The Department of Archaeology at the

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

, England, is a

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

which provides undergraduate and postgraduate courses in

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and its sub-disciplines and conducts associated research. It was founded in 1978 and has grown from a small department based at

Micklegate House Micklegate House is a Grade I listed building in York, a city in England. The house lies on Micklegate, in the city centre. It was completed by 1752, as a town house for John Bourchier of Beningbrough Hall Beningbrough Hall is a large Geor ...

to more than a hundred undergraduate students based at

King's Manor The King's Manor is a Grade I listed building in York, England, and is part of the University of York. It lies on Exhibition Square, in the city centre. History King's Manor was originally built to house the abbots of St Mary's Abbey, York. ...

and with scientific facilities at the BioArCh centre on the main campus.

Hosted organisations, research specialities and fieldwork

The archaeology department hosts several specialist organisations: *

Archaeology Data Service The Archaeology Data Service (ADS) is an open access digital archive for archaeological research outputs. It is located in The King's Manor, at the University of York. Originally intended to curate digital outputs from archaeological researchers ...

- an open access digital archive for archaeological research outputs *

Internet Archaeology ''Internet Archaeology'' is an academic journal and one of the first fully peer-reviewed electronic journals covering archaeology. It was established in 1996. The journal was part of the eLIb project's electronic journals. The journal is produced ...

- a fully peer-reviewed electronic journal for archaeology *BioArCh - a specialist centre using scientific and molecular techniques for archaeology *York Experimental Archaeology Research (YEAR) Centre *Centre for Digital Heritage - an interdisciplinary centre studying computer-based approaches to heritage. Working with the universities of

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...

(Denmark),

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

(Netherlands),

Lund Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...

(Sweden),

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

(Sweden). *The ''Post Hole'' - is an archaeology journal run by students. The department's faculty has led significant archaeological investigations across

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and occasionally further afield

History

The department opened in 1978, 15 years after the

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

itself. The first head of department,

Philip Rahtz Philip Arthur Rahtz (11 March 1921 – 2 June 2011) was a British archaeologist. Rahtz was born in Bristol. After leaving Bristol Grammar School, he became an accountant before serving with the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. D ...

built a thematic undergraduate programme specialising in the British Middle Ages. The programme included a 12-week field course in

archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

. The department expanded under

Martin Carver Martin Oswald Hugh Carver, FSA, Hon FSA Scot, (born 8 July 1941) is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of York, England, director of the Sutton Hoo Research Project and a leading exponent of new methods in excavation and surve ...

after his appointment in 1986. A

postgraduate Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree. The organization and stru ...

programme was added and the department moved to

. Subsequently, the department has grown in numbers of students, staff and the diversity of its specialisms: adding

environmental archaeology Environmental archaeology is a sub-field of archaeology which emerged in 1970s and is the science of reconstructing the relationships between past societies and the environments they lived in. The field represents an archaeological-palaeoecologica ...

prehistory Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

computational archaeology Computational archaeology describes computer-based analytical methods for the study of long-term human behaviour and behavioural evolution. As with other sub-disciplines that have prefixed 'computational' to their name (e.g., computational biol ...

, archaeological science and

cultural heritage management Cultural heritage management (CHM) is the vocation and practice of managing cultural heritage. It is a branch of cultural resources management (CRM), although it also draws on the practices of cultural conservation, restoration, museology, archae ...

Faculty

Head of Department: *

Nicky Milner Nicola Jane Milner (born 4 September 1973) is a British archaeologist and academic. She is head of the Department of Archaeology at the University of York. Her research focuses on the Mesolithic period, and the transition between the Mesolit ...

Deputy Heads of Department: *Oliver Craig *

Stephanie Wynne-Jones Stephanie Wynne-Jones is an Africanist archaeologist, whose research focuses on East African material culture, society and urbanism. She is Senior Lecturer and Deputy Head of the Department of Archaeology at the University of York. She previously ...

Faculty: *

Michelle Alexander Michelle Alexander (born October 7, 1967) is an American writer and civil rights activist. She is best known for her 2010 book '' The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness''. Since 2018, she has been an opinion columnist ...

*Ian Armit *Steve Ashby * Penny Bickle * Gill Chitty *Samuel Cobb *Lu Cooke *Phil Cox *Oliver Craig *Gareth Dean *Jonathan Finch *Laura Fitton *Kate Giles *

Dawn Hadley Dawn Marie Hadley (born 1967) is a British historian and archaeologist, who is best known for her research on the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon and Viking age, Viking-Age periods, the study of childhood, and gender in England in the Middle Ages, med ...

*Jessica Hendy *Don Henson *Malin Holst *Matt Jenkins *Jim Leary *Aimée Little *

Aleksandra McClain Aleksandra McClain is an archaeologist who specialises in church archaeology and the study of the Middle Ages. She is editor of the journal ''Medieval Archaeology ''Medieval Archaeology'' is an annual peer-reviewed academic journal covering ...

*Colleen Morgan *Paul O'Higgins *David Orton *Stephanie Piper *Paola Ponce *

Julian D. Richards Julian Daryl Richards is a British archaeologist and academic. He works at the University of York, and is co-director of the Archaeology Data Service (ADS), and ''Internet Archaeology''. He is also the director of the Centre for Digital Heritage ...

*Steve Roskams *John Schofield *Dav Smith *Penny Spikins *Daryl Stump *Alice Toso *Nathan Wales *Kevin Walsh Honorary and visiting staff: *

Joann Fletcher Joann Fletcher (born 30 August 1966) is an Egyptologist and an honorary visiting professor in the department of archaeology at the University of York. She has published a number of books and academic articles, including several on Cleopatra, and ...

*Terry O'Connor * Dominic Powlesland

Former faculty

Heads of department: *

- 1978-1986 *

- 1986-1996 * Jane Grenville - 2001-2006 *

- 2006-2012 *John Schofield - 2011-2018 * Sara Perry - left 2019

Alumni

Ken Dark Ken Dark (born in Brixton, London in 1961) is a British archaeologist who works on the 1st millennium AD in Europe (including Roman and immediately post-Roman Britain) and the Roman and Byzantine Middle East, on the archaeology of religion ( ...

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

: BA Archaeology, 1982 *

Helen Geake Helen may refer to: People * Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world * Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress * Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Places * Helen, ...

: DPhil Archaeology, 1991 *

Roberta Gilchrist Roberta Lynn Gilchrist, FSA, FBA (born 28 June 1965) is a Canadian-born archaeologist and academic specialising in the medieval period, whose career has been spent in the United Kingdom. She is Professor of Archaeology and Dean of Research at ...

: DPhil Archaeology, 1989 *

Greg Jenner Greg Jenner (born 1982) is a British author and public historian with a particular interest in communicating history through pop culture and humour. Early life Jenner studied a History & Archaeology BA and Medieval Studies MA at The University o ...

- Historical Consultant to CBBC's multi-award-winning 'Horrible Histories' *

Leen Ritmeyer Leen Ritmeyer (b. 1945) is a Dutch-born archaeological architect who currently lives and works in Wales, after having spent 22 years (1967–89) in Jerusalem. Career Ritmeyer holds an M.A. in Conservation Studies from the Institute of Advanced Arc ...

, archaeologist : MA Conservation Studies * Ben Robinson, '' The Flying Archaeologist''

(BBC Series) : PhD Archaeology

Rankings and awards

Amongst archaeology departments, York ranked 2nd for Impact, 2nd equal for Environment, and 4th overall in the 2014

Research Assessment Exercise The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) was an exercise undertaken approximately every five years on behalf of the four UK higher education funding councils ( HEFCE, SHEFC, HEFCW, DELNI) to evaluate the quality of research undertaken by British h ...

. In the 2015 University Subject Tables, the department was ranked 6th out of 40 with a score of 92.6%. The Department was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2011

References

External links

Department of Archaeology Home Page

Twitter

Facebook page

The Posthole

Internet Archaeology

Archaeology Data Service
{{authority control Departments of the University of York History education History institutes Archaeological research institutes