CAS: Archaeology

For more information, please see the CAS Bulletin. Please contact Alysa Williams (alysaw@bu.edu), Assistant Director of Academic Advising at CAS, with any questions.

Upon completion of the CGS program, students must have earned credit towards the following 10 courses:

• Humanities: 3 courses
  • Choose two from CGS HU 103, CGS HU 201, or CGS HU 202
  • CGS HU 104*
• Natural Sciences: 2 courses
  • CGS NS 201 and CGS NS 202
• Rhetoric: 2 courses
  • CGS RH 103 and CGS RH 104*
• Social Sciences: 3 courses
  • Choose two from CGS SS 103, CGS SS 201, or CGS SS 202
  • CGS SS 104*

*Required course taken during the Summer term.

In addition to the curricular requirements of the College of Arts & Sciences, an undergraduate major in Archaeology requires the successful completion of a total of 12 courses: nine in archaeology, two in anthropology, and one in statistics.

All required courses are 4 credit hours.

Required Archaeology Courses (9)

In archaeology, students take a core of four required courses:

• CAS AR 190 Introduction to Archaeology
• CAS AR 307 Archaeological Science
• CAS AR 591 Theory in Archaeology
• CAS AR 503 Archaeological Field Methods: Survey and Excavation (or equivalent, for which prior approval is necessary) or CAS AR 556 Archaeological Field Research Experience (for additional details, see the Archaeological Field Experience Policy below).

Students choose five additional archaeology courses, distributed as follows, with a maximum of one course at the 100 level:

• One technical course from: CAS AR 410, 505, 506, 507, 516, 518, 550, 570, or 590
• One topical course from: CAS AR 150, 200, 202, 205, 206, 208, 215, 280, 290, 305, 353, 375, 395, 396, 430, 435, 480, 500, 507, 570, 577, 580, or 593
• One area course from: CAS AR 100, 201, 210, 230, 232, 240, 250, 251, 273, 283, 322, 323, 338, 342, 347, 348, 365, 370, 371, 372, or 390
• Two additional CAS AR courses selected in consultation with the student’s advisor

Required Related Courses (3)

• One course in statistics (CAS MA 115, CAS MA 213, CAS MA 113, CGS MA 113, CAS EE 270, or CAS AN 588)
• CAS AN 101 (Introduction to Cultural Anthropology)
• One additional CAS AN course (to be chosen in consultation with the student’s advisor)

Archaeological Field Experience Policy

Every major in Archaeology must participate in an approved archaeological field experience, which may include survey, excavation, laboratory analysis, heritage management, remote sensing, or other research relating to an archaeological project. The field experience requirement can be satisfied by taking a field school, which would be credit as CAS AR 503, or participating in a non-field school archaeological field experience or museum internship, both of which would be credited as CAS AR 566. Prior approval from the Director of Undergraduate Studies or the Program Director is required.

Students pursuing a major within CAS Archaeology should begin planning their field experience in December or January preceding the experience, as many summer programs have application deadlines within the first months of the calendar year.

Faculty advisors will work with students to identify an appropriate field school placement. For details about this policy, majors should consult with their advisor.

For required courses, please see the CAS Bulletin. Please contact Bob Murowchick (remurow@bu.edu), Director of Undergraduate Studies, with any questions.

An undergraduate degree in archaeology is preparation for study or professional development in almost any field. Most careers in archaeology—in public-sector or commercial cultural resource management—require a BA degree. Your undergraduate degree from Boston University will put you in a competitive position for such jobs, or for admission to a graduate program if you decide on a research career at a university or museum.

If you decide to pursue another career, the broad range of studies in this undergraduate program, spanning the humanities to the sciences, represents excellent preparation for any career, from law, business, and medicine to education and beyond.

Archaeologists attract considerable interest from employers in areas such as publishing, government service, management, and foreign service because of their diversity of research and analytical skills and their breadth of knowledge about world cultures.

• Completion of the CGS required courses and appropriate electives
• Cumulative GPA greater than or equal to 2.00

Boston University students completing a degree in CAS must also complete the following requirements.

• BU HUB Requirements
  • Students who take the specific CGS courses noted on the pathway above will fulfill all BU Hub requirements except the units listed below. These remaining Hub units will be fulfilled through the courses you take for your major and/or other electives.
  • Quantitative Reasoning II (1 unit) (AR516)
  • Creativity/Innovation (1 unit) (AR565)
  • Teamwork/Collaboration (1 unit) (AR206, AR342, or AR410)
  • Writing-Intensive Course (1 unit) (AR280, AR347, AR348, or AR575)
• CAS requirements:
  • Second Language requirement
• Archaeology major requirements
• CAS requires a minimum of 128 credits, excluding PDP, ROTC, and CAS FY and SY courses.