Diploma Level 2
Diploma, Level 2 (120 credits)
Prospectus --- Dates --- Application --- Reference Form --- Certificate (Level 1) --- Degree (Level 3) --- Continuing Education
Course Directors:
Dr. Paul Rainbird
Dr. Ian Powlesland
Course Requirements:
Please contact Christine Eickelmann at c.e.eickelmann@bris.ac.uk if you have any queries.
Teaching Programme:
All courses are taught on one weekend per month during the academic year from 10.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. Each weekend consists of lectures on Saturdays in the Department of Archaeology, with fieldtrips on Sundays. These study sessions are an integral part of the course and students are required to attend at least 80% of them and to complete a field log book. Transport to field visits is in shared cars.
There are individual tutorials in each teaching block, together with essay workshops as appropriate. There will be supervised study while students work on their essays. The course requires students to set aside sufficient time to read the necessary background literature.
Additional guest lecturers will feature in the programme.
Course Description:
The Diploma in Archaeological Studies will run consecutively each year and be studied over a two year period. This is broad and comprehensive programme that builds on the knowledge that has been gained at Certificate Level 1. The Diploma is taught through a number of different inter-linking Units, with relevant fieldtrips and practical exercises, both in the lecture room and the field. The Diploma provides the necessary building blocks at both a practical and academic level to equip students with the essential skills and knowledge to be able to undertake their own dissertation research at Level 3. The Diploma also provides students with the necessary, practical skills that archaeologists need at a professional level.
In the first year at Diploma level students study a Unit of History of Archaeology, which will provide a background knowledge of how the discipline has developed to the beginning of modern archaeology in the 19th Century. It will include the Processual and Post-processual archaeology of the 1960s and 1970s. Archaeological Survey is a practice-based Unit where students will be taught how to conduct a basic earthwork survey in the field and gain experience in setting up grids and using basic survey methods of plane-tabling and off-set measuring. More advanced surveying methodologies and techniques will be taught using an EDM (TopCon) and GPS. British Prehistory is a necessary core Unit in Year 1. The Unit will explore the major advances in Prehistory since 1900 and will examine the evidence for human settlement in Britain and Ireland from 700,000 BP to the end of the Iron Age. The course begins in the Palaeolithic with evidence for archaic humans and Neanderthals and traced to the end of hunter-gatherers in the Mesolithic. The transition to farming is discussed and the appearance of monumentality in the Neolithic. Bronze Age economic bases and trade and exchange are explored, leading to the political tension at the end of the Iron Age. The Field Course enables students to undertake a small amount of independent research on the sites and monuments that have been visited each month and to participate in 10 days excavation throughout the two years the course is running.
Year 2
In Year 2, students will study Artefacts of different materials in a practical handling session. They will be taught the conventions of archaeological drawing and photography and produce a Poster that is suitable for a museum display. The study of Archaeological Science introduces students to environmental archaeology, together with the key concepts of archaeological dating and the major techniques that are currently used. There is an Option choice of studying either Roman Britain or Medieval Archaeology as a 30 credit Unit (dependent upon numbers). Roman Britain begins with the Roman invasion and covers Romanisation, material culture and religion, trade and industry. It discusses the introduction of Christianity and the collapse of Roman Britain in AD410. Medieval Archaeology traces the settlement of the Anglo Saxons and traces the emergence of kingdoms, villages and estates. Landscape archaeology is explored with settlement patterns, DMV’s and field systems. Maps, charters and documents are introduced as an important element in Medieval source material. Castles and defence, towns and trade continue the discipline, which ends with ecclesiastical archaeology.
The course ends with an Air Photographic Survey course where the methodologies are introduced and students have the opportunity to participate in a practical exercise in interpretation from air photographs.
Course Assessment:
The assessment for the Diploma in Archaeological Studies is by essays, Multiple Choice Test, Seminar presentation, Poster and practical assessment in the field.
Further Study:
The combination of both practical and academic elements gives students the comprehensive experience and transferable skills they need to continue their studies at Level 3 to obtain the B.A. (Hons) in Archaeological Studies.
Return to Top
Return to Certificate (Level 1)
Return to Continuing Education Homepage