What will I be studying?
The course is taught through three termly units, each with its own topic, over 12 Saturday day schools.
Watch a short video in which course director Dr Gilly Carr explains more about what the course involves.
Unit 1: Exploring the past: an introduction to archaeology
Dr Gilly Carr and Dr Nicholas James
This unit introduces the essential methods and theories of archaeology. It provides a basis for understanding the development of the subject and the application of its principles to field and laboratory methods. You will learn ways of interpreting and reconstructing the past and discover techniques of dating and building chronologies.
Saturday 13 October, 10 November, 24 November and 8 December 2018
Unit 2: Prehistoric peoples
Dr Gilly Carr and Dr Corinne Roughley
From megaliths to round houses, this unit provides an overview of later prehistory, and discusses the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. Within each time period, you will learn about daily life and technology; death and burial; ritual, settlement and landscape.
Saturday 12 January, 2 February, 23 February and 23 March 2019
Unit 3: Historic peoples
Dr Quinton Carroll
This unit provides students with key themes and a chronological overview of Romano-British and English society from the Roman Conquest to the settlement of the Saxons. The unit focuses on the British Isles, but is firmly situated within a wider European context.
Saturday 4 May, 25 May, 15 June and 6 July 2019
What can I go on to do?
If you wish, you can develop your studies in this subject by taking a second Undergraduate Certificate in Archaeology (the Undergraduate Certificate in Archaeology of the Ancient World - previously called Certificate in Archaeology II) and then progressing to an Undergraduate Diploma in Archaeology, of which there are three. Please see part-time qualifications in Archaeology for more information about the various courses.
Credit awarded by the Institute may also be transferred into the degree programmes of other higher education providers. However the volume of credit and the curriculum which can be transferred into degree programmes varies from institution to institution and is always at the discretion of the receiving institution.