Archaeological Science (MSc)

About the programme

Programme in Archaeological Science

The track in Archaeological Science combines theory with practical experience in our state-of-the-art laboratories and prepares you for research and professional work at commercial companies and consultancies.

The track is composed of a general course in Archaeological Epistemology, a core course, a focus course, an elective, and of course a thesis. The core course provides a foundation in your track, while the focus course allows you to develop your knowledge of a specific topic in Archaeological Science in greater depth in the form of a small-scale seminar (max. 25 students).

This all comes together in your thesis or graduation project, when you will apply what you have learned to a research topic or practical question arising from work in the field. 

Programme structure

Courses

For Archaeological Science, the core course provides you with a strong basis in quantitative methods to address archaeological questions, focusing on understanding data and statistical tools to use in your research.

For your focus course, you can choose to do a deep dive in various scientific fields and topics, including osteoarchaeology, palaeoecology, material science, Pleistocene archaeology, and computational archaeology. Each of these courses will address how the integration of scientific analyses and archaeological evidence provides new insights into past human societies.

As an elective, you can pick one of the other focus courses (depending on capacity), do an internship, or select one of the electives on offer at our Faculty such as Maritime Archaeology or Archeologie en Erfgoed van Nederland.

Thesis in Archaeological Science

In your thesis or graduation project, you will bring together what you have learned by independently designing and carrying out a research project linked to your chosen focus within the track.

Through a matching procedure that considers your preferences and available supervision capacity, you will be assigned to a supervisor to support your research. Together, you will develop a project that combines your interests with their expertise and ongoing research.

Please note that supervisors or topics of thesis projects are dependent on expertise and availability.

Mike de Heij

Alumnus

'Finding the connection between archaeology and forensics opened up new doors for me, allowing me to bring the best of both worlds together for the benefit of society. I participated in voluntary work and followed classes on the subject. I also enjoyed a myriad of other classes, such as one in which we delved into the tales of Gilgamesh, or others where we learned how basic food processing tools and structures were created, which includes relevant knowledge still being employed today in other countries of the world. In the end I very much enjoyed our final lab internship where we had to estimate age, sex, length, and diseases of a population of a medieval Dutch town.'

Laura Llorente Rodriguez

Lecturer Archaeozoology

Bachelor students are introduced to archaeozoology here in Leiden, so when I started drafting the Archaeozoology specialisation course for the master, it was clear to met that I had an opportunity to make Leiden students to stand out. That is why the focus in the master course is centered upon faunal groups and topics rarely covered in other programmes: fishes, birds, molluscs or small mammals.

The lectures are followed by hands-on practicals that allow students to immediately apply their newly learned knowledge on these challenging groups, while also exploring advanced elements in archaeozoology such as evolution, palaeo-ecology, biomolecular archaeology, and social zooarchaeology. Such diverse and solid set of archaeozoological skills makes our students unique for the for job market or to start with a well-founded academic career.