Archaeology and History with Professional Placement

Archaeology and history together offer complementary approaches to understanding the human past. History draws primarily on written sources, analysing documents, chronicles, and records to trace the events and ideas that have shaped societies over time. Archaeology recovers the material remains of past lives, from buildings and landscapes to everyday objects and human remains, giving access to the lives of people and periods that written sources may ignore or misrepresent.

Combining the two disciplines allows you to investigate the past with a fuller range of tools and a more critical awareness of what any single type of evidence can and cannot tell you.

At the University of Reading, this four-year full-time programme includes a professional placement year, giving you hands-on experience in a relevant working environment alongside your academic studies. Placements might be in heritage organisations, museums, archaeological units, archives, or historic environment bodies, and the practical exposure they provide is valuable both for your professional development and for your understanding of how the disciplines connect with the world beyond the university. You will develop skills in historical research, source analysis, archaeological fieldwork, and the interpretation of material culture, learning to move fluently between evidence types and to construct rigorous arguments about the past.

Graduates go on to careers in archaeology, heritage management, museums, archives, local government, conservation, education, and the cultural sector. Professional archaeological practice in commercial and public settings is a significant employer of graduates with fieldwork and research skills, and the heritage sector provides opportunities in interpretation, curation, and public engagement. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in archaeology, history, or heritage studies, and some pursue research careers in universities and national institutions.

The combination of analytical, research, and practical skills the degree develops is also valued in journalism, policy, and the voluntary sector.