Archaeology Research and Study Opportunities

Thousands of study and academic opportunities in Archaeology are available internationally. Conferences and summer schools in Archaeology are organized regularly in the best academic centers of the world. The majority of universities and many foundations also offer BA, MA, and Ph.D. programs in Archaeology as wells as postdoctoral research grants, awards, and fellowships. Below you will find the updated list of international opportunities available in Archaeology.

Archaeology Scholarships

Archaeology Fellowships

Archaeology Conferences

Archaeology Relevant Accounts on Twitter

What is the purpose of Archaeology?

I think you have many times used or listened to the expression "dig deep to understand." For understanding the historical past of humans, digging deep is the profession and main activity of archeologists.

Archaeology is a study of discovering the life that existed in the past. And by saying past, it's not only meant the time period of thousands or millions of years ago. Archeological activities are also happening to discover life conditions that existed relatively recently, like 100, 50, or maybe 15-20 years ago. 

In general, everything that once existed is a subject of interest for archeology, no matter when it disappeared. All the historical information about past humans and other living creatures, their lifestyles, traditions, and architecture is available to us due to archeological digs. 

The explanation of what archeologists do sounds simple in words: they dig to the places where the remains of ancient life can exist, find the artifacts, clean them to receive their possible original version, and analyze what those findings are and what they can tell about the life of the past. 

Yet, you can imagine the difficulty of archeologists' working conditions and physical loads when performing all the mentioned activities. Therefore, you should note that you need proper physical, health, and mental readiness to become an archeologist.

Archeology Studies and Career Applications

Humans might not, but life existed everywhere. So, theoretically, archeologists should work nearly everywhere to complete the puzzle of ancient history. Therefore, the discipline has many subdivisions, depending on which places and life fields the archeologist explores.

For both studies and careers in archeology, you should choose between the numerous directions, the main ones of which include:

  • prehistoric, 
  • historic, 
  • classical, 
  • underwater, 
  • bioarchaeology (human remains)
  • zooarchaeology (animal remains)
  • paleoethnobotany (plant remains)
  • lithics (stone tools), etc. 

After choosing your specific direction, the main task you will have as an archeologist is to understand the founded artifacts' context. Without this important end result, the hard labor work of the archeologist has no meaning. 

That's why you will also need to be partially a historian to catch the logic of previous life and integrate your findings in it. As the archeologist can't deeply learn all the life areas, oftentimes, you may cooperate with biologists, zoologists, and other professionals to examine your excavated objects. 

Such a diverse discipline can't be studied purely theoretically. Archeology studies are partial or fully accompanied by practical activities in the forms of participation in excavations or in the processes of cleaning and analyzing the results of other's excavations. 

The Archeology major courses include:

  • prehistoric archeology, 
  • human osteology, 
  • geographic information systems, 
  • archeological methods, 
  • research design, 
  • archeological skills, etc. 

The career opportunities for the discipline are relatively narrower than other disciplines. Yet, there are opportunities to be employed in job positions other than the archeologist in the above-described context. 

After completing the degree, you may also work as a conservator, heritage manager, academic researcher, museum education officer, museum curator, gallery curator, cartographer, social researcher, tourism officer, etc. 

In ARMACAD, we collected Archeology's opportunities to assist you in constructing your educational and career path in the field. We hope that the more exciting findings of the humans' past are still waiting ahead.