Archaeology and Art History

Archaeology and art history is a combination that approaches human creativity and material culture from two complementary directions, asking both how people made things in the past and what those things meant within their cultural and historical contexts. Archaeology investigates human societies through the physical traces they left behind, from stone tools, pottery, and burial goods to monumental architecture and everyday domestic objects, developing skills in fieldwork, material analysis, and the interpretation of evidence within its spatial and temporal setting. Art history examines images, objects, and buildings as works carrying aesthetic, social, and symbolic meaning, developing visual literacy and the ability to engage with different critical approaches and theoretical frameworks across periods and cultures.

The University of Aberdeen's four-year full-time programme has a year abroad option and, as the course itself describes, is suited to students fascinated by artefacts, museums, world heritage sites, and the ways people lived and designed their environments across ages, countries, and cultures. The combination allows you to understand artefacts and art in depth throughout major historical periods, connecting material evidence with visual and cultural analysis. Aberdeen's location in Scotland, with its distinctive archaeological and cultural heritage, provides a rich local context alongside the international scope of the programme.

Graduates work in museums and galleries, heritage management, archaeological consultancy, cultural heritage organisations, auction houses, arts journalism, education, the civil service, and archiving. The combination of fieldwork skills, material analysis, and visual literacy is valued across the heritage and cultural sector. Postgraduate study in archaeology, art history, heritage management, or curating is a natural direction for those wanting to develop specialist expertise or pursue academic research careers.