Applied Archaeology (MA)
Programme structure
In Applied Archaeology, you follow your personal interests, and choose a matching career profile and regional focus. What kind of archaeologist will you become? In the Applied Archaeology programme you get to plot your own course!
Complete overview
In the Prospectus you will find a complete overview and full course descriptions of the courses and focus areas Global Archaeology has to offer. Please note that this guide applies to the current academic year, which means that the curriculum for next year may slightly differ
Daudi Cijntje
Alumnus
"The master programme offered me opportunities to learn more about Caribbean archaeology. Last year, for instance, I was part of several Caribbean archaeological projects. I was part of the RCE’s Faro programme in which I advised on funding to be given to Caribbean projects. I also organized a session on the legacy of colonialism and slavery in Caribbean archaeology during the Reuvensdagen."
Richard Jansen
Lecturer
"The flexibility of the programme of the Leiden-Saxion Applied Archaeology MA offers students the unique possibility to choose their own path based on different future career prospects within professional archaeology.”
- Archaeological Theory
- Thesis or Graduation Project
- Applied Archaeology (3 courses)
- Focus area: World Archaeology (2 courses)
- Electives
- Archaeological Theory
- Thesis or Graduation Project
- Applied Archaeology (3 courses)
- Focus area: Digital Archaeology (2 courses)
- Electives
- Archaeological Theory
- Thesis or Graduation Project
- Applied Archaeology (3 courses)
- Focus area: World Archaeology (2 courses)
- Electives
Programme outline
| 5 ec | Archaeological Theory |
| 5 ec | Current Issues in Applied Archaeology? |
| 5 ec | Prospective Archaeology |
| 5 ec | Lansdscape Heritage |
| 10 ec | Region Focus Area |
| 10 ec |
Electives |
| 20 ec | Thesis or graduation project |
Compile your own programme
Below you see some exemplary programmes related to potential job market perspectives.
Some of the courses
Does archaeology entail more than just executing excavations? Do you think archaeologists can contribute to (local) societal issues, major challenges such as climate change as well as the Sustainable Development Goals? And do you want to learn about the ‘democratisation of the past’ and archaeological entrepreneurship? Then the course Current Issues in Applied Archaeology suits you perfectly.
Present-day archaeology is not just about doing academic research, it is more than ever about applying archaeological knowledge. Besides executing research, archaeologists must be aware of protecting heritage, have a keen eye for the public and must be able to make the public part of their research. Archaeologists are also communicators who must be able to explain the relevance and impact of archaeological research.
In this course you are introduced to the broad spectrum of applied archaeology and the interrelatedness of the different themes therein.
In this course the methodological problems involved in the various prospective methods (and in predictive models) are discussed. You will learn how to make a proper research outline for a prospective research project.
You will have to translate research problems into prospective fieldwork strategies and their application. Based on actual and diverse case studies from around the world, project outlines are made, assessed and discussed in small teams.
This course consists of a combination of a series of lectures, tutorials and assignments, consluded by a presentation of a thought-out design of a development area incorporating a (pre)historical heritage landscape.
The main goal is to challenge students to plan sustainable developments with a focus on the future and the experience of the past in the present which heritage values to be preserved to the fullest: ‘protection through development’.
Region Focus Areas
Within your Focus Area programme part, you may pick two courses of a region of your choice.
- Hunter-gatherer Archaeology
- The Archaeology of Hominin Diversity
- Europe I: Prehistory
- Europe II: Historical Archaeology
- Key Developments in European Prehistory
- Archeologie en Erfgoed van Nederland
- Neolithisation in West Asia
- Eastern Mediterranean and West Asia
- The Archaeology of the Assyrian Empire
- Archaeology of the Crusades
- Current Issues in the Archaeology of the Frontier Regions of the Roman Empire
- The Archaeology of the Greek Mediterranean
- Crafting the Greek World. Theory and practice
- The Archaeology of Daily Life in the First Millennium CE in the Mediterranean
- Ancient Networks
- Americas