Archaeology and Anthropology

Page contents

• Programme overview
• Entry requirements
• Staff research interests

Programme overview

The Department of Archaeology and Anthropology is one of the very few departments that combines archaeology, evolutionary and social anthropology within a single academic unit, offering research synergy across these fields. Archaeology and Anthropology have been studied at the University of Bristol since its foundation as a university college in 1876, and a new Department of Archaeology and Anthropology was formed in 2004 to unite the two fields.

Our international and friendly staff practice fieldwork across the world, from our own 'backyard' in the southwest UK to locations as varied as Central and South America, the Caribbean, East Africa, Mongolia, France, Jordan and Turkey. We are well equipped to undertake surveys, field trips, and excavations. We have a specialised research school of dozens of PhD students working on a wide range of subjects. The Department's creative, interdisciplinary research culture includes a series of research seminars and we have our own laboratories, as well as negotiated access to facilities in the Schools of Earth Sciences and Chemistry.

The Department of Archaeology and Anthropology is unique in the UK for its scientific study of humankind from past to present. Informed by high-tech analysis, this interdisciplinary approach underlies a research programme of international standing. We draw on expertise and facilities across the University, including the Bristol Isotope Group (in the Department of Earth Sciences), the Organic Geochemistry Unit (in the School of Chemistry), the School of Social and Community Medicine, the Bristol Centre for Complexity Sciences (School of Engineering), the School of Biological Sciences, and the Bristol Institute for Research in the Humanities and Arts (BIRTHA) in the Faculty of Arts.

Our success in interdisciplinary collaborative research is evidenced by success in research funding from nine research councils and international funding bodies, with two papers to reach the covers of Science and Nature in 2012. We have a tradition of field-based research, including excavations abroad in Turkey, East Africa, France, Mongolia and North America as well as in the UK at Berkeley Castle, where we run our field school.

Research Groups

Our research centres on Anthropology, Conflict Archaeology, Archaeological Science, Human Origins, Historical and Maritime Archaeology, and European Prehistory. The Department recognises Archaeology and Anthropology as related disciplines, so its several research themes are seen as fluid, offering a creative space for interdisciplinary dialogue.

Anthropology

Anthropological research includes field projects in Africa, Central and South America, as well as projects engaged with EU business and UK public policy. We have a broad range of faculty expertise in social anthropology, materiality, human behavioural ecology, evolutionary anthropology, kinship, language and business. Working in Panama, Ethiopia, London and the South Pacific, our research projects concern the effects of development in Ethiopia on migration and fertility, and the origin and evolution of ancient languages, decision-making and large-scale collective behaviour. We also have strong interests in the Bristol area, and students have opportunities to participate in evaluation, research and rescue projects locally.

Archaeological Science of Human Lifeways

This research group investigates the biological evidence for human society, including palaeodiet, past disease and ancient human movement, through the study of human remains and artefacts. We share archaeological science research facilities with the Schools of Chemistry and Earth Sciences with state-of-the-art mass spectrometry. A particular research strength concerns isotopic and morphological analysis of human skeletal material from prehistoric to early modern contexts. Current projects include a five-year, ERC-funded collaboration led by Professor Richard Evershed to identify dairying in European prehistory.

Conflict Archaeology

The new and exciting field of conflict archaeology, led by Dr Nick Saunders, promises to become even more prominent as the world commemorates the 100th anniversary of the First World War. Postgraduates working on this theme produced an edited volume of their studies in modern conflict archaeology, Beyond the Dead Horizon (Oxbow, 2012). Research on the archaeology of 20th-century conflict includes the Great Arab Revolt Archaeological Project (in collaboration with the Royal Jordan Museum), and fieldwork and publication of the First World War battlefields in conjunction with the Ypres and Imperial War Museums.

Human Origins

The Department has a strong international reputation for research into human origins in Africa, Asia and Europe. This research includes human evolution, the development of modern human behaviour, the evolutionary status of Neanderthals and scientific dating techniques. The Department also operates a micro CT scanner, with a variety of archaeological and related applications led by Professor Robson- Brown to explore microstructure of bone across the human body and extracting and analysing the 3D information.

Historical and Maritime Archaeology

Research in this area examines the archaeology of historical periods, from the medieval to the modern. Active projects include colonial encounters in the Atlantic world, the Caribbean and African east coast. Local archaeological work includes the development of Berkeley (Gloucestershire) as an urban and ecclesiastical centre and research on the Industrial Revolution. The Department is a key hub for EUROTAST, an EU-funded training programme for a new generation of researchers to uncover and interpret new evidence on the transatlantic slave trade, in which the port of Bristol historically played a role. The Department is also active in the archaeology of the Mediterranean region, ranging from Bronze Age and Iron Age archaeology to Egyptian archaeology, and contemporary perceptions of heritage in Anatolia. Current research projects include survey in southern Turkey and multi-period excavations on the Sea of Marmara.

European Prehistory

The Department has strong and varied expertise in Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe and Britain. Current projects concern social organisation, kinship and community diversity in central Europe from the early Neolithic to the Bronze Age, early dairying in Neolithic Europe, and prehistoric human mobility and subsistence in the Russian steppe. With archaeological science at the core of our research, other specialisms include the Early Neolithic of Europe, the origin of dairying, Copper Age transitions, monumentality, Neolithic materialities and prehistoric landscapes. We currently host a Marie Curie Fellow, Dr Thomas Kador, who is using isotopic techniques to study human mobility in the Irish Neolithic.

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Entry requirements

MPhil: An upper second-class honours degree (or international equivalent) MLitt/PhD: A pass at MA level (or international equivalent)

For information on international equivalent qualifications, please see our International Office website.

Admissions statement

Read the programme admissions statement for important information on entry requirements, the application process and supporting documents required.

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Key research interests

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