MA ARCHAEOLOGY NEWSLETTER
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Archaeology at Manchester is internationally recognised as a centre for social archaeology. The MA in Archaeology thus facilitates a fascinating journey into the material and social world of past human societies. By combining theory with practice, we are able to ask fundamental questions about the complex web of interrelationships between societies, individuals, animals and plants, the built environment as well as the material world. This socially-focused approach also encourages a critical and self-reflective attitude towards the politics and practice of archaeology today. Working at the forefront of knowledge and interpretation, the MA brings together researchers of international calibre with specialization in a wide range of geographical areas and chronological periods, and thus offers a unique and stimulating environment for postgraduate study. You will learn about archaeology, not just in the classroom but also in the field and laboratory, using our own teaching collection as well as the rich resources of the Manchester Museum. You will have the opportunity to undertake archaeological fieldwork, gaining vital practical and transferable skills. You will also develop your own area of expertise through research projects including seminar papers and your own research dissertation.
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Research Seminars
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News from the Department: The Ardnamurchan Transitions Project Whitworth Park Community
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Archaeology and History Project Contact Us
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About the Programme This MA programme fosters strong student-led research. By encouraging you to propose your own essay, presentation and dissertation topics, the MA allows you to pursue your specific archaeological interests throughout all our modules.
The MA in Archaeology will appeal to: 
Those wishing to explore the following themes: history, theory and practice
of archaeology; the archaeology of cultural identity; landscape, monuments and architecture; technology and society; death and the body; archaeological heritage and the contemporary significance of the past.
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Those interested in the following geographical areas or chronological
periods: Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Iron Age Britain, Neolithic and Bronze Age Near East, Cyprus and Greece, Africa, Pacific and Historical/Colonial archaeology, as well as the role of the past in contemporary societies.
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Those whose first degree was in a related discipline (eg Anthropology,
Museology, History of Art, History) and now wish to take a postgraduate degree in Archaeology in order to gain a solid grounding in the discipline. Those who have a first degree in Archaeology (single or joint honours) who wish to advance their knowledge, understanding and skills in an exciting research led environment at the forefront of new developments and discoveries.
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Course unit list The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study. Detailed information for each module be found here
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Research Seminars The Archaeology research community in Manchester provides a lively and
innovative context for the work of academic staff, postdoctoral scholars and research students. There is a bi-weekly research seminar in archaeology, with visiting speakers from within and beyond the UK, complementing the speakers invited by the University's Archaeology Society. A Near East and Eastern Mediterranean archaeology seminar series also meets several times a semester.
Archaeology Research Seminars (Spring 2015)
27 Jan Dr Gabriel Moshenska (University College London) - "Community Archaeology in London 2005-2015" 10 Feb Dr Sophia Labadi (University of Kent) - "UNESCO, Outstanding Universal Value and Sustainability" 10 Mar Dr Becky Farbstein (University of Southampton) - "The Artistic Origins of Palaeolithic Ceramic Technologies" 17 Mar Dr Osamu Maeda (Institute of Archaeology & University of Tsukuba, Japan) - "The Life of a Hunter-Gatherer in a Sedentary Village" 28 April Dr Catriona Mackie (University of Liverpool) - "Social Reform and Resistance: Improving Tenant Housing in the Isle of Lewis in the 19th & 20th Centuries" 5 May Dr Barra O’Donnabhain (University College Cork, Ireland) - "Our Experiment at Spike Island: Archaeology of a Victorian Prison"
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News from the Department: The Ardnamurchan Transitions Project Directed by Dr Hannah Cobb
The Ardnamurchan Transitions Project is a long-running research and community project exploring the archaeology of the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, Western Scotland. Since 2006 we have been examining how people lived in this landscape through time, especially at moments of dramatic social change. Dr Hannah Cobb is one of the directors and the project is a collaborative effort between archaeologists from the universities of Manchester and Leicester, CFAArchaeology and Archaeology Scotland. We have excavated seven sites from five different periods: Cladh Aindreis from the Neolithic; Ricky’s Cairn and a ring ditch feature from the Bronze Age; the Iron Age site of Dun Mhurchaidh; the 19th century settlements of Swordle Corrach and Swordle Huel, and the first complete Viking boat burial on the UK mainland.
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Although our aims reflect traditional research agendas in archaeological investigation, we are also particularly concerned with a) exploring the potential of excavating in a manner that foregrounds interpretive or post-processual theoretical approaches and
b) providing and developing innovative vocational training for undergraduate students. Consequently a key part of our project ethos is the aim to provide, for all who work with us, detailed vocational training integrated with a consideration of critical theoretical issues, which more traditional excavations might not otherwise address. The excellence that our approach fosters was professionally recognised in 2014 when we were awarded the Archaeology Training Forum award for excellence in training, learning and professional development.
8 Whitworth Park Community Archaeology and History Project (Co-Directors: Prof. Sian Jones, Dr. Melanie Giles and Dr. Hannah Cobb) 'The Whitworth Park Community Archaeology and History Project was a collaborative research field project involving the Archaeology department, the Manchester Museum, and the Whitworth Art Gallery, working with the The Friends of Whitworth Park and the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre. Led by the three codirectors Prof. Sian Jones, Dr. Melanie Giles and Dr. Hannah Cobb, the project consisted of a year of survey and two years of excavation, with the aim of using archaeology to enhance local communities' understanding and appreciation of their green urban heritage. Following the current initiatives in 'citizen science', one of the groups we targeted were local long-term unemployed residents, who were recruited to the dig not just to help us discover its past, but to enhance their skills in team-work, heritage investigation and written/oral communication. Volunteers from the surrounding suburbs were also welcomed, often bringing with them rich oral histories about the park and how it had changed over time. The other major participant was local schools, from primary and secondary classes to sixth form students studying archaeology, but also the 'Young Archaeologists Club' based at the Manchester Museum. The results were fascinating: tracing the origins of the park in the grand houses and gardens preserved as foundations in the park, discovering the footings of the bandstand, revealing the architecture of planned walkways and landscaped mounds, and understanding the transformation from ornamental lake to boating pond and paddling pool, at the centre of the park. Fragments of bottles, scraps of food, lost buttons and ribbons, well-loved toys: broken, lost or discarded, and rare coins and keys... the material culture of 100 years of park history have helped us understand the everyday lives and leisure pursuits of the working and middle classes in the Edwardian era.
Throughout this project, our postgraduate students played a vital role. As well as bringing the 'university
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into the city' the dig was a training excavation for our own undergraduates, and MA and PhD students acted as trench supervisors, finds supervisors and site managers for the excavation: creating a rich sense of a research community between these year groups. This helped deepen the relationships already established between such students and the undergraduates that some of them had assisted either as Peer Mentors/PASS tutors, or as Graduate Teaching Assistants, running first-year seminars. The atmosphere proved inspirational and many of these undergraduate students have gone on to become leading lights in following year groups. The dig did not end in the park: post-excavation and lab sessions, as well as research for the exhibition held in the Manchester Museum in 2014, also involved these students in processing soil samples, analysing and cataloguing finds, or researching archival postcards... sometimes working with local collectors or archaeological specialists. Studying for an MA or PhD at Manchester will not only give you the exciting opportunity to research the materials we found, but to develop knowledge and skills in the following areas: Victorian and Edwardian urban landscapes, park archaeology, the material culture of gender, class and identity in the Industrial Revolution, critical approaches to community archaeology, and archaeology in education. Research is ongoing, and the project has created a new agenda for park archaeology, which - we hope - will be a vibrant topic of future staff and student research.'
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CONTACT US MASALC@manchester.ac.uk Post Graduate Admissions Office School of Arts, Languages and Cultures Room CG5, Ellen Wilkinson Building The University of Manchester Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PT United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)161 275 0322