Archaeology/Earth Science

Archaeology and earth science are disciplines that together give you two complementary ways of reading the deep history of our planet and the humans who have lived on it. Archaeology investigates how past peoples interacted with their world through the material traces they left behind: objects, sites, monuments, and landscapes that preserve evidence of how people lived, what they believed, and how they organised themselves. Earth science provides the geological framework within which that human story unfolds, examining the formation of landscapes, the dynamics of climate, and the physical processes that have shaped the environments people inhabited.

At the University of Glasgow, this four-year full-time programme allows you to develop expertise in both disciplines, understanding the material culture of the past in its geological and environmental context. On the archaeology side you will develop skills in excavation, artefact analysis, site interpretation, and the theoretical frameworks that underpin contemporary archaeological practice. On the earth science side you will study mineralogy, petrology, sedimentology, palaeontology, and environmental change, developing the scientific methods that underpin both disciplines.

A year abroad is embedded in the programme, giving you the opportunity to engage with archaeological and geological sites and research communities in a different setting.

Graduates work in professional archaeology, environmental consultancy, heritage management, museums and galleries, geological survey organisations, and research institutions. The combination of humanistic and scientific skills that this programme develops is unusual and valued by employers who need practitioners capable of working across disciplinary boundaries. Postgraduate study in archaeology, earth science, Quaternary science, and heritage management is available for those who wish to specialise or pursue research.