I am a secondary school student interested in studying archaeology at university. Which subjects are required? Felicia (15)

The good thing about archaeology is that it requires many different skills and as a result, most A-levels will allow you to apply for an undergraduate degree. Of course some, subjects are more useful than others: history, geography, geology and biology would be among the best ones.

Each university has different requirements however, so I would advise you to check these before applying, so you know exactly what subjects to choose for your A-levels.

Many people think archaeology is just about the digging but even on site, many other skills are useful: when on site, and once we have excavated a feature, we need to record it by taking photos, drawing the section, making a plan and writing a description. As you can see, that is a whole set of skills, and that’s just for the part of the work that takes place on site! Once the excavation is finished, you have to deal with the post-excavation process where you need to write a report. And this does not only involve writing but also analysing the finds, taking photos of the artefacts and of course doing research so you can talk about the site in a broader context.

As you can see, there are many subjects/skills to choose from! I wish you the best of luck in your studies, archaeology is a wonderful subject and even if you later choose not to become an archaeologist, you will gain very valuable knowledge!

Odile, October 2025