The Archaeology & Anthropology course is made up of two parts. The first of these covers your first year and is called, in Oxford-speak, ‘Honour Moderations’. Together the second and third years form what is called the ‘Final Honour School’.

First Year: Honour Moderations

The four courses that you will be taking in this, your first year as an Archaeology & Anthropology student, are designed to provide you with a general background to the three disciplines that feature within the degree: archaeology, biological anthropology and social anthropology. Further details of these four courses can be found here. They also aim to introduce you to the main techniques and methodologies that archaeologists and anthropologists employ and to the principal theoretical perspectives that they use. Right from the beginning you will find that those teaching you - both in lectures and tutorials - will point out and emphasise the relationships between the various parts of the degree. However, for practical purposes, and because we recognise that most students have no prior experience of either archaeology or anthropology, the first year courses treat the subjects a little more separately than is subsequently the case.

In addition to the core papers the Honour Moderations course includes several classes, for each of which short assignments need to be completed. Overall assessment, however, is by way of four unseen three hour written examinations that you take at the end of your first year.

Second and Third Years: Final Honour School

The four core courses are constructed to display and investigate the inter-relationships between the cultural, social, environmental and biological aspects of human societies in the context of their change and evolution in both the past and the present. All four stress the complementary nature of the relationship between anthropology and archaeology, particularly the ways in which archaeological data can extend the period of anthropological analysis and the ways in which anthropological evidence can be used as a resource for interpreting the past. In many areas you will find, perhaps to your surprise, that archaeology and anthropology share similar methods and theoretical frameworks, for example in studying material culture or the environmental and biological bases of human existence.

The other part of the Final Honour School is yours to construct for yourself. It will be made up of three optional subjects chosen from a wide range (currently over 25) of anthropological and archaeological topics, further details can be found here. These options give you the chance of maintaining breadth, or of beginning to specialise in an area, theme or period that is of particular interest to you. You will also find that some of the options make greater use of seminar and class-based teaching methods than will have been the case in the core papers of the Final Honour School or Honour Moderations. In addition, you will write a thesis (of up to 15,000 words in length) on an anthropological and/or archaeological topic of your own choice.

The Final Honour School is currently assessed by eight examination papers, all of equal weight, taken at the end of your third year. One of these consists of your thesis, and the other seven of unseen three hour written examinations. Prizes are awarded for the best thesis and for the best overall performance in Finals examinations.

Thesis

A thesis of not more than 15000 words in length forms one out of the eight papers examined at the end of the Final Honour School. Writing this thesis gives you the opportunity to investigate in depth a subject of your own choice, which may be on any aspect of archaeology or anthropology. Many, indeed, combine data and theory from more than one discipline and several have been published. Whether you just want to research a question that has been puzzling you for years, or whether you are thinking ahead to a topic that you would like to study intensively at graduate level, the thesis offers you the chance to get a further taste of independent study.

Thesis topics have to be approved by the end of your second year and are normally chosen in consultation with your College’s tutor or director of studies. He or she will help you identify a member of staff who is able to supervise the thesis and offer you advice on appropriate reading, methodology and theory.

Wherever possible, it is best to undertake your research during the summer vacation between your second and third years, leaving the writing up until term time. Your thesis has to be completed and handed in at the end of the second (Hilary) term of your final year.

Recent thesis titles include:

• Powerful pens and cameras that lie.
• The killing and the calendar: An investigation into the seasonality of Mayan warfare from an epigraphic persepctive.
• How do the anthropological issues of identity and the rites of passage relate to the underachievement of black boys in the UK education system
• Indigenous people, conservation and ecopolitics: A critical evaluation
• Beyond the Mandala: Spatiality and experience in the Himalaya region of Ladakh, India
• Problems of the Late Bronze Age South Eastern Aegean
• Why has "The Last Samurai" been more successful than other Hollywood films in Japan?
• A successful community? The kibbutz movement in Israel
• The role of Southern African rock art in Bushman societies
• Building bridges: Perceptions of technology

For both archaeologists and anthropologists undertaking original fieldwork is frequently an important part of their research. For this reason you will be required to take part yourself in a programme of approved fieldwork as part of your degree. This has two components to it:

Training Excavation - all Archaeology & Anthropology students take part in a two week excavation in July of their first year. As well as the experience you will gain of how an archaeological excavation is run, you will also find this a great opportunity to meet with all the other students in your year outside of Oxford’s lecture rooms, libraries and offices.

Independent fieldwork - You will then take part in at least three weeks of further fieldwork that you have organised by yourself, either on your own or with fellow students. This can be anywhere in the world. Archaeological projects (excavations and field-survey) are the most common form of fieldwork project, but it is also possible for you to fulfil this requirement by working in a museum or by assisting an anthropologist in the course of his or her own fieldwork.

Financial support is available to you from the University and you will also find that you can apply to your College for additional grants. Advice on appropriate projects is available from members of staff. Every year a half-day fieldwork conference gives new students the opportunity to hear from second year undergraduates about their fieldwork experiences the previous summer.

Assessment - It is a requirement of the Archaeology & Anthropology degree that you undertake fieldwork, but this is not formally assessed as such. Instead, you need to write a report (of up to 5000 words in length) on the project that you arranged for yourself. This will describe the aims and achievements of the project and your own role in these. You need to submitted your report to your College’s tutor or director of studies for approval and the best in each year is awarded a book prize.

Other opportunities - Beyond the requirements of the course we encourage you to take your fieldwork experience further. Opportunities to do this include working on projects run by members of staff, the analysis of samples in the Environmental Archaeology Laboratory and work on museum collections. Although not a formal part of the Archaeology & Anthropology degree, it is also normally possible for interested students to gain knowledge of other archaeological techniques, such as photography and drawing. If you would like to learn another language while at Oxford, the University’s Language Teaching Centre offers a very wide range of programmes and resources.