Director:
Professor R. Bruce Hitchner, Classics
Program committee:
Professor Jack Ridge, Geology
Associate Professor Stephen M. Bailey, Anthropology
Associate Professor David M. Guss, Anthropology
Associate Professor David M. Gute, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Associate Professor Steven Hirsch, Classics
Assistant Professor Emma Blake,
Greek archaeology
Lecturer Peter Der Manuelian, Classics
Lecturer Lauren A. Sullivan, Prehistoric archaeology, origins of
complex societies; Mesoamerica
Lecturer Anthony Tuck, Classics
Our understanding of the majority of the human past, for which the written record is nonexistent or minimal, is based on a material record. Archaeology examines this record of human activity to recover and interpret information about past societies and cultures. There are many subdisciplines within archaeology, reflecting both the specific periods and regions into which we divide the human past, and the different approaches to the recovery and analysis of the evidence about that past.
Tufts offers a general interdisciplinary undergraduate major in archaeology, incorporating courses from the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. Ideally, a student in archaeology will combine course work with firsthand experience in recovery, conservation, and interpretation of material remains.
The archaeology program has affiliations with several summer field schools, including the Murlo excavation in Italy, the Talloires/Mt. Musièges excavation in France, the Old Sturbridge Village Field School, and with the Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology based at M.I.T., an alliance of Boston-area programs which offers specialized course work in the scientific dimensions of archaeological study. Students are encouraged to take appropriate course work at the universities affiliated in the Boston Consortium (Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis University).
Undergraduate Concentration Requirements
The undergraduate major consists of eleven courses, including a core of five required
courses plus a selection of six elective courses distributed among three broad subject
areas. Students are advised to complement their archaeology major with a second major or a
minor in a related field. It is recommended that students pursue an interdisciplinary
research project in their senior year.
Required Core Courses
Anthropology 10; Archaeology/Classics 27 (cross-listed as Art History 19); Archaeology/Anthropology 30;
Geology 1 and 2.
Elective Subject Areas and Courses
NATURAL SCIENCE (any two):
Anthropology 20, 150; Biology 7, 143, 144; Chemistry 2; Geology 32;
Physics 1, 2, 11, 12.
ARCHAEOLOGY (any two):
Archaeology 49, 51, 52, 91, 92, 190, 191; Archaeology/Classics 163, 164, 166, 167, 168 (cross-listed as Art History 112, 113, 118,
115, 116); Archaeology/Classics 187, 188.
HISTORY: Any two approved history courses; History 102 strongly recommended.
Interdisciplinary Capstone (optional)
Archaeology 193 and 194, or other approved courses.
Graduate Program
Master of Arts in Classical Archaeology
(See Classics for program description.)
For more detailed information, please visit the website http://ase.tufts.edu/archaeology.
To view Course Descriptions, please go to: http://webcenter.studentservices.tufts.edu/courses/main.asp.