Archaeology and Anthropology

Archaeology and anthropology are natural intellectual partners, both concerned with understanding human life in all its diversity, across time and across cultures. Archaeology recovers and interprets the material evidence that past and present societies have left behind, from the tools and pottery of prehistoric communities to the built environments and artefacts of recent centuries, using this evidence to reconstruct how people lived, worked, believed, and organised themselves. Anthropology focuses on living and historically documented cultures, examining how human societies differ in their social organisation, kinship systems, ritual practices, economic arrangements, and relationships with the natural world.

Together, the two disciplines offer a remarkably broad perspective on the human condition.

At the University of Reading, this three-year full-time programme allows you to combine these two related disciplines in a way that makes each richer. You will study archaeological theory and method, including excavation and survey techniques, artefact analysis, environmental archaeology, and the history of archaeological thought. Your anthropological studies will introduce you to social and cultural anthropology, ethnographic fieldwork methods, and the analysis of cultural diversity and change.

Reading has an exceptionally strong tradition in both subjects, and the combination allows you to develop comparative perspectives that connect the deep past with the contemporary world and examine both through a shared humanistic lens.

The programme includes a sandwich year, a year abroad, and a work placement, giving you professional and international experience embedded within the degree. Placement opportunities might include work with museums and heritage organisations, archaeological field units, NGOs engaged in cultural heritage or development work, or research bodies.

Graduates from archaeology and anthropology programmes pursue careers in heritage and museums, archaeological contracting and consultancy, international development, humanitarian work, education, journalism, policy, and research. The combination of empirical field skills and cross-cultural analytical training is valued across many sectors. Postgraduate study in archaeology, social anthropology, heritage management, or related fields is a common progression.