Who is this course for?
No previous experience in the subject is necessary and the course is open to anyone with an interest in the subject area.
What will I be studying?
The Certificate is divided into three termly units taught via remote delivery.
Unit 1: Prehistoric and Roman sites, monuments and landscapes
This unit will look at the archaeology of prehistoric, Roman and Romano-British landscapes. Each session will examine a different aspect of the prehistoric and Romano-British landscape through a number of case studies, focussing on land use, evidence and interpretation, and will discuss how the landscape contributes to the corpus of knowledge of prehistoric and Roman Britain and its use in modern archaeology.
Unit 2: Continuity and change in the Anglo-Saxon and medieval landscape
This unit examines the initially sparse and later more plentiful and detailed archaeological and other evidence for continuity and change in the Anglo-Saxon origins and development of, and post-Conquest expansion in, the medieval landscape, focussing particularly (but not exclusively) on settlement and agricultural production. Key contextualising debates will be those around the changing character of Anglo-Saxon society, the development of political and religious institutions, the importance of market and/or subsistence economies, and the extent to which any or all may or may not have contributed to the emergence of characteristic regional pays.
Unit 3: Interpreting post-medieval landscapes
The unit explores radical transformations of countryside and towns from the later 1300s to today. History, archaeology, architecture and field studies are combined to explore population, political and social structure, the development of urbanism, the privatization of land and everyday life, the rise of capitalism and the industrialization of agriculture and other forms of production.
Please note that the units detailed above will not necessarily be run in this order.
What can I go on to do?
The Institute offers a number of award bearing and short courses in the field of archaeology and history. For further information about the courses we offer please visit the Archaeology and History subject pages of our website.
Credit awarded by the Institute can be transferred into the degree programmes of other higher education providers. However, the amount of credit which can be transferred into degree programmes varies from institution to institution and is always at the discretion of the receiving institution.