Archaeology in Leiden encompasses the study of societies and cultures from the past, aiming to reconstruct and revive them. Make a meaningful contribution to resolving present-day societal issues such as migration, globalisation and climate change, using your interest in the past.

Leiden's Faculty of Archaeology

Leiden’s Archaeology master’s degree has the most diverse programme in the Netherlands. Leiden also boasts the only independent Faculty of Archaeology in the Netherlands. The study programme offers various regional and thematic specialisations and the teaching programme is closely linked to ongoing research.

Our academic staff are involved in research all over the world, with a strong focus on field research. In addition, the programme emphasises ecology and geology, combined with both iconology and historical studies, as well as ethnoarchaeological, anthropological and experimental approaches. A combination of modern museum practices and developments in archaeological heritage management broadens your scope even more.... [-]

The main goal of the Master study program at PANE is to broaden the knowledge and further raise the qualification of the students. The content of the studies of Prehistoric Archaeology of the Near East is organically linked to the previous Bachelor study program and complements it with courses focused on more complex and/or special topics of Near Eastern archaeology and cultural anthropology. Students are broadening their knowledge of the Arabic language, study other languages (depending on their geographic area of research) and intensively work on their diploma thesis (involves personal coaching by the thesis supervisor, communication with visiting lecturers and consultants throughout the academic year, participation on excavations and internships abroad for the purpose of hand-on work with the studied archaeological material). Students can choose within the optional courses those that help them best in their work on diploma theses or deepen their knowledge on the topic. They may choose not only the courses of PANE, but also courses offered by Central European Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Museology, Ancient History or Religious Studies. The students may also choose courses at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, e.g. at the Geology Department.... [-]

Graduates will be qualified to work at levels of high competence in museums, Superintendents, specialized libraries in Archaeology and Art History, local authorities and various institutes engaged in research and exploitation of the archaeological, historical and artistic heritage.

The final examination for the award of the qualification in the exposition will consist of a written paper on a novel topic to be agreed with one of the teachers of the course. The report must have a contributory and non-compile-and will have to be longer than 2000 characters in 50 folders. Through discussion, the candidate will be able to demonstrate the specialized level of knowledge and skills acquired in the single discipline and within the subject area concerned, with attention to related areas.... [-]

ARCHMAT is a 2-years Erasmus Mundus Master Course (120 European Credit Transfer Scheme - ECTS) within a consortium of 3 HEI (Evora-UE, Rome-UNIROMA1, Thessaloniki-AUTH) as full partners, 7 HEI (Avignon-UA, Palermo-UNIPA, Zaragoza-UNIZAR-ICMA, Fez-UF, Rio de Janeiro-UERJ, Polytechnic University of Turin - POLITO and Universidad de Burgos - UBU) and 3 non HEI Research centres (Laboratorio Jose Figueiredo/Instituto dos Museus e da Conservacao-IMC, Scientific Laboratory Musei Vaticani-MV, Archaeological Museum of AIANI) as associated members, providing students with specialized skills in archaeology and analytical charaterization of materials from prehistory (megalithic) to classical times (Greek and Roman)... [-]

There are three priority areas of specialisation:

Students will be provided with basic, methodological, technological and advanced training.

The course is divided into subjects with the following content:

Master in Archaeology of North Western Europe

The Master’s programme in Archaeology of North Western Europe covers the period from the Late Iron Age into the Early Modern period. The two specialisations in this programme are Late Iron Age and Roman archaeology of North Western Europe and Medieval and Early Modern archaeology.Vrije Universieit Amsterdam has a leading position in research and teaching in the field of late prehistory and the Roman era in Western Europe, with special reference to Dutch archaeology, while archaeology of the Middle Ages and the early modern period is one of the specialisms at the University of Amsterdam. The two universities together thus cover 3000 years of Western European archaeology. This programme devotes considerable attention to settlement archaeology, the archaeology of sanctuaries and burial sites, integration processes in the Roman Empire and studies of city centres and material culture. There are close links between the teaching in all these areas and the results of recent fieldwork and other ongoing research, from Roman villa landscapes in the southern Netherlands to the shipyards of the VOC (Dutch East India Company) in the heart of Amsterdam.... [-]

Master in Mediterranean Archaeology

A shared strength of the UvA and VU Amsterdam is their long tradition of conducting research in the Mediterranean area. This can be seen from the large number of fieldwork projects in Italy and Greece, as well the museum collections in the Allard Pierson Museum. The two specializations interlink with the long, yet very current, disciplinary traditions of the UvA and VU Amsterdam, which include attention for the study of the basis of archaeology, objects and – for interaction and connection – also creators and users.

Two specializations

The master's programme Mediterranean Archaeology offers two specializations:Issues of objects and peoples... [-]

Master in Classics and Ancient Civilizations (Research)

The research Master’s program aims to deliver well-equipped researchers in the field of Ancient Studies. It focuses on the cultures and societies of the Mediterranean region, Western Europe, and Western Asia in the period from c. 1000 BC to 500 AD.The program offers a good mix of disciplinary and interdisciplinary teaching and research. Disciplinary because the program builds on the specializations offered in your Bachelor’s program; interdisciplinary because you make use of the results of related disciplines during the so-called ‘core modules’. These are two interdisciplinary tutorials, in which members of the teaching staff from various disciplines from the Department of Ancient Studies and Archaeology teach you how to approach a shared research theme from different perspectives and to provide a theoretical underpinning for this theme.Opting for the research Master’s program will bring you into an inspiring research environment. The Department of Ancient Studies and Archaeology has been extremely successful of recent years in creating research opportunities for doctoral and postdoctoral research students, including large thematic projects which have room for a number of doctoral and postdoctoral research students.... [-]

Master in Landscape and Heritage

The Master’s program Archaeology: Landscape and Heritage is not fixed on geographical or chronological boundaries, but deals thematically with archaeological landscapes and archaeological heritage in many different societies. In the specialization Landscape Archaeology, the cultural landscape will be addressed from many perspectives. The specialization Archaeological Heritage focuses on the varieties of meanings that archaeological remains can obtain in modern society.

Specializations

The Master's program Archaeology: Landscape and Heritage distinguishes two specializations:

Landscape ArchaeologyLandscape archaeology is a specialism which is well developed at VU Amsterdam and the UvA. The Netherlands (large scale excavations) and the Mediterranean (surface surveys) form the historical landscapes on which fieldwork is conducted, and are also the focal points for ongoing research projects about the use of GIS in archaeology and villa landscapes in the north of the Roman Empire.Core themes in the program are ecological and economic dimensions of the interrelationship between man and landscape; the historical stratification of landscapes; the ‘past in the past’; landscape and identity.... [-]