BA (Hons) History and Archaeology

You will study the following history modules:

• What is history?

PLUS one of the following:

• A Middle Age: Europe 1000-1500 OR

• People, power and protest: themes in modern British history

• Empire, environment, and identity: Scotland 1600-2000

You will also study the following archaeology modules:

• Archaeological theory and method

PLUS one of the following:

• Historic landscapes

• World Archaeology

• European prehistories

You will study two further option modules from a range of history, Scottish history, archaeology, and other humanities subjects.

You will study the following history modules:

• Historians and history

PLUS one of the following:

• Themes in American history

• A curious age: European society and culture, c1500-1750

You will also study the following core archaeology module:

• Excavation skills (residential): should be taken in semester 2 of year 2, as well as a compulsory field school in the summer, at a site location off-campus

PLUS one of the following:

• Scottish archaeology

• Managing archaeology for contemporary society

• Digital heritage

You will study two further option modules from a range of history, Scottish history, archaeology, and other humanities subjects.

Please note that if you are a direct entrant to the second year, we strongly advise that you take the Level 7 core module, What is History? as one of your options.

You will study:

• one of the two core modules (either Public history or Archaeology project)

• two core Archaeology modules

• a further three modules, ensuring a balance of three History and three Archaeology modules in total.

History modules may include:

• Queer Britannia: gender, sexuality and performative identities in Britain, 1800-1950

• A study of things: material culture of medieval and early modern Europe

• War and chivalry in medieval Britain and France

• The Alps, hills, and plain? Central Europe to 1918

• Crime, custom and conflict, 1700-1850

• Crown-Magnate relations in later medieval Northern Scotland 

• The Jacobites: patriots, rebels, or opportunists? 

• Scots in North America 

Students wishing to specialize in Scottish History at Level 10 are advised to take at least one Scottish History option and undertake a Scottish topic for their Public History project, or two Scottish History options if you are not taking Public History.

You will take the following core Archaeology modules:

• Archaeological sciences

• Archaeology and interpretation

Archaeology options may include:

• Pre-history of the Highlands and Islands

• Archaeology placement - you will be responsible for covering the costs of any travel and subsistence associated with your participation in this module

• Historical Archaeology of the Highlands and Islands

You will complete a dissertation in history or archaeology. This is a double-credit module that runs across both semesters. 

You will also study one option module from your chosen dissertation subject, plus three option modules from the other subject.

History modules may include:

• Chaos and Conflict?: 'Civil Wars' in high medieval Scandinavia

• Death and destruction: the social impact of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648)

• Fight the power: music and politics of Black America

• Noble, rebel, king: Robert Bruce and medieval Scotland 

• Reaching the estate of manhood in late Medieval and early modern Europe

• Reform, Rupture, and Resistance: Late Medieval and Early Modern Ireland

• The empire strikes back: how the British Empire shaped Scotland

• The Highland land wars: origins, aftermath and interpretations 

• The Norman diaspora: conquest, colonization, and assimilation

• War cruel and sharp: a military history of the Hundred Years' War

If you wish to exit with a BA (Hons) Scottish History and Archaeology degree you must undertake a Scottish History dissertation plus at least one further Scottish History and one History module, OR, if you are undertaking an Archaeology dissertation, two of the three History modules must be in Scottish History.

Archaeology modules may include:

• Iron Age of Scotland, c800BC-800AD

• Landscape archaeology

• Neolithic Orkney 

• People, plants, and animals

• Sustainability past and present

• Vikings and Norse archaeology in the North Atlantic