Archaeology/ Latin

Archaeology and Latin is a degree that brings together two complementary approaches to the ancient world. Archaeology is the study of how people in the past interacted with their world through the material traces they left behind, examining objects, sites, monuments, and landscapes to reconstruct how communities lived, believed, organised themselves, and changed over time. Latin is the language of the Roman world and of centuries of Western intellectual, religious, legal, and literary culture, giving direct access to texts that shaped philosophy, science, theology, and literature from antiquity through to the early modern period and beyond.

Studied together, these disciplines offer a powerful combination: the material evidence of how people actually lived alongside the textual tradition in which they recorded what they thought.

At the University of Glasgow, you will study both disciplines in depth across a four-year programme. Through archaeology, you will learn to interpret physical evidence, engage with fieldwork and museum collections, and understand the methods and debates that allow archaeologists to reconstruct past lives. Through Latin, you will develop your ability to read original texts with confidence and precision, gaining direct access to the Roman literary, historical, and philosophical tradition that underlies so much of Western culture.

The programme includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to engage with different scholarly traditions and to study archaeological sites and collections in other contexts, enriching your comparative understanding of both disciplines.

Graduates from archaeology and Latin degrees move into careers in museums and cultural heritage, archaeological fieldwork, education, publishing, the civil service, journalism, and many other fields where the analytical, linguistic, and research skills developed through the disciplines are valued. Postgraduate study in classical archaeology, classical studies, Latin, or museum studies is a natural route for those who wish to continue their research.