The MSc in Hunter- Gatherer Archaeology is for students interested in the fascinating and remarkable world of hunter-gatherers. It is often claimed that humans have spent 90-99% of their existence as hunter-gatherers. Understanding these ways of life provides vital perspectives on human identity and the challenges and opportunities societies face today. Anthropology provides information about recent hunter-gatherers, but archaeology is the only discipline that can understand our hunter-gatherer past, and hunter-gatherer archaeology therefore has a particular significance. Our programme will introduce students to key themes in the archaeology of past hunter gatherers, the relationship between past and present hunting and gathering communities, and the contemporary context of knowledge production about hunter-gatherers. Our primary focus is the archaeology of Homo sapienshunter-gatherers: we will include some discussion of non-Homo sapiens, but this is not a course on human evolution.
Students will develop skills in project design and independent research, data analysis and interpretation, communicating the past to different stakeholders, as well as how to develop different perspectives on the past. Students will be part of a dynamic, friendly and international postgraduate community in a School with a 160-year history of exceptional archaeological research and will form part of the UCD Hunter Gatherer Research Group.
Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology students have the opportunity to volunteer on many of our hunter-gatherer research projects, potentially including two weeks of excavation in the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. Contact the course director ([email protected]) for details.