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The Archaeology Program at UNC

The archaeology program at UNC is made up of two components. The Curriculum in Archaeology is the instructional component of the program and is made up of faculty members from the Departments of Anthropology, Classics, Linguistics, Religious Studies, Women’s & Gender Studies, and the Research Laboratories of Archaeology. It offers both a major and a minor in archaeology, and a major in archaeology with honors. The second component is the Research Laboratories of Archaeology (RLA), which provides logistical and facilities support for archaeology faculty and graduate students within the Department of Anthropology, maintains a large archaeological research and teaching collection, and undertakes independent programs of research and public outreach. It also serves as the institutional home to the Curriculum.

The geographic scope of the archaeology program reflects the diverse cultural and regional specialties of the contributing faculty, including the Americas, Europe, the prehistoric and classical Mediterranean, Egypt, the Near East, and Africa. Regularly, faculty offer fieldwork opportunities that expose students to the archaeology of the colonial period in the Carolinas, early Iron Age Crete, the Mississippian of the Deep South, the Moche period in Peru, the Maya and their descendants in Mesoamerica, and ancient Israel/Palestine.

UNC Archaeology in Recent News

Field School Student Mary Kate Mauney is featured in #GDTBATH (UNC Discover Dynamic Minds)
July 11, 2022

Heather Lapham, Steve Davis, and students from the Archaeological Field School are featured in “Getting Their Hands Dirty” (UNC Endeavors)
June 22, 2022

Steve Davis, Heather Lapham, and students from the Archaeological Field School are featured in “Artifacts Found May Point to 1700 Lawson Account” (Duke Forest)
June 11, 2022

Vin Steponaitis and students in his Ceramic Analysis Laboratory Methods class are featured in “Reconstructing the past” (UNC Discover Dynamic Minds)
April 22, 2022

Sketchfab features the RLA’s 3D model of a Carved Stone Face from Town Creek Indian Mound in this week’s Top 10 Cultural Heirtage & History 3D Models
January 4, 2022

… For more postings about UNC archaeologists, check out our News page.