Archaeology/Celtic Civilisation

Archaeology and Celtic civilisation is a pairing that addresses two of the richest and most distinctive dimensions of British, Irish and northern European cultural heritage. Archaeology is the discipline of understanding the past through material evidence: the objects, sites, monuments and landscapes that survive and that can be read, with appropriate methods, to reconstruct how people lived, moved, traded, fought and created meaning. Celtic civilisation encompasses the languages, literature, history and culture of the Celtic peoples of ancient and medieval Britain, Ireland and continental Europe, opening access to a tradition that has shaped the character of many contemporary cultures and that remains directly relevant to living languages including Welsh and Scottish Gaelic.

At the University of Glasgow, this four-year full-time degree develops your skills in archaeological fieldwork, artefact analysis, landscape interpretation, site evaluation and the theoretical frameworks of archaeological interpretation, alongside engagement with the Celtic languages and their literary, historical and cultural contexts. You will encounter material from the Iron Age hillforts and Roman-Celtic interfaces of Britain through to the rich manuscript tradition of medieval Ireland and Scotland. A year abroad is built into the programme, giving you the opportunity to study at a partner institution and to encounter Celtic and archaeological traditions in a different academic context.

Typical entry is around 200 UCAS tariff points.

Graduates from this combination go on to careers in archaeology, heritage management, museum curation, Celtic and medieval studies, community history, cultural conservation and academic research. The combination of material culture expertise and linguistic and textual knowledge is particularly valued in Scottish and Irish heritage contexts, and in the growing field of community archaeology and public engagement with the past. Further study in archaeology, Celtic studies, heritage management or related disciplines is a natural route for those who wish to pursue specialist or academic careers.