My name is Henry Chapman, I’m Professor
of Archaeology here at Birmingham.
So, the next 20 -25 minutes, something like
that I’m going to introduce to the course
for the, but always thinking about University
degrees, the course is part of it, it’s
an important part of it, but it’s also the
other aspects, well that’s the University
more broadly, the City, the area, the other
opportunities you might have from being in
a very large University in terms of things
like getting experience in terms of career,
what you might to do later on, testing things
out and all that. So, I’ll cover a bit of
that today, but I mean if you’ve got any
questions at the end do please ask, even if
they’re not directly relating to the course
or come and see us on the stand or anything
else.
So, Archaeology and Ancient History, on one
level it is, obviously I’m very biased being
and Archaeologist, but at one level it’s
nice because you can study not just the people
who can write and read but you can also study
everybody else in the past. So, that’s the
run of the Archaeology with the Ancient History.
It also means that you can study periods beyond
the written, earlier that when people could
write and you can start exploring where the
things match up, whether what people are writing
about is really what happened. But at a deeper
level maybe Archaeology and Ancient History
it’s a Arts and Languages degree, one of
them is the same as doing English or History
in terms of a degree. But it has value added
and hopefully some of that will come through
here, because some of things that you have
the opportunity to do, whether it’s do with
team work, things like leadership responsibilities,
some of those other aspects which you get
to do here. I think actually sort of adds
something to do it, so maybe it’s worth
thinking about.
But to look at the two subjects, it’s a
combination of two different subjects, one
of those is Archaeology, as I said, Archaeology
allows you to look at not just the written
word, you can go beyond, you can start comparing
and contrast in what people write about a
particular period, with actually what really
happened, at least what the material record
tells you. It also allows you to study and
cover any period, I mean although much of
what you will do here will be around the Ancient
World, it won’t only be that, it’s much
broader as well. And if you look at the Ancient
History range I suppose one of the great advantages
of Birmingham it’s a big Department and
I’ll come onto that. But because it’s
a large Department the actual range of different
cultures, whether you’re talking about Archaeology
or Ancient History and different geographical
regions is quite vast. So, rather than just
looking at Greece and Rome you’ll be looking
at the ancient near East, Mesopotamia, Sumerians
and that kind of thing. You’ll also be looking
at Ancient Egypt, you will look at not just
the, what happens at the end of the Roman
World, sort of going into the Byzantine World.
So your options in terms of what you want
to study are quite tremendous, right into
Byzantine. So I suppose it’s the breadth
which is important. And as you will see within
the structure of the programme you can choose
whether you want to be broad or whether you
want to be specific as you go through.
In terms of approaches and sources, because
you’ve got two different disciplines, but
they’re kind of the same discipline, it’s
ways of studying the past. So you might be
looking at different sorts of History, historical
approaches, your social history, economic
history, those sorts of things. You maybe
into visual humanity, so there’s lots of
opportunity for using visual tools within
a number of the modules. So whether that’s
creating 3D objects or just working without
visual tools, but also you’ll be looking
at, well a text is also Archaeology isn’t
it, it’s material. If it’s an inscription
you can look at it in two different ways.
You might be looking at other sorts of material
Archaeology, objects, museum collections.
You’ll be looking at landscapes, burials,
human remains, animal remains, environmental
remains. So the actual range of different
sources you might be looking at to understand
the past is really broad. And I always think
that actually if you’re trying to study
something or trying to understand something
don’t just have just the one use all of
them, use all the different possible approaches.
And that’s what Ancient History and Archaeology
allows you to do.
So, as a Department, as I said it’s a large
Department. Because of that size it does mean
the range of expertise and therefore that
translates directly into the sorts of modules
you can choose, the range of different material
is quite vast. So we have people sort of specialise
in Mesopotamia, Iraq, Iran, those sorts of
areas. Equally, we have people who specialise
in Britain. So depending on how things go.
We also have people who don’t specialise
at all, they just keep things broad throughout.
We are, I suppose, as a Russell Group University
we are very research driven, but also that
feeds directly into the teaching, as you will
see. You will contribute to the research as
it’s going on. So, very active in terms
of what you’re learning and how you’re
learning and what your participating in. And
all that comes together with this range of
choices which, I’ll go through some of that
in a moment, just so you sort of see exactly
how that works out. In terms of research you’ll
always see these things at Open Days in terms
of rankings and all that kind of thing. We
are very, very active in research so when
you, everybody who is teaching you will be,
it’s the old joke, is ‘I wrote the book
on it’, but they did. So they’ll be talking
about stuff which is very, very current and
you will be contributing to that sort of environment.
When you outside of lectures or within some
lectures you will be also working with people
in other years. So you’re in your first
year you will be working with second years
and third years, particularly when it comes
to some of the practical work and also with
postgraduates. So you’ll get different views
and different experiences across, quite often
we also have people who have graduated and
left who are now professionals in whatever
area and they’ll come back and volunteer
and they’ll keep on working with us, particularly
on things like field schools. So your ability
to sort of mix with a range of people outside
is very strong. And also that comes through
things like the Archaeology Society and some
of the other societies, the Ancient History
Society do back us within the Department.
So, out of all that research there’s a vast,
how do start constructing a list of all the
research which a large Department is doing,
but I’ll just give you an idea. There’s
a range of current projects from trying to
re-interpret the entire Stonehenge landscape
through Geophysics and Excavation, which is
on-going, all the way through to looking at
Roman North Africa, Byzantine, there’s the
vast range of different projects. There’s
the very strong Wetland Archaeology Theme,
the Environmental Archaeology Theme in there,
through to looking at Oratory in – if anybody
has seen the Ancient Natural History Tour,
you’ll think about Cicero and things like
that. So your focus is the vast range of research.
And what you can do, because these projects
are active, when you come to do dissertations
or anything else you’ll be working with
the people who are expert within those fields.
What’s really nice when you come to the
end, when you actually decide to take a different,
you start to argue with those experts. I’ll
come back onto that as well.
Right so, they’re some of the sort of entry
details, but what I want to say was actually
not only has the, there’s been a lot of
changes in Birmingham recently. You’ve seen
the campus, there’s been a lot of development
on campus. But also we’ve just gone through
sort of a large review of all our curricula,
so to make sure that we’re presenting sort
of the best that we can for students and part
of the reason why this has been quite good
fun to do and also quite effective is because
we have a really good relationship with our
students, the undergraduates, postgraduates,
partly through things like our field schools,
we get to know everybody very, very well.
So therefore getting feedback and honest feedback
about what works, what doesn’t work is constantly
feeding back in. So we’ve overhauled much
of what we’ve been doing. So what I’m
going to show you now is kind of how things
are now or how they will be when you start.
So, you turn up in your first year, so I’m
going to go through the different years. Now
the headline for all of this is choice. So,
the things in bold are things which are core.
So any degree you do it has a label, a subject
label, Ancient History and Archaeology, you
have to some Ancient History and Archaeology
that’s the core bits. But outside of that
the emphasis is on actually building what
you want to do. So whether or not you want
to stay very broad, whether you want to become
very specific in a particular area, it’s
up to you and you’ll build that as you go
through. So in your first year, let’s start
at the top, so I’ve divided this into terms,
semesters, so in the first term you’ll be
doing something called ‘Understanding Archaeology’
which is kind of how do we know about what
people ate in the past, how do we know about
status in the past, how do we know about economics,
how do we know about disease? All those sorts
of things, but also using examples and case
studies from the past, from different periods
and putting that together. So sort of a cultural
kind of introduction. But that’s sort of
twinned with the practice of Archaeology which
is how do you it, how do you actually run
an excavation, how does Geophysics work, how
does all the various components of Archaeology
work? So that’s two Archaeology parts of
the programme. The practice of Archaeology
feeds into the third term there in terms of
field school, which I’ll come back onto.
So you will do that in your first year.
After your first year that all becomes optional
that you continue with it. As well as that
you’ll do projects. So sort of the next
line is projects. Projects, there’s two
of them. The first one is with your tutor.
Your tutor, you’ll stay with that tutor
through your entire degree, so this is the
person who you’ll meet regularly, several
times a term, you will also, if you’ve got
any issues or you’re not sure about why
you got some particular marks, you can always
talk to your tutor. They’ll also write references
for you afterwards, it’s one of the points
of contact. What the projects are, it’s
some very small group teaching, normally about
8 people in a class, linked to topics relating
to the tutor. So in your first term you’ll
be allocated your tutor who will be an Ancient
Historian or an Archaeologist, somebody in
that area. And the intention with those course,
so they’ll be around a subject, mine was
always on bog bodies, but it could be equally
at the bottom here you’ve got Aztecs through
to Augustus, there’s a range of lots and
lots of different topics. But the focus of
that is to understand University life, understand
how to reference, what’s expected, how does
the Library work, how to actually go about
constructing an argument within an essay?
It’s very sort of hands-on and trying to
introduce everybody to what it is, what’s
different about University education compared
to what’s gone before.
In your second semester you’ll choose a
project from the range, so you choose whichever
one you fancy. So there’s choice there again.
In addition to that you’ll do two options,
now this is the jargon, but an option module
is kind of lecture, it normally has seminars
attached and bits of small room teaching,
but here you’re basically, in your first
semester you were either doing Greece or you’re
doing some late Roman World, transformation,
the end of Rome. In your second semester you’re
either choosing Rome or you’re choosing
the Ancient Near East, Egypt and kind of Western
Asia. So you sort of pick and choose what
you want to do there. The idea being with
the first year at the end of that you’ve
got a good grounding in terms of what Archaeology
is, what Ancient History is. Oh, one I’ve
missed, rethinking the Ancient World out there.
That is a combined course, which is basically
integrating all the different disciplines,
Ancient History and Archaeology around particular
questions. So it’s demonstrating through
case studies how we might go about understanding
certain questions about Cities, about status
and so on. So that’s taught right across
the Department. So through that you’ll meet
a range of different lecturers as well. So
at the end of your first year you’ll know
everybody, you’ll also know what you’re
going to like, what you’re interested in,
what you’re focus is, what you’re not
interested in, so then you can start thinking
about your options for your second year.
So, in the second year, although I’ve got
the bold bit up there for a Study Tour as
something which is compulsory, you choose
what you do within the Study Tour. So effectively
the second year is kind of you choose your
path through it. So a Study Tour, has everybody
heard about the Study Tour from the stall?
So the Study Tour, I’ll talk a bit more
about it later on. But this is a funded opportunity
to go to the places which you are studying.
So in the break of the second term you will
go in a group, focused on your own research
questions, to wherever it is you’re studying.
So it might be Greece, it might be – most
of you will go to Italy and Greece, but many
people go to Britain. The only limitation
really is on what the Foreign Office says
in terms of, or the Home Office says in terms
of safety. So that’s really the only limitation.
So some countries you don’t go to, but then
if there’s a problem with Egypt say, you
might be looking at Egyptian collections in
Berlin. So it’s the opportunity to make
sure that everybody is able to go and visit
the places which they’re studying. It’s
a group work, but it’s assessed individually
as well as a group, there’s presentations
and it is around a research question. It’s
always a really big highlight of the degree,
you’ll love it and it’s one of those points
which staff will get that sort of envy, kind
of wish we were doing it, because we don’t
go with people at the moment, except in special
circumstances.
So, the research seminar basically is a small
group, more intensive study. We’ve got a
couple of examples down there. So things like
Archaeology in the Lab, there’s a range
of Ancient History examples and there’s
a sheet downstairs within the stall which
will give you range of the types of options
which we have. Now these change a bit year
on year but not always, depending on what’s
available, how much interest there is and
that kind of thing.
And then you have four options and basically
out of those options you’re going to choose,
well two of them have to be within your subject
area, but there’s Ancient History and Archaeology,
but the other two can be further out from
Classics or somewhere else. So again, you
can create more breadth or you can become
much more focused. So effectively by the end
of your second year you could be doing, I
don’t know, all Archaeology or all Ancient
History or you could be being very broad.
Well then your third year, again it’s very
open choice, so you have a special subject
which is again, a very intense, very small
group course, which we’re introducing. Some
of the examples are there, I mean things which
we are exploring, bog bodies which I’m doing.
Sparta, the range, again, there’s a list
of some of the indicative types of modules
on the paperwork downstairs. So you do your
special subjects. You will do a dissertation.
Well, it’s up to you. Generally the dissertation
becomes a nice focus because that’s when
you’ve really narrowed down what you’re
really interested in is you focus on. Some
of these are exceptionally good and challenge
current thinking. Some of us have students
who are really changing the way, we had one
this year which was just phenomenal. But if
you don’t want to do that you can actually
sort of half it, you can do an extended essay
and an additional option. So you can sort
of separate it. It depends how much you want
to focus or how much breadth you want to have.
You will be doing another two options as well
on top of that. Again, free choice from a
wide range of subjects.
So the sort of headline really in terms of
the course is you’ve got, if you think about
in a large Department you’ve got a huge
amount of choice in terms of geographical
area, period and then when you place that
into the degree then after you’ve just done
a bit of core activity in the beginning then
your choice comes into being specialising
or not. Also one thing I didn’t mention
was throughout the second and third year you
can also be choosing Ancient Languages, you
keen even opt to do other languages as well.
So yeah, if you want to add that in or build
on what you already have, depending on where
you are.
So with the dissertation another couple of
little topics which have come in recently,
the dissertation are always vast. We’ve
had people doing, it’s not on that list,
but some are doing 3D modelling of Archaeological
trenches through photogrammetry’s, so sort
of 3D landscapes effectively from photography.
So sometimes they can be very, very technical
at one end and other times they can be entirely
literature based. So these topics are chosen,
they are supervised, you have a supervisor
you work through from the outset of your idea
all the way through to your delivery, you’re
working with someone. But this becomes your
own work, your own research.
Right, one option you do have is a year abroad
in your – it’s becoming increasingly popular.
So effectively what would have been your third
year becomes a year abroad so you do a four
year degree effectively. So you have to do
reasonably well in your first year to qualify
for that because it will just make sure nothing
is going to go wrong. But basically we have
a vast network of partner institutions in
places which will go to. You will study for
a year wherever that is. Normally in areas
which are taught in English, but not necessarily,
but it depends on your own skills and language
skills and so on. And what will happen is
basically your second year is split then,
so you’re marks for your second year are
split between your second year here and your
year abroad in another institution. So increasingly
people are starting to do that. It’s still
not the majority of students, it’s becoming
one of those things which people are increasingly
doing. Then you come back for your third year
as normal.
So how are you taught? Well, there’s a range
of different, in terms of how you’re taught
and how you’re assessed there’s a wide
range of things. So some of it is going to
be large lectures, this is, to give you an
idea this is a lecture theatre, so you have
the kind of size. A lot of small group teaching
which actually adds a real emphasis we have,
small group teaching tends to work, it’s
a conversation. Whereas a lecture is great
for sort of delivering information and sort
of giving sort of outline stuff. A small group
allows for that conversation, they allow for
much more sort of interaction and I think
are more effective. But also there’s field
work, field trips, there’s group work, individual
work, independent work, a wide range of different
ways. And also in terms of assessment it’s,
depending on the modules you choose to some
extent, so a range of exams, essays, presentations
and a range of other things, posters, some
lab books, note books, there’s a range of
different things. So some students start thinking
about which options they have depending on
whether they’re better at exams or not.
Other people choose, the way you choose what
you do might be influenced by some of that.
So with that small group teaching and just
to give you an idea of where you all have
sort of rotation just in terms of the range
of it, there’s some modules. And normally
that small group you’re talking round about
10, give or take, it depends on the size,
it might be smaller it might be a little bit,
not much larger than that. And the idea is
to have a discussion. So depending on which
ones you’re doing sometimes that will be
different people doing presentations in different
weeks or it might be discussion around the
text, around objects. But that small group
thing tends to work really nicely and it’s
also a great way of getting to know each other.
From the projects in the first year you will
be with a group of likeminded people who are
all doing the same degree and you’ll get
to know each other as well as the lecturers
and so on. But that goes all the way through.
And also within the field schools as well
you’ll have a lot of sort of small group
and that type of teaching.
So practical classes, if, so in your first
year your going to do some practical work
as part of the Archaeology bit you’re going
to do 3 weeks of excavation or similar. But
if you’d like to you can continue doing
that throughout and actually if you like the
practical work generally you might decide
to do lab courses as well. So it depends what
your choices are. Basically everything become
optional, how much you want to do of that.
All of our projects are in-house, so we run
them, they’re all linked to research projects.
So if you go on an excavation with us it will
be around our own research and you will be
part of a team, it’s all very real as well,
if we’re working on Stonehenge, it’s scheduled,
protected, you have certain obligations to
English Heritage and that kind of thing.
So just to give you an idea in the last few
years, the field schools 2017 and some of
these we keep on working at, so an Iron Age
site up in Shropshire in a Wetland. Action
which is a Saxon Hall, a sort of palatial
hall really and new discovery not far from
Rochester. A Roman site in Austria and Stonehenge
which has been on-going, lots of exploration
at Stonehenge. You have to be quite happy
to talk to the public if you work exploring
Stonehenge because you do get a lot of visitors,
unsurprisingly.
Last year more Stonehenge. There’s also
some of the, some of the work comes back,
so not everybody can always get into the field
as well, for whatever reason, so we normally
have something like and Archive project as
well or finds processing. These tend to happen,
well at least some of the options will always
be in term time. So some of the Stonehenge
one it’s over August, but yeah, we make
sure that, because of other people’s commitments
and everything else we make sure there’s
always an option within term time, so you
don’t have to, so you can choose based on
your favourite period or on when your logistics
suit.
This year, we’ve just finished last week,
again with the site in Shropshire, which was
great, but also an 18th Century, 18th-19th
Century toll house, which was really interesting
because the most recent owner, or the person
who lives there is still alive, she’s very
elderly, so she’s able to talk to the students
about what things were, what they were for.
There was some really interesting, a remarkable
exercise. Through to finds work, related to
Stonehenge project, so the processing of finds,
sieving them and all those sorts of things.
And over the next coming years we’re more
than likely to go back to Stonehenge or be
doing more at the Arnaud site. There’s a
possibility we might be, we’re looking at
a site in Italy at the moment in Salerno or
sort of near Solerno. So yeah, it’s an early
Medieval site. So there’s a range of options.
It all depends on how the research projects
come and go. So there’s always more than
just one option.
So I mentioned the Study Tour. So this happens
in your second year in the Easter vacation.
You’ll have two weeks in a group. So we
might have a group all want to go to Denmark,
some of those want to look at Pre-History,
some of them want to look at Vikings, we might
have a group who want to go to Greece, but
some of them want to look at Sparta, some
of them want – you know so, you have a group
of people who are in the same geographical
area but you might all have different questions.
You’re away for two weeks, it’s strongly
subsidised. You might be looking at museums,
you might be looking at sites. There’s a
sort of lecture component prior to that to
make sure you – how do you work with buildings,
how do you work with landscapes, what do you
look for in a museum collection? Those sorts
of things. And it’s, like I said earlier
on it’s that opportunity to go to the places
which you’ve been studying.
So, I suppose overall it’s trying to make
your degree right, maximising module choice,
deciding whether to do, if you suddenly like
Ancient History more than Archaeology or vice
versa you can sort of start pushing that.
Or you stay broad, depending on how you want
to build it. You might want to be very practical,
or you might want to not be very practical
and you might be very sort of sort of sort
of scholarship. So depending on how you want
to go, you choose it as you go. And you might
be choosing your modules, not just on, your
interests might be around how it’s assessed
or how it’s taught, a range of different
kind of factors, people will choose for different
reasons.
Behind all of that there’s a huge amount
of resources, so teacher resources, whether
these are museum collections or a range of
museum collections and a car museum on the
floor above, but also there’s a huge collection
of Ancient Egyptian material, the collection
is at our Selly Oak campus which is a stroll
down the road. We’ve also got very strong
relationships with a Museum’s Trust, which
is a vast range of different museums in the
City and so we sometimes use their stores
for particular research but also for a range
of teaching activities. So lots and lots of
resources directly relating to your course.
I suppose actually the Library also does relate
to your course. The new Library, there’s
new student services actually on campus, things
have really upscaled dramatically in the last
few years and you will have seen the Green
Heart, the Central Park, which looks great
on a day like this when it’s nice and sunny.
Unlike most of June we had. The new Sports
Centre as well with the Olympic size swimming
pool. So yeah, there’s all those other things
as well. And although that’s a bit of a,
one of those sort of rhetorical kind of statements,
when you think it’s a big University in
your second City. So in terms of your opportunities
and I’m thinking beyond your degree, but
went you want a professional experience you
might take. There’s one of the modules you
can take is about professional skills, so
you actually get a placement either in town
or on campus or wherever it is. So the opportunities
beyond just thinking about Archaeology and
Ancient History or even within that are really
working through in the place.
So there’s a range of things. It’s research
led learning, Russell Group universities tend
to be like that anyway. There’s a lot of
skills and I start off by saying that it’s
kind of artefacts but that was value added
because of all those other things you can
do, whether you’re choosing to do lab work
or batch work or – one of your options if
you choose field training, the excavation
in your second year you will be running a
team. You will be taking on responsibility.
So you will have that element. Oh the assessment
is writing a project design and determining
exactly how you allocate resource. So it’s
very different, they’re the sort of things
you don’t tend to get on other degree programmes.
So lots of other things, placements, lots
and lots of other areas and the career paths
from something like this, we covered that,
are quite broad because at one level you can
use a degree like this as a vocational thing,
many people do. People go into Archaeology
or go into museums work or go into a postgraduate
study. But actually probably the majority
don’t. Most people approach it as a degree
which they’re interested in. But with the
other value added, so when they go to interview
they can start talking about some of the experience
which they’ve had within it.
You can see some of the range of things people
go into, whether it’s Journalism or whether
it’s further education, the range of different
jobs, the Military people have gone into,
I mean it’s always surprising and each year
is different. A couple of years ago we had
a large number of people actually go into
Archaeology, which was, we’ve never had
it before or since, in the profession of Archaeology,
but there are a lot of opportunities in that
field at the moment. But other people go into
something else.
So anyway hopefully that’s given you a bit
of an overview of the course and some elements,
but as I started off saying, there’s a limit
to what you focus on in a talk like this.
But there’s so much more to University life
than just say these modules. So if you’ve
got any questions at all please do ask now.
But also you can take a note in terms of contacting
us afterwards. Always, if you’ve got any
questions, whatever they are please do get
in touch and we’ll make sure we get the
answers to you.
So any questions and thank you for listening?
