Undergraduate · Arts & Design
Bachelor of Archaeology
Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia
About this program
Flinders makes a specific claim worth checking against reality: more field schools in more locations than any other archaeology department in Australia, spanning maritime sites, desert environments and tropical jungle contexts in the same undergraduate program. That's not a small thing for an archaeology degree, where fieldwork access usually depends heavily on which region a university happens to be near - Flinders instead runs students through Indigenous, historical, maritime and world archaeology field survey and excavation as standard parts of the major.
The teaching staff angle is real too - the department includes archaeologists with active international research programs from the Mediterranean to Southeast Asia to Australia's arid interior, so undergraduate teaching draws on current fieldwork rather than textbook case studies alone. Intensive short-course-style topics in human osteology, stone artefact analysis and maritime archaeology lab methods sit alongside the standard lecture/seminar units, giving students specific technical skills that show up directly on a CV.
This is squarely a vocational-leaning humanities degree - the fieldwork intensity is there because employment in archaeology (cultural heritage consultancies, government heritage bodies, museums) runs on demonstrated practical competency more than most humanities fields, and Flinders structures the degree around proving that competency rather than just describing it.
Cost & duration
English test scores
Course structure
5 terms of coursework
- Year 1: introduction to archaeology, world prehistory, foundations of Indigenous archaeology in Australia
- Year 2: field survey and excavation methods, historical archaeology, maritime archaeology foundations
- Year 3: specialised field schools (choice of Indigenous, historical, maritime or international sites), advanced topics in cultural heritage and the law
- Throughout: optional intensive short courses in human osteology, stone artefact analysis, maritime archaeology lab methods
- Field schools run across multiple environments - coastal/underwater, arid interior, and international sites
Admissions
Completion of Year 12 (Australian Senior Secondary Certificate) or equivalent, ATAR approx. 65-75 (approximate, typical bar)