Conservation of Objects in Museums and Archaeology

Conservation of objects in museums and archaeology is the discipline concerned with understanding the physical and chemical nature of cultural heritage, slowing or reversing the processes of deterioration, and making ethical decisions about how artefacts should be cared for, treated, and displayed. It sits at the intersection of science and the humanities, requiring both a practical command of materials science and chemistry and a sensitivity to the historical, cultural, and social meanings that objects carry. Conservators are the specialists who ensure that collections survive for future generations while remaining accessible to the public and researchers today.

At Cardiff University, you will study this programme over three years, full time. You will develop an understanding of the materials from which historical and archaeological objects are made, whether stone, metal, ceramics, glass, wood, or organic matter, and explore how these materials respond to environmental conditions, handling, and the passage of time. You will learn the investigative techniques used to analyse and document objects, the interventive methods used to stabilise and restore them, and the preventive approaches that minimise further deterioration.

Ethical questions are central to the discipline, and you will engage with debates about authenticity, reversibility, the limits of intervention, and the responsibilities that conservation professionals have to communities whose heritage they manage. Practical, hands-on work forms an important part of the programme, developing the fine manual skills and observational precision the profession demands.

Graduates of conservation programmes work in museums, galleries, archives, archaeological services, and heritage organisations across the public and private sectors. Career paths include object conservator, preventive conservation specialist, collections manager, and conservation scientist. Many graduates also go on to postgraduate study, deepening their specialisation in a particular material type or research area.

The breadth of scientific and humanistic thinking the degree develops also prepares graduates for roles in cultural policy, heritage management, and collections care more broadly.