offer single and joint honour BA and BSc degrees to suit your interests and career goals. Most courses include the possibility of a work placement or year abroad.

For more information, see our department pages.

Rankings

• 6th in the world in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025
• 3rd in the UK in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025
• 4th in the UK in The Complete University Guide 2025

Staff

For a current list of staff, please see our department web pages.

Facilities

We are based in the Dawson Building, the historic original science building on the Science Site, at the University’s main Mountjoy Campus. We are close to other departments, colleges, the Bill Bryson library, and the Teaching and Learning Centre. Our building houses teaching rooms and a suite of state-of-the-art laboratories for precision techniques, including ancient DNA and isotope analysis, Geographic Information Systems, and digital visualisation, as well as a common room for social activities of staff and students. Our teaching allows students hands-on experience in labs, and our library holdings and digital resources are world-class.