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The MSc Environmental Archaeology provides students with a theoretical understanding of research questions and methodologies in the study of past human-environment interactions.
Degree co-ordinator: Louise Martin
Other contributors: Dorian Fuller and Rhiannon Stevens
This MSc provides participants with a theoretical understanding of research questions and methodologies in the study of past human-environment interactions, including subsistence and subsistence change. The Institute of Archaeology has a long research and training tradition in environmental archaeology, and has well-established laboratory facilities and reference collections as a result.
Students gain practical experience in laboratory analysis of at least one of either: identification of animal bones, identification of plant macro-remains, sedimentological analyses. They develop an understanding of stratigraphic formation processes and their implications for developing sampling strategies, and are trained to collect and analyse data and report scientific results.
Degree Handbook
Modules
This degree comprises three core modules and several options along with a dissertation, each of which is outlined more fully below.
Core Modules
Students are required to take the following:
- Environmental Archaeology in Practice (ARCL0129, 15 credits, 11 weeks
- Resources and Subsistence (ARCL0128, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
Option Modules
Students will be encouraged to select option modules up to the value of 60 credits. At least one of these options however must be from the following three practical modules:
- Archaeobotanical Analysis in Practice (ARCL0096, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- Geoarchaeology (ARCL0097, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- Zooarchaeology in Practice (ARCL0125, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
The remaining can be selected from the outstanding range of Masters course modules available at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, but for this degree, the normal choices include:
- Aegean Prehistory: Major Themes and Current Debates (ARCL0135, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- Archaeology of Early Human Origins (ARCLG212, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- Archaeology of Hunter-Gatherers from the Emergence of Modern Humans (ARCL0109, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- British and European Prehistory: Neolithic to Iron Age (ARCL0146, 15 credits, 11 weeks) Not running in 2023-24
- Exploratory Data Analysis in Archaeology ( ARCL0087, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- Funerary Archaeology (ARCL0156, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- The Mediterranean World in the Iron Age (ARCL0138, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- The Neolithic and Early Bronze Age of the Near East: The emergence of villages and urban societies (ARCL0151, 15 credits, 11 weeks) Not running in 2023-24
Please note not all modules are available every year.
Dissertation
(90 credits)- All students are asked to write a dissertation of 15,000 words on a topic that includes practical lab-based research, with guidance from a supervisor.
Examples of past projects include:
- micromorphological study of anthropogenic dark earths
- micromorphological study of Palaeolithic cave sediments
- micromorphological study of peri-glacial paleosols
- micromorphological study of Neolithic house floors and pits
- microscopic analysis of spherulites in animal dung
- micromorphological/petrographic analysis of mudbrick