This programme allows you to pursue specialist studies in history in combination with the distinctive insights and methodologies of archaeology. Edinburgh has a strong tradition in both history and archaeology and excellent collections of printed and material collections to support intensive study in these disciplines. In history courses cover historical periods from the early Middle Ages to the most recent past; geographical regions including Britain and Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas; and a wide variety of approaches to the past, including political history, cultural history, social history, economic history, intellectual history, gender history, and global and transnational history. Archaeology investigates the human past using material remains such as artefacts and excavated sites to reconstruct the economic, social and cultural life of early societies. At Edinburgh we have a rich tradition of archaeological teaching and research, specialising in European prehistory, the early civilisations of the Mediterranean and the Near East and Egypt. You will be introduced to standard and innovative archaeological techniques and the practice and theory of archaeology. This will include the study of science-based archaeology, the study of animal and human bones and digital applications. We emphasise the importance of training in practical archaeological skills. You can gain hands-on experience of artefact identification and analysis in practical sessions using artefacts from our own Vere Gordon Childe collection. Our students will also normally complete three weeks of archaeological fieldwork at the end of Year 1 and have the option to undertake further fieldwork, as well as projects in heritage management and public engagement, and the lab-based analysis of archaeological remains, in later years of study.