Course details
On this course you will be taught by a range of staff with relevant expertise and knowledge appropriate to the content of the unit. This will include senior academic staff, qualified professional practitioners, demonstrators, technicians and research students. You will also benefit from regular guest lectures from industry.
How you will be assessed
You will be assessed by coursework culminating in your final year research project, and you will also undertake group work and written exams. The assessment methods for each unit can be found in the programme specification for your course.
Year 1
Core units
Archaeological, Anthropological & Forensic Science Study Skills: Scientists must be able to work with a range of field and lab data. This unit will teach you how to perform statistical analysis, create charts, graphs and maps, and write clear and concise reports using appropriate software packages.
Archaeological Practice: Essential skills and knowledge for the aspiring archaeologist. You'll understand the interconnectedness of data collected from field situations and recovered from archived sources in an on-going analytical process of refinement and reinvestigation. Completing this unit will help you to understand the context of archaeological data, which will support and enhance aspects of structural, artefactual and palaeo-environmental analysis delivered at all levels in the course.
Chemistry: Gain an understanding of aspects and processes in fundamental and analytical chemistry and develop your laboratory skills. The unit will be predominately delivered through lectures and practical laboratory sessions. The laboratory sessions will reinforce theoretical concepts by dealing with experimentally generated data and allow for one-to-one and small group discussions.
Introduction to Social Anthropology: Most of the unit will focus on social anthropology, but links between social anthropology and biological anthropology as well as archaeology will be explored from the outset. It aims to develop your awareness of what is distinctive and valuable about anthropological approaches to studying people, and the uses to which these have been put, in addressing some of the world’s problems.
Studying Ancient Materials: Learn to handle a range of artefacts and other archaeological materials including ceramics, textiles, foodstuffs, glass, metals and building materials. You'll observe and record their characteristics and their importance to the interpretation of people and societies.
Introduction to Forensic Investigation: Gain a deeper appreciation of the legal aspects, command structure and operational procedures of UK forensic investigations, as well as an insight into the range of forensic sciences available. You'll gain a theoretical understanding for enhancing practical experience in the recovery of physical evidence.
Year 2
Core units
Archaeological Science: How thematic archaeological research questions may be addressed using archaeological scientific techniques and approaches. You'll develop case study knowledge to promote your understanding of potential applications of archaeological science for investigating the behaviour of past human societies.
Crime Scene: The legal aspects, command structure and operational procedures of UK crime scene investigations, and an introduction to a range of forensic sciences. You'll gain practical experience in recovering evidence from potential crime scenes.
Field & Research Skills: To ensure you gain a practical understanding of the aims, strategies and methods of fieldwork, you will participate in a fieldwork training project. You'll carry out practical tasks such as excavating, processing finds and samples. You will work in groups to solve problems, developing team skills and professional competencies.
Forensic Science: The basic scientific and analytical principals underlying the practice of forensic science. You'll be introduced to a range of basic case types and common analytical techniques used in forensic casework.
Option units (choose two):
Environmental Archaeology: Introducing you to the principles and practice of environmental archaeology and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, this unit offers an overview of site formation processes, the types of environmental evidence encountered in the archaeological record and the appropriate sampling strategies used to recover them. You'll see examples of the interpretation of environmental evidence through archaeological case studies.
Becoming Human: What makes us (as humans) unique? Where did our species come from? Starting from the divergence of the human lineage from that of other apes, this unit will demonstrate how a wide variety of different lines of evidence can inform the way in which we became human. You will learn how archaeologists and anthropologists interpret the fossil and archaeological evidence to understand the ways in which our ancestors and related species lived and how this changed over time. A key focus throughout will be on the relationship between the biological and social environments for evolution, and how the interaction between them influenced the evolution not only of our distinctive biological life histories, subsistence and foraging patterns but also our social life and culture, in the form of technology, material culture, language and symbolism.
Introduction to Toxicology: Explore the basic principles of toxicology. This unit has been designed to offer foundation knowledge for those wishing to study toxicology at higher levels and for those wishing to study subjects peripheral to toxicology or where a basic understanding of toxicology will be relevant.
Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester by semester basis. They may also change from year to year.
Optional Placement Year
You may choose to complete an optional 30-week (minimum) placement on a four-year course, or a short five-week work placement on a three-year course. You’ll get an opportunity to include a period of academic study during this time. The placement year offers a chance to gain experience and make contacts for the future.
Final Year
Core units
Advanced Forensic Science: Enhance your knowledge and critical thinking skills for scientific and analytical principals underlying the practice of forensic science. You'll gain in-depth knowledge of key areas of forensic science.
Archaeological Management: The practice of conserving and managing the historic environment in the UK will be explored to prepare you for employment in archaeological and conservation organisations. You'll examine the professional environment, legislative background and organisational context of the historic environment sector in the UK.
Independent Research Project: An opportunity to gain experience of researching a topic of your choice and to show your ability in reporting your research. This experience is considered essential for pursuing academic or professional research at a higher level of responsibility and achievement.
The Science of Human Remains: Practical lab sessions will allow you to analysis skeletal material of modern humans in archaeological and forensic contexts. You will examine the ways in which disease can inform health status in past societies and how disease, trauma and skeletal pathology can identify individuals in a forensic context.
Option units (choose one)
Primate Behaviour Ecology: This unit will provide you with an understanding of how primate behaviour can be interpreted from an evolutionary viewpoint and how human and non-human primates’ behavioural strategies are adapted to the environment (social and ecological) in which they live. The unit will stimulate discussion and the critical analysis of theories by a combination of lectures, directed reading and discussion sessions which will involve the analysis of scientific articles.
Sarup to Stonehenge: Neolithic & Chalcolithic NW Europe: The archaeology of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, broadly 4000-2000BC, in the British Isles and the adjacent Continental coastlands from western France to southern Scandinavia is one of the most formative periods in the social and economic development of communities occupying northwest Europe, and includes both the transition from hunter-gatherer to farming cultures and the introduction of metallurgy. The unit will provide a broad and comparative knowledge of a selected chronological period for a selected geographical region and contribute to your knowledge and understanding of the origins and development of archaeology as a discipline. A field-visit will normally be made to allow the direct observation of a selection of field monuments we discuss. We expect you to visit a number of sites and museums during the course of the year, in order to broaden your overall experience of the Neolithic Period.
Forensic Practice: Enhance your knowledge and critical thinking skills for scientific and analytical principals underlying the practice of forensic science. You'll gain in-depth knowledge of key areas of forensic science.
Animals & Society: Gain a critical understanding of human interactions with animals in Britain, from the Palaeolithic through to the early Post-medieval period. These interactions include the exploitation of animals for meat and other products and how animals were incorporated into burial practices and other rituals.
Roman Britain: An opportunity to explore the practical and theoretical problems associated with the study of material culture and archaeology of a distinct geographical area. You'll develop a solid understanding of the importance of archaeological data for understanding and interpreting historical chronologies.
Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester by semester basis. They may also change from year to year.
Field Work
We include fieldwork on a professional archaeological excavation as part of your course. You will attend an archaeological field school at the end of your first year and have the option to attend in subsequent years, too. Participation in BU's renowned field school allows you to gain a wide range of practical skills. We have all the equipment you'd expect to find professionals using on a dig in our field equipment stores, such as a wide range of site-surveying applications, including GPS and Total Stations for topographic surveying, remote sensing instruments such as Magentometers, Ground Penetrating Radar and Resistivity Meters and 3D laser scanners.
Activities also include demonstrations (both indoor and outdoor) in excavation and survey technology, artefact handling and investigation.
