Archaeology/ Music

Archaeology and music are disciplines that seem at first very different, but both are fundamentally concerned with how human beings have used material and sensory experience to create meaning and build culture. Archaeology investigates the physical traces of past human life, interpreting objects, structures, and landscapes to understand societies and individuals across deep time. Music studies the organised sounds that cultures produce and value, examining how musical traditions develop, what they express, and how they are experienced by those who make and hear them.

Together, they cultivate an unusually broad understanding of human creativity and its material and cultural expressions.

At the University of Glasgow, this four-year full-time degree allows you to pursue genuine depth in both subjects within a university that has strong research strengths in each. On the archaeology side, you will engage with field methods, material culture, and the interpretation of physical evidence from a wide range of periods and places. The music component explores the technical, cultural, historical, and philosophical questions the subject raises, drawing on some practical experience of music alongside academic inquiry.

In each year, you are given a range of options in both subjects, allowing you to design a pathway that reflects your particular interests and strengths. A year abroad is integrated into the programme, giving you a different academic and cultural perspective. A typical entry tariff of 216 points applies.

Graduates from this combination bring to their careers a rare breadth of analytical skills, practical fieldwork experience, and cultural sensitivity. Careers in heritage, museums, galleries, arts organisations, education, journalism, broadcasting, and the cultural sector are all natural destinations. Many go on to postgraduate study in archaeology, musicology, museum studies, or cultural studies, and both disciplines offer academic research careers for those with the scholarly inclination.