"study" blog posts
Follow the Archaeology Field School 2020 live-blog
Sadly the issues around managing COVID-19 meant that we could not return to Norton Priory in June, and still could not do so as the new academic year started in October. However, Dr Rob Philpott and Professor Harold Mytum planned some alternative venues and a range of activities so that the students did not start their second year without getting at least a bit dirty and initiated into the mysteries of field archaeology.
Posted on: 7 October 2020
Podcast: Uncovering the biology of the past with Professor Keith Dobney
Listen to Professor Keith Dobney talk with Professor Nick Enfield (Director of the University of Sydney’s Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre) about research into past-human-animal relationships.
Posted on: 28 September 2020
Harold Mytum talks about graveyards at the Council for British Archaeology's Festival of Archaeology
With the coronavirus restrictions, the CBA’s annual Festival of Archaeology is a digital event this year, running from the 9th July. Other ‘normal’ activities are to take place, all being well, in November. As part of this event, Professor Harold Mytum has given two lectures on graveyards and cemeteries, and the monuments in these important heritage sites found all across Britain and Ireland.
Posted on: 21 July 2020
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Barking Up the Right Tree - Updates from Deep Roots
Professor Larry Barham provides a fantastic update from the 'Deep Roots' project, and the award of Endangered Material Knowledge Programme funding for research into the archaeological use of bark. Professor Barham and his team's four year project investigates the deep roots of increasingly complex human behaviour in Africa, with excavations at key sites in Zambia.
Posted on: 16 June 2020
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Locked Out! - Updates from Deep Roots
Professor Larry Barham provides an update from the 'Deep Roots' project under lock-down, from his lab in the garden. Professor Barham and his team's four year project investigates the deep roots of increasingly complex human behaviour in Africa, with excavations at key sites in Zambia.
Posted on: 19 May 2020
Stone Age memories
Professor Larry Barham visits Ormskirk West End Primary School to teach pupils about the Stone Age and the development of early tools.
Posted on: 7 April 2020
Celebrating the research of Professor John Gowlett
When and why did human ancestors begin to master fire? How did we come to have such large brains, or to develop language? Why did handaxes – such a fundamental element of the prehistoric archaeological record – persist for more than a million years? Do they reflect social norms or ‘design rules’ passed on from one individual to another? These questions – and many more – have been central to the research of our very own Prof. John Gowlett during the course of his career. And through John’s research, they have become central issues for understanding human evolution.
Posted on: 2 April 2020
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Amelia Edwards: An International Women's Day Special
Amelia Edwards was a prominent travel writer and Egyptologist. On her travels throughout Egypt she famously wrote the travel text 'A Thousand Miles up the Nile' which provided a vivid and detailed account of the environment, monuments and local customs seen all over Egypt. In particular, Edwards' illustrations in this text opened up to new audiences the wonders and splendours of this little known country.
Posted on: 6 March 2020
Managing and interpreting Maori heritage: Pā today
Professor Harold Mytum concludes the blog series from his visit to New Zealand by exploring the relationship between the hill forts and contemporary Maori culture.
Posted on: 18 February 2020
Exploring The Archaeology and Topography of Greece
Niamh Banner (BA Classical Studies with Spanish) shares her experience at the British School at Athens on their Undergraduate Course: a three-week intensive course exploring ‘The Archaeology and Topography of Greece’ with lectures at dozens of sites, museums and even artefact handling sessions in the BSA fitch laboratory.
Posted on: 10 February 2020
The Maori and Colonial contact: Pā in their landscape context
The more pā sites Harold Mytum has visited as part of the Hill Fort Study Group (HFSG) visit, and we learn of the early relationships with the British, the more it is clear that the indigenous groups wielded considerable influence in the early decades of contact. The ways in which the Maori leaders of iwi (the largest kinship grouping) used interactions with foreigners for their own social advantage are clear.
Posted on: 6 February 2020
Maori Pā: Hillforts from Prehistory to the Present
Harold Mytum has joined the Hill Fort Study Group (HFSG) study tour of sites in the North Island of New Zealand, home to the greatest concentration of Maori at the time of Captain Cook and indeed still so today.
Posted on: 31 January 2020
Our top revision tips for exam season
It’s that time of year again. But you’ve got this. Deep breath.
Posted on: 6 January 2020
Searching for a lost Medieval Manx Nunnery
The Isle of Man maintained only three monastic establishments during the later Middle Ages, one being a Nunnery on the edge of what is now the Island’s largest town, Douglas, where Harold Mytum and Rob Philpott have just completed an excavation on its possible site.
Posted on: 19 December 2019
Local Primary School Learns All Things Ancient History with IntoUni
Children from local schools in Anfield took part in a special week-long focus on Ancient History. Kristian Boote, PhD Student in Evolutionary Anthropology, provides an overview of the week.
Posted on: 16 December 2019
Alumni and Friends Fund for the ACE photogrammetry team — introducing this year’s projects
Ardern Hulme-Beaman, Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow with the department, shares the progress of the ACE photogrammetry team and their plans for the future.
Posted on: 11 December 2019
Brownies Dig the Dirt on Archaeology
Our Archaeology students welcomed a local Brownie group to learn all things Archaeology for the Science Jamboree with Merseyside Scouts.
Posted on: 4 December 2019
Gallery: Professor Keith Dobney travels inland to further explore Chinese archaeology and culture
After several weeks in Shanghai, spent writing, lecturing and discussing labs and potential projects, I headed northeast and inland to Xi’an where I visited colleagues in the large Department of Archaeology, School of Cultural Heritage, Conservation and Restoration at Northwest University.
Posted on: 28 November 2019
Mapping Jersey’s forgotten military past
Jersey is well known for its World War 2 military remains that are scattered across the island, relics of the Nazi occupation. Many are tourist attractions, and both local inhabitants and visitors are well aware of this aspect of Jersey’s heritage. Much less well known, however, is that Jersey’s contribution to the British war effort in World War 1 included not only sending men and women to join the armed forces, but also housing German prisoners of war.
Posted on: 18 November 2019
Gallery: Professor Keith Dobney invited to Institute of Archaeological Science at Fudan, China
I’m here for the whole of November at the kind invitation of my good friend and colleague (Professor Yuan Jing) who is the Director of a newly established Institute of Archaeological Science at Fudan. I’ll be giving some public lectures, meeting students and staff, attending lab meetings, doing some guest teaching and discussing new facilities, research collaborations and links with ACE.
Posted on: 14 November 2019
Bio: Sydney Hunter, Fulbright Scholar at the University of Liverpool
During the academic year 2019-20 we are very happy to welcome to the department Fulbright scholar Sydney Hunter, who is pursuing an MA in Archaeology. The prestigious Fulbright program allows the exchange of knowledge and cultural experiences between the United States and the other participating countries. It is a life-changing opportunity that helps build stronger career profiles, and provides students with new connections to other scholars in the field and access to different approaches to research.
Posted on: 12 November 2019
SACE Digging Day at the Williamson Tunnels
Following their trip to the Williamson Tunnels Heritage Centre, Megan Clark discusses a successful day spent digging by the Society of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology.
Posted on: 17 October 2019
Introducing the 2019/20 Work in Progress seminar series
The Work in Progress seminar series is a weekly selection of papers presented by postgraduate researchers to an audience of specialists and non-specialists alike.
Posted on: 2 October 2019
The crunch – and a time for dancing
Larry Barham, Professor of African Archaeology at the University of Liverpool, is Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded Deep Roots research project, which seeks to gain a greater understanding into the origins of human technology by excavating areas of interest in Zambia. Read an excerpt from his blog following an excavation that took place in the summer, and watch as an Early Stone Age artefact is uncovered at the site of Kalambo Falls.
Posted on: 30 September 2019
Q&A: The Society for Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology (SACE)
With Welcome Week now upon us, students may be looking to join societies and make new friends with similar interests. With this in mind we spoke with SACE, the Society for Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, to find out what the society has to offer.
Posted on: 17 September 2019
Five things to do during Welcome Week
Welcome Week kicks off on Monday, giving new students the opportunity to get to know their new flatmates, explore Liverpool and settle in before they start lectures. Take a look at our top five tips to help you get started with university life.
Posted on: 13 September 2019
Meet the Lecturer: Dr Frederick Jones ARBSA
Dr Frederick Jones is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool. A specialist in Classic languages, Dr Jones is also an accomplished artist and is an Associate of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA). Find out how his work in Classics is intertwined with his art.
Posted on: 10 September 2019
Hafting and the development of combinatorial technology
Professor Larry Barham of the University of Liverpool's Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology explains how the use of experimental archaeology can be used to uncover the history of hafting, which gave rise to the combinatorial technology we rely on today.
Posted on: 10 July 2019
Final Year Employment contest
At the end of last term, three successful graduates, who all got their degrees from the ACE, returned to the department to judge a final year presentation competition. Posing as a ‘Dragon’s Den’ of potential employers, the panel of experts were asked to judge six group presentations by teams of students on the third year module Greek Colonisation and British Imperial Thought (ALGY 336).
Posted on: 15 May 2019
CLAH Seminars: Aspects of Reception
Liverpool’s Classics degree has a strong interest in reception – but what is ‘reception’? In this blogpost, I review four speakers in the Classics and Ancient History seminars who, in four very different ways, showcase some of the ways ‘reception’ can be understood.
Posted on: 13 May 2019
From el-Amarna to the English National Opera
Earlier this month, 10 Liverpool Egyptology students (both undergraduate and postgraduate), undertook a two-day visit to London – part-funded by a faculty prize for the quality of our Egyptology teaching. The trip was heavily oversubscribed, and students were selected by random ballot for the trip. We arranged the excursion around a visit to the English National Opera (ENO) to see Philip Glass' opera Akhnaten, based on the controversial pharaoh who abandoned Egypt's traditional gods, and instead devoted himself to the worship of the sun.
Posted on: 2 April 2019
Sappho: a strong and modern female voice
For Women's History Month, ancient history student Kian Goodsell explores the work of Greek poet, Sappho.
Posted on: 28 March 2019
Alice in Wonderland - My trip to the stores of the World Museum
Egyptology MA student Alice Baddeley reflects on her opportunity to visit the storeroom of Liverpool's World Museum as part of her Masters study.
Posted on: 19 March 2019
Guest speaker: Exploring evolution and entanglement
Two of our graduate students in Archaeology, Emily Prtak and Eleanor de Spretter Yates, reflect on our recent Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology (ACE) flagship seminar, on the theme of 'Evolution and Entanglement' featuring guest speaker Professor Ian Hodder (Stanford University):
Posted on: 8 March 2019
Classics and Ancient History seminars this semester: Sicily and rhetoric
The Classics and Ancient History seminars this semester have got off to a great start, with the emergence of a surprise emphasis on Sicily in our first two seminars.
Posted on: 4 March 2019
LGBT History Month - Homosexuality in Ancient Greece
This February in the department we have been reflecting about LGBT history, not least following the wonderful lecture by Prof Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones on Alexander the Great. In this post, Dr Ben Cartlidge dwells on a puzzling feature of the ancient Greek evidence for male homosexuality.
Posted on: 27 February 2019
Alexander the Great or Alexander the Gay?
For LGBT history month, guest blogger Prof Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones (Chair of Ancient History, Cardiff University) asks: 'Alexander the Great or Alexander the Gay?' before his talk this week, exploring Alexander's sexuality and popular culture.
Posted on: 19 February 2019
End of an era: ACE’s Penycloddiau field school comes to a natural close
With the ACE field school now moved to Norton Priory, a small but perfectly-formed team completed the former field school site at the Penycloddiau Hillfort between 15 July - 11 August. The excavations worked to train eight students, in partnership with the Institute for Field Research (IFR Global), alongside onward employability training for recent graduates.
Posted on: 25 October 2018
Vandals and fragments: what to expect from our classics and ancient history seminars
Research Fellow, Ben Cartlidge, gives us the inside track on the varied themes covered in our Classics and Ancient History seminars at Liverpool - from ancient religion to music and poetry.
Posted on: 19 October 2018
New texts from an old site: discoveries from the September 2018 season at the Hatnub alabaster quarries
Roland Enmarch is Senior Lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Liverpool and co-director of the Anglo-French Hatnub Survey / Mission de Hatnoub, along with Dr. Yannis Gourdon (IFAO). In this blog, Roland provides an overview of his visit to Hatnub, Egypt, examining the ancient inscriptions in the site's alabaster quarries.
Posted on: 9 October 2018
Georgia's Archaeological Adventures in Alaska
Georgia Hetherington, second-year BSc Archaeology student, recently had the trip of a lifetime during a three week excavation in Alaska. Read her blog and discover some of her amazing experiences.
Posted on: 24 September 2018
Mary Beard comes to Liverpool!
This summer, Prof Mary Beard came to Liverpool to give two lectures on the Meroë head of Augustus from the British Museum - which was temporarily on display at the Victoria Gallery & Museum on campus.
Posted on: 17 August 2018
University Archaeology Day and London Anthropology Day 2018
This year, the University of Liverpool's Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology was represented at the British Museum as part of University Archaeology Day 2018 and London Anthropology Day 2018.
Posted on: 10 August 2018
Five things to do in Merseyside for anyone interested in Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology this summer
With summer now upon us, you might be looking for things to do in Merseyside before the start of the new term (trust us, this will come around very quickly!). While teaching may be over until September, there’s still plenty of things to do and see in the area that relate to Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology: from Neolithic monuments to Egyptian treasures…
Posted on: 7 June 2018
Studying the past for success in the future: tips and tricks to get the most out of your degree
Finishing university is daunting, especially when you’re not 100% sure which path you wish to take through life. For this reason, as a third year Evolutionary Anthropology student, I am always looking for new ways to improve my CV and ‘stand out from the crowd’. I have found plenty of opportunities through our Department, and so I have compiled some of the most crucial which have dramatically improved my applications.
Posted on: 19 April 2018
Using modern technology to model ancient worlds
Would 3D digital objects help your project? Could you analyse aspects of your sites or objects in a new way by quantifying it in 3D space? Could you draw more people to interact with your work by engaging with them through a digital medium? Ardern Hulme-Beaman discusses how photogrammetry is revolutionising the work of our academics, and how you can learn more about this innovative technique.
Posted on: 12 March 2018
Fall of Troy: the legend and the facts
The legendary ancient city of Troy is very much in the limelight this year. A big budget co-production between the BBC and Netflix 'Troy: Fall of a City' recently launched, while Turkey designated 2018 the “Year of Troy” and plans a year of celebration, including the opening of a new museum on the presumed site.
Posted on: 6 March 2018
Chasing Rainbows: The Search for Gay Material Culture
After thinking about LGBT+ History Month 2018 last month, I thought it would be interesting to take a look how much archaeology can contribute to our understanding of gay history.
Posted on: 1 March 2018
The Blind School: Pioneering People and Places
Outside of her research, Archaeology PhD student Kerry Massheder-Rigby has been working on the HLF funded History of Place project since 2016 as Project Coordinator, investigating the history of the Royal School for the Blind in Liverpool. In this blog, Kerry shares her experience of working on the project and tells us how this work ties in with her research interests.
Posted on: 27 February 2018
From the Ancient World to the near future - skills that can help you stand out from the crowd!
How has one of our archaeology MA students been using her skills outside of university studies? Chloé Agar tells us more about how the content of her degree is helping her explore different career ideas for the future, outside of academia
Posted on: 29 January 2018
ACE researcher in the spotlight: Dr. Shirley Curtis-Summers
I am currently an honorary research associate in ACE and since completing my PhD in 2015, I have held posts in ACE, History, Anatomy, Continuing Education and Public Health and Policy. I am also a consultant human osteologist, working with heritage companies and museums to provide human osteology assessments/reports and deliver public engagement events.
Posted on: 11 December 2017
Early Village Societies research group seminar series
The first seminar of the Early Village Societies research group for this academic year recently took place, where two of our PhD students presented on the first stages of their research.
Posted on: 1 December 2017
Spotlight: Professor Keith Dobney, Head of Department for ACE
As the (relatively) new Head of Department for ACE, I’m extremely happy to contribute another blog post here, to help celebrate and promote our great department. Make no mistake, we do have a lot to shout about; our long and colourful heritage of over 100 years, the distinctive combination of related disciplines, our newly refurbished facilities, a dynamic and world-class profile for teaching and research and, of course, a great staff and student body.
Posted on: 29 November 2017
Spotlight: Covering Neolithic botany to human skeletal anatomy - meet four of our researchers
This year we had a number of researchers land prestigious grants for their interesting and important work at ACE. Among these researchers, we have a few new postdocs who have written a brief introduction to the research they will be undertaking at ACE!
Posted on: 13 November 2017
Archaeology as public spectacle: the 1st Archaeology Convention in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
The 1st Archaeology Convention took place in November at the National Museum of Antiquities in Riyadh, the capitol of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Posted on: 10 November 2017
Pets, Pests, & People: an evening of science and wine, discovering what animals have done for us
Thank you to everyone who attended the public event, Pets, Pests, and People held at the VG&M on Friday, October 13. We had over 80 people present for the talks and the drinks reception. I’d call that a success!
Posted on: 12 October 2017
A tale of two universities
Hey there, I’m Chloé. I’m studying Archaeology here in Liverpool this year. It’s been wonderful to get to know the department and the society over the last couple of weeks, after being so nervous about coming to a new university. As a thank you, I’m sharing my experiences about the transition between universities, and how postgraduate study compares to undergraduate study so far.
Posted on: 4 October 2017
Digging it: learning skills in the trenches at ACE’s 2017 field school
Liverpool’s field school took place at the Penycloddiau Hillfort excavations from 16 July-11 August this year – our final year at this site. The field school provides practical skills training for our 1st year undergraduates and international students from the Institute of Field Research (IFR Global), as well as onward employability training for recent graduates and postgraduate students.
Posted on: 25 September 2017
Putting the ace in SACE: join the Society of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology
As a 1st year undergraduate at the University of Liverpool, both the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, and the Society of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology (SACE) have played an instrumental role in my life at the university so far.
Posted on: 6 September 2017