Programme Director

MSc Archaeological Science: Professor Caroline Jackson   (c.m.jackson@sheffield.ac.uk)

Programme Induction Meeting

Date & Time: 20 September 2023, 10.00-11.00

Venue: BO9, Ella Armitage Building

This will be an informal group discussion to prepare you for the academic year and an opportunity to meet other students on your programme and ask questions. Individual meetings between yourself and your tutor can also be arranged by email at a mutually agreeable time.

Programme Regulations 

Please use our programme regulations finder tool to view the structure of the programme of study, including the core units and approved modules you can take. It is important to review this information prior to selecting your modules.

> Enter AAPT221 in the search field and select 23-24 in the second drop down menu, then press 'search'. Please note that these regulations apply to both the full-time and part-time programmes.  

Module Choice

Selecting the non-core modules you wish to study is part of the pre-registration process and you will be able to do this via the online module choice (OMC) system from 1 September 2023.  We have prepared some guidance.

Introductory Reading

General reading

For an introduction to the development of the discipline and archaeological theory if you don’t have a background in Archaeology;

Johnson, Matthew. Archaeological theory: an introduction. John Wiley & Sons, 2019.

Renfrew, C. and Bahn, P. 2020.  Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice.  8th edition.  London: Thames and Hudson.

The Oxford Handbooks Series provide excellent introductions to recent thinking in archaeology as they have all been published in the last ten years. These mainly cover Britain/Europe but you might dip into them for any of the specialist modules you choose to take.  They can be found in the library (through STAR) and many are in electronic format. 

Archaeological Science – general textbooks

Pollard, A.M.,   Armitage, R.A., Makarewicz, C.A. 2023. Handbook of Archaeological Sciences. London: Wiley

Pollard, A.M. & Heron, C. 1996. Archaeological Chemistry. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry.

Richards, M. and Britton, K. 2020. Archaeological Science. 2019. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Then you can also look at any from the other MSc programmes that you may be dipping into.

Directed reading relating to specialist modules

Albarella, U., Rizzetto, M., Russ, H., Vickers, K. and Viner-Daniels, S. (2017). The Oxford Handbook of Zooarchaeolog. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2017. Oxford Handbooks Online. Web.

Brickley, M. and McKinley, J. 2004. Standards for the recording of human remains from archaeological sites. IFA. Available online at https://www.babao.org.uk/assets/Uploads-to-Web/HumanremainsFINAL3.pdf

Conolly, J. and Lake, M. 2006. Geographical Information Systems in Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Davis S.J.M. 1987. The Archaeology of Animals. London: Batsford

Day, J. 2013  Botany meets archaeology: people and plants in the past, Journal of Experimental Botany, Volume 64, Issue 18, Pages 5805–5816, https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/ert068 

Dennell, R. W. 1979. Prehistoric diet and nutrition: some food for thought. World Archaeology 11: 121-35.

de Vareilles, A., Pelling, R., Woodbridge, J., Fyfe, R. 2021, Archaeology and agriculture: plants, people, and past land-use, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Volume 36, Issue 10,  Pages 943-954,  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2021.06.003 

Jones, G. 1996. Distinguishing food from fodder in the archaeobotanical record. Environmental Archaeology 1: 95-98.

Lodwick, L. 2019 Agendas for Archaeobotany in the 21st Century: data, dissemination and new directions, Internet Archaeology 53. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.53.7 

Matisoo-Smith, E. and Horsburgh, K.A. 2012. DNA for Archaeologists. Taylor & Francis Group.

Mitchell, P.D. and Brickley, M. 2017. Updated guidelines to the standards for the recording of human remains. http://www.babao.org.uk/publications/ethics-and- standards/

Pate, D. F. (1994). ‘Bone chemistry and palaeodiet’. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 1 (2): 161–95.

Pişkin, E., Marciniak, A. and Bartkowiak, M. (eds). 2018. Environmental Archaeology: Current Theoretical and Methodological Approaches. Springer International Publishing.

Reitz, E.J. and Wing, E.S. 1999. Zooarchaeology. Cambridge: University Press. (Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology

Skoglund, P. and Mathieson, I. 2018. Ancient human genomics: the first decade. Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics 19: 8.1-8.24.

White, T.D. and Folkens, P.A. 2005. The Human Bone Manual. London: Academic Press.

You may also wish to browse journals such as: Journal of Archaeological Science, Journal of Archaeological Science Reports, PLOSOne, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, Environmental Archaeology: The Journal of Human Palaeoecology, amongst others.