Research
The School of Archaeology is an internationally recognised centre for research in World archaeology. When combined with other parts of the University with related research interests, it makes Oxford one of the leading centres in the world, in terms of the strength, depth and breadth of its archaeological research.
Research in the School of Archaeology is focussed into three main inter-related research areas: prehistoric archaeology, classical and historical archaeology and science-based archaeology. Oxford is one of very few places in the world where these three aspects exist in significant numbers within the same academic unit. We aim to understand the full range of human history, but concentrating on the last 10,000 years where movements to settled life and then to states and empires take place. Given the scientific strengths available in archaeology and elsewhere in Oxford, we also make serious attempts to set these developments against a longer term record of environmental, biological and climatic change.
The School of Archaeology enjoys a series of productive research links with other Oxford disciplines, including anthropology, art history, classics, earth sciences, genetics, geography, oriental studies, plant sciences, chemistry and physics. Another key set of connections also come through relationships with several of the University’s museums: the Ashmolean, the Natural History Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum, the History of Science Museum and also with the Bodleian Library (in this context, as another physical repository of historic objects).