Archaeology and Ancient Civilisations, BA (Hons)

This course gives you a good general overview of world archaeology but also allows you to focus in particular on the great ancient civilisations of Europe, the Near East and Asia, including Ancient Greece and Rome, Egypt, the Near East, India, Sri Lanka and Nepal. This degree offers great flexibility with options to take modules in other departments, including Classics and Ancient History.Students studying this course can also follow a route accredited by CIfA, the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists. Choosing an accredited undergraduate degree is widely recognised as the first step on a career pathway leading to professional status. To obtain a CIfA accredited degree, students study modules that equip them with the requisite theoretical and practical knowledge to act as a foundation for a career in the UK commercial archaeology sector.On this course you will learn through a combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials, practical classes, fieldwork, excavation, informal but scheduled one-to-one support, and self-directed learning, such as research, reading, and writing.All of these are supported by a virtual learning environment, Learn Ultra. Seminars, tutorials, and practical classes are much smaller groups than lectures, with tutorials often involving no more than eight students working with a professor or lecturer; seminars and practical's can be larger but are still small enough to allow one-to-one interaction with tutors.Practical's allow hands-on experience of the work professional archaeologists perform. The same is true of fieldwork, which at Durham is fully funded, and consists of engaging in archaeological work in the field with members of academic staff. This emphasis on small-group and practical teaching reflects the quality of the learning experience rather than the number of formal sessions.The degree is designed to feature fewer formal sessions and more independent research as you move from your first to your final year. Small-group teaching and one-to-one attention from a personal academic advisor (provided to all students when they start) are part of the learning experience throughout, but by the final year classroom time gives way, to independent research, including a dissertation – supported by one-to-one supervision – that makes up a third of your final year credits. The degree transforms you from a consumer of knowledge in the classroom to a generator of knowledge, ready for professional or postgraduate life.These formal teaching arrangements are supported by “drop-in” surgeries with teaching staff and induction sessions that begin the week before you start and continue at key times throughout each year of the course.Students can also attend an extensive programme of research-focused seminars where staff and visiting scholars present their cutting-edge research.