Archaeology Program Requirements (Revised, October 26, 2007)

Besides meeting the general Anthropology requirements, archaeology graduate students must meet the following requirements*:

CORE COURSE REQUIREMENT
Students must take the following archaeology core courses in sequence:

METHODS CLUSTER
Students must take at least two of the following:

REGIONAL CLUSTER
Students must take at least two of the geographical region courses, one in the student’s region of specialization one in any other geographical area:

TOPICAL CLUSTER
Students must take at least one of the following:

READINGS COURSE ALLOWANCE
Graduate students in archaeology will not be permitted to take individual readings courses until the 3rd semester of their residency. No more than three Readings in Anthropology courses (Anthropology 589) will be counted toward the Ph.D.

COMPETENCY
A written statement by the student and countersigned by the student's advisory committee will be turned in at the time of the preliminary examination demonstrating the following:

1) Statistical Literacy: We expect all of our graduates in archaeology to be statistically literate. This can be achieved through demonstrated prior training or UIUC coursework that introduces the student to the fundamentals of statistical inference, probability, significance testing, the linear model, and the basics of multiple regression.
2) Field Training. We expect all of our graduates in archaeology to know how to organize and conductfield research, including survey and excavation. Thus, all archaeology graduate students must have completed a Field School program or have received field training comparable to Anthropology 454/455 before undertaking their Prelims.
3) Analytical Methods Training. We also expect our graduates in archaeology to acquire the skills required to analyze and interpret data and materials recovered from excavations and site surveys. Thus all archaeology graduate students will have to demonstrate training in the methods appropriate for their proposed thesis research before undertaking their Prelims. With the approval of their advisory committee, students may use “proficiency” in Geographic Information Systems, Advanced Statistical Methods, archaeozoology, archaeological botany, lithic or ceramic analysis, ancient DNA analysis, stable isotope or other geochemistry, geochronology, geoarchaeology, or other analytical methods that are essential skills for accomplishing archaeological research objectives, to fulfill one of the two ordinary-level language requirements of the Department. In this case, proficiency is defined as the receipt of a final course grade in the A range for graduate-level coursework in any of these skills that features an analytical project demonstrating that proficiency.

*NOTE concerning 400-level courses: Graduate students in 400-level courses will meet with the instructor apart from the undergraduates for an additional 1 to 2 hours per week.