Archaeology BA

Archaeological knowledge is built through analysing material remains. We then use theory to create research questions, building interpretations of those remains. Together, these two elements act as evidence for societies in the past and present.

In this module, you will focus on the relationship between concepts, interpretive approaches and analytical frameworks in the design and implementation of archaeological research projects.

We introduce the development of archaeological theory and interpretation. Special attention is given to the paradigms put forward over the last 30 years, and the resulting debates.

Topics include:

• uniformitarianism
• ethnography
• typology
• ‘New Archaeology’
• processualism and post-processualism
• economic archaeology
• neo-Marxist paradigms

You will develop your knowledge further through in-depth studies of key issues and themes. You will also explore archaeological research in a wide range of different areas and projects.

This module is worth 20 credits.

This module is designed to develop your skills of research, analysis and written presentation as preparation for a third year dissertation in classical civilisation. You will write a 5,000 word essay chosen from a range of topics, each focusing on a single piece of ancient source material. You will be provided with a topic for investigation, starter bibliography and tips on how to approach the question. The questions will suggest a range of possible approaches, from evaluation of historical source material to exploration of literary effects, relationships with other material, discussion of context or reception. For this module you will have a mixture of lectures and four 2-hour seminars over a period of 10 weeks.

Get creative and build your knowledge on an aspect of Classics or Archaeology which interests you.

Your aim in this module is to communicate your chosen topic to the general public. How you choose to do that is entirely up to you. You might explore different types of writing, perhaps for children or in the style of a magazine, or you might experiment with a different medium of communication, such as video, website or phone app.

For example, past students have:

• Created a museum exhibition
• Reconstructed an ancient artefact
• Designed a new public engagement strategy for a historic site
• Developed a board game
• Created a marketing campaign

The module convenor will support you to design an appropriate topic and format for your project.

You will develop vital research, project design and communication skills, which are excellent preparation for a range of careers, as well as your third-year dissertation.

This module is worth 20 credits.

“I designed several T-shirts and hoodies which conveyed information about the site’s art and architecture, history, and its eventual ruination by ISIL in 2015. I wanted to combine my interest of fashion with my love for the classical world, and this project gave me the opportunity to do so.”

- Alexander Gadd, Created a clothing brand based on Palmyra 

Read more student experiences about this module.

This is a discipline-bridging cross-campus module, involving colleagues from across the School of Humanities.

The Silk Road will be presented as a range of archaeological, historical and scientific themes. Broad cultural themes will be balanced with the presentation of specific case studies, such as:

• The definitions of the Silk Roads
• Byzantine, Islamic and later medieval Silk Roads
• Luxury production
• Trade and exchange from the Roman and later periods
• Ming Dynasty links with the West

Scientific techniques for the analysis of materials, and their role in the interpretation of trade and exchange along the Silk Roads, will also be considered. This could be between, for example, China, central Asia, Scandinavia and the Middle East.

This module is worth 20 credits.

This module introduces map-making for the Arts and Humanities. You will be introduced to the field of spatial humanities and will learn how to carry out spatial analyses of humanities datasets and present their findings to a high standard.

You’ll be introduced to the key principles of spatial analysis and digital cartography using open-source Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software. We will also explore the broad and exciting applications of spatial analysis.

We will also work with you to help you understand the role of GIS in digital humanities, the role of this in research and practice more widely, and the employability value of GIS as a skill.

The early modern period witnessed the birth of commodity culture and the transformation of the relationship between people and their material world.

Expanding global trade networks and early colonial encounters brought a range of exotic products into early modern homes, including spices, sugar, tea, tobacco, cotton, porcelain and mahogany, while the rise of capitalism and industrialisation revolutionised the manufacture and availability of necessities and luxuries across the social spectrum.

The richness of this ‘new world of goods’ had profound consequences, transforming patterns of consumption, introducing new understandings of scientific knowledge and cultural production, and reshaping social identities and relationships based on class, gender and race.   

This module takes advantage of a sweep of new interdisciplinary perspectives across a range of subject areas, including social, economic and cultural history, archaeology, anthropology and art history, which have focused on the role and significance of early modern ‘things’.

You will gain a grounding of central themes in early modern history, as well as a deeper understanding of the importance of looking at early modern Europe as part of a globalising world. You will explore a range of textual sources including wills and inventories, account books, letters and diaries which tell us about expanding global connections, what people consumed and how they thought about their objects.

This module is worth 20 credits.

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This module explores the urban image and visual culture of the best-preserved ancient Roman city, Pompeii, throughout the early imperial period and to its end in AD 79. It examines its history and topography, and analyses individual urban structures, architectural choices, sculptural and other artistic displays and monuments, their place in Roman urban development, their political, social, economic or religious function and their subsequent use and influence, including in the modern reception of ancient Pompeii. 

Topics include:

• problems of studying "urban fabric"
• Pompeii as a melting pot of different cultural traditions
• public and religious spaces in a Roman town (fora and temples, routes through the city, trade and commerce, sculptural/pictorial displays)
• entertainment and hygiene (theatres, baths and brothels)
• the domestic context (intra- and extra-mural living, interior decoration and wall-painting)
• the funerary sphere (self-representation and cultural traditions).

This module will examine what we can learn from the human skeleton, about the lives of people who lived in the past. We will also include some basic zooarchaeology to understand the similarities and differences between these two specialisms. The module will involve handling real archaeological human and non-human skeletons, learning how to identify their age, sex, stature, pathologies and taphonomy. We will also examine the demography of 19th century Nottingham on a fieldtrip to one of the city’s largest (and most atmospheric) cemeteries.

This module will introduce students to human and non-human skeletons, and the information that can be gained from them, including aging, sexing, stature, pathology and isotope analysis. Sampling strategies, data collection and analysis will also be covered using data collected by the students themselves on a fieldtrip. The aim of the module is to make students confident in handling human and zooarchaeological remains, to have the background necessary to undertake final year dissertations on either human remains or zooarchaeology, and to teach some basic data visualisation and analysis.

This module is worth 20 credits.

The module explores the archaeological evidence for the creation and nature of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian societies in England, from the withdrawal of the Late Roman imperial administration until the immediate aftermath of the Norman Conquest. A range of themes is explored. These include: the creation of Anglo-Saxon societies in different parts of England, from a combined heritage derived from northern Germany, southern Scandinavia and Britain itself; evidence of pagan beliefs and the conversion to Christianity; reflections of social hierarchy in rural settlement and cemetery evidence; transformations from central places to towns; political developments from the heptarchy to the unified Kingdom of England; the Viking impact on England in the ninth and tenth centuries; and eleventh-century England from the Danish to Norman conquests. 

You will critically examine themes in Near Eastern Prehistory. The themes take you from the development of agriculture, pastoralism and sedentism to the appearance of the first cities, states and writing. Drawing directly from current research, you will use case studies to examine these themes. You will use archaeological evidence to understand how these developments are reflected in social, religious, economic and political organisations of the prehistoric Near East. You will attend weekly lectures and seminars. After appropriate guidance, you will take part in learning activities includes:

• setting readings
• presenting
• running classroom discussions.

You will receive feedback on these participatory activities. You will write an essay for your formal assessment.

In the early 20th century, British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans’s excavations at the site of Knossos on the island of Crete uncovered the remains of the earliest palatial civilisation in Europe. Knossos, the home of the mythical king Minos and the monstrous Minotaur, became the landmark of a new culture termed as ‘Minoan’. Based on a combination of lectures and workshops, this module introduces students to the origins of the Aegean complex societies from the late 4th millennium BC and to the rise, apogee and fall of the Minoan palatial, state-level societies of the 3rd and early 2nd millennia BC. It investigates the Aegean region’s long-term transformations using archaeological material, iconography and archival data, and encourages the thematic treatment of major social, cultural, political and economic processes such as the Neolithic antecedents; the organisation of proto-urban societies during the Early Bronze Age; transformations and developments during the Middle Bronze Age; palace state formation on Crete; production, trade and consumption in and beyond the island (including: materials and industries, frescoes and the minor arts, textiles and dyes, perfumed oils); introduction and development of administration and early writing; archaeologies of cult and death; the eruption of Thera/Santorini; and the role of the Minoans within the wider Mediterranean and Near Eastern world during the Bronze Age.

This module provides a survey of developments in the Aegean region from the late 4th millennium BC to the early 2nd millennium BC, and considers them within their wider political, economic and social context. By studying and interpreting the surviving archaeological evidence, iconography and written sources, this module will allow students to develop a critical understanding of Greek prehistory and of the developments that led to the rise and fall of the Minoan palatial system, the earliest of its kind in Europe. By the end of the module, students should have gained an understanding of the broad cultural sequence in the Aegean area, of current interpretations and debates in Aegean prehistory, and of broad diachronic and regional trends in the development of human societies in the region between the late 4th and early 2nd millennia BC.

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Module description to be confirmed.

Module description to be confirmed.

Module description to be confirmed.

This module involves employability skills training in the Autumn semester followed by a part-time placement (one day a week, or equivalent, up to eight weeks) in an external organisation in the spring semester. The module is aimed at developing hands-on work experience and enhancing employability skills in a workplace relevant to arts graduates. Skills developed during the placement will be intrinsically relevant to various work environments.  

Students will apply for placements in relevant local organisations from an established list created by the faculty placement team, but may also use personal contacts to arrange their own placement, subject to approval. Placements will be provided across a range of sectors relevant to the arts including the creative and cultural industries, media, marketing, heritage and museums, the music industry, education, charitable and third-sector organisations, but are subject to change each year. In the autumn term lectures and workshops will be organised across the faculty, with input by the Careers and Employability Service to provide learning support on professional development and skills assessment, networking, successful applications and interviews, self-presentation and self-reflection.   

Assessment will comprise an online portfolio of materials, including application materials, reflective writing and a research report situating the work and function of the placement organisation in the context of the wider sector of which it is a part. Throughout, students will be encouraged to reflect individually and in groups on their own employability, and plan for their ongoing professional development.