Landscape Archaeology and Environmental Archaeology

Overview

Key facts

By mixing theory with practical exercises in the field and laboratory, you prepare for a career in a number of different disciplines and you can work both locally and globally with important societal issues such as sustainability, climate change and cultural environment work.

During Umea University's Landscape Archaeology and Environmental Archaeology degree programme you will build upon your existing knowledge of archaeology, Quaternary science, physical geography or related subjects. You will develop skills in methods for analysing landscape and environmental evidence, focussing on field survey and mapping in landscape studies, and plant and insect remains in the environmental programme. During the first semester you will develop your understanding of the key methodologies and issues that relate to interpreting natural and cultural landscapes through field, lab and class-based study. You will also learn to read the landscape and determine the nature of human landscape interactions, and if specialising in environmental archaeology you will also study the traces left in soils and sediments by studying their physical and chemical properties.

Both Landscape Archaeology and Environmental Archaeology offer the opportunity to develop your understanding of the ways in which humans have impacted on, and interacted with, the natural world. By studying the physical remains of past human activity and analysing the organic (ecofacts) and chemical remains or artefacts that represent the cultural fingerprints of this activity, using methods from the physical and natural sciences, you can build a picture of the role humans have played in different ecosystems. Within these fields we study long timescales of landscape change and human-landscape interactions from the end of the Ice Age until historical times, and from the earliest hunters to the first farmers and beyond. During the programme the teaching is linked in areas such as the History, Theory and Method course, but you will follow distinct pathways within these depending on your chosen specialism, i.e. Landscape or Environmental Archaeology.