Archaeology, Anthropology, and Art History with a Year Abroad

Archaeology, Anthropology, and Art History is an unusually rich combination that approaches human experience from three complementary angles. Archaeology examines the material remains of past societies, using physical evidence including objects, buildings, and landscapes to reconstruct the lives of people who left no written records, or whose written records tell only part of the story. Anthropology studies human societies and cultures comparatively, asking what it means to be human across the full range of social forms that have existed and continue to exist.

Art history examines the making and meaning of visual objects, images, and environments, considering how aesthetics, patronage, politics, and belief intersect in cultural production. Together the three disciplines offer an exceptionally broad foundation for understanding the human past and present.

At the University of East Anglia, this four-year full-time degree includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to study at an international partner institution and to experience different cultural and academic environments directly. You will develop knowledge across all three disciplines, building skills in archaeological fieldwork and material analysis, ethnographic thinking and cross-cultural comparison, and the visual analysis and historical contextualisation central to art history. The programme encourages you to draw connections between the disciplines and to develop an interdisciplinary approach to understanding human societies, cultures, and creative practices across time and space.

Graduates of this kind of interdisciplinary humanities programme work in museums, galleries, heritage organisations, cultural institutions, international development, journalism, education, and the civil service. The research, analytical, and communication skills the degree develops are broadly valued. Further study options include postgraduate degrees in archaeology, social anthropology, art history, museum studies, heritage management, and related fields, as well as professional routes in cultural heritage and international organisations.