12 monthsProgramme duration
36,800 GBPTuition Fee/year
25 Jun, 2027Application Deadline
SepStarting Month
Programme overview
Main Subject
Archaeology
Degree
MSc
Study Level
Master's
Study Mode
On Campus
Environmental archaeology is an interdisciplinary subject that looks at how humans have drawn on the environment and shaped landscapes and ecologies over the long term. From hunter and gatherers to the first farmers and pastoralists cultures have been shaped by their environment and impacted past landscapes and other species.
The practices that have modified the environment through domestication, species dispersal, extinction, erosion, farming and other landscape modifications have followed distinctive paths across the world long before before written records. Archaeology recovers the evidence for past human environments in ancient soils and the remains of animals and plants. The theory and methods studying this through geoarchaeology, zooarchaeology, and archaeobotany are explored in this course.
In addition, you will gain practical experience in laboratory analysis of at least one of the sub-fields:
- Identification of animal bones
- Identification of plant remains
- Soil micromorphology and sedimentological analyses .
- Biomolecular archaeology
You will learn to collect and analyse data, to follow this through lab work and to report and interpret scientific results to a high standard.
UCL Institute of Archaeology is one of the largest and most diverse archaeology departments in the UK and ranked #3 in the QS World University Rankings by Subject in 2026.
Programme overview
Main Subject
Archaeology
Degree
MSc
Study Level
Master's
Study Mode
On Campus
Environmental archaeology is an interdisciplinary subject that looks at how humans have drawn on the environment and shaped landscapes and ecologies over the long term. From hunter and gatherers to the first farmers and pastoralists cultures have been shaped by their environment and impacted past landscapes and other species.
The practices that have modified the environment through domestication, species dispersal, extinction, erosion, farming and other landscape modifications have followed distinctive paths across the world long before before written records. Archaeology recovers the evidence for past human environments in ancient soils and the remains of animals and plants. The theory and methods studying this through geoarchaeology, zooarchaeology, and archaeobotany are explored in this course.
In addition, you will gain practical experience in laboratory analysis of at least one of the sub-fields:
- Identification of animal bones
- Identification of plant remains
- Soil micromorphology and sedimentological analyses .
- Biomolecular archaeology
You will learn to collect and analyse data, to follow this through lab work and to report and interpret scientific results to a high standard.
UCL Institute of Archaeology is one of the largest and most diverse archaeology departments in the UK and ranked #3 in the QS World University Rankings by Subject in 2026.
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