Archaeology

The Secondary Field–Archaeology is administered by the FAS Standing Committee on Archaeology (SCA).

Graduate students must meet the following requirements in order to have the secondary field officially recorded on their transcript.

Coursework

Candidates should submit to the SCA for approval in advance a proposal identifying courses that will serve to fulfill this requirement.

Students will be required to take four-credit courses, distributed as follows:

1. One framing four-credit course chosen in consultation with the advisor. Examples are listed below. These are courses that offer an overview of archaeological methods and practices, as well as a broad orientation in the field. 
   • Anthropology 2270 (Archaeological Theory), OR Anthropology 2250 (Contemporary Issues in Archaeology)
   • SLS 16 Human Evolution and the Human Body or a four-credit course in Human Evolutionary Biology with significant archaeological framing content, as available
   • Introductory four-credit course in Classical Archaeology (The Classics) or in Medieval Archaeology (History) or in Near Eastern Archaeology (NELC), as available
2. Three upper-level undergraduate or graduate half-courses of related interest that contain significant archaeological content.
   • Substantial excavation experience on a project approved in advance may be substituted for one of the three courses.
   • Attendance and participation in regularly scheduled, yearlong Harvard Griffin GSAS archaeologically themed workshop or course equivalents, culminating in a graded written report and (optional) presentation to the workshop evaluating its lessons that will be submitted to the student's archaeology advisor and the subcommittee on the secondary field, may, with advance approval, be substituted for one of the three courses. Examples:
     • The Medieval History Workshop
     • The East Asian Archaeology Seminar
     • Harvard Archaeology Program Seminar Series
     • History 30l0: Archaeology and History of Early Medieval Europe

All coursework taken for completion of the secondary field must be passed with a grade of B+ or better.

Advisor

Students should select an advisor in archaeology, ordinarily from the list of faculty members of the Standing Committee on Archaeology and outside the student's home department. Courses required for the secondary field should be selected in consultation with the student's archaeology advisor and approved as indicated below. Further consultations will be available with the chair of the Standing Committee and with the members of the SCA subcommittee on the secondary PhD field.