At the department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies we are concerned with people and the environment and culture and society from the earliest times, examining the connection between the past and the present – and exploring how real and imagined pasts can inform the future. With a focus on studies of material culture and heritage practice, the department pays strong attention to dissemination and engagement with a wide range of publics and policy makers. Drawing on fieldwork and excavation, laboratory, archival and ethnographic investigation, the department’s interdisciplinarity is at the core of its research and teaching activities, investigating and challenging our understanding of past, present and future societies seen in a long-term perspective.

Research environment

The department has an international profile and strong research networks. A dynamic research environment provides the framework for large research projects, international conferences and a variety of visiting researchers. The environment is versatile and cross-disciplinary, and the academic staff’s research competences span a broad range of topics; from war and power, mobility and globalisation, family and individual, religion and rituals, landscape, settlement and architecture, colonial and decolonial relations, geopolitics and community development, paleo-demography and evolution, trade and networks, technology and knowledge exchange. We hereby apply quantitative analysis methods, field methodology and digital representation. As a research environment we cooperate with international partners across the globe, as well as the Danish heritage and museum sector, not least Moesgård Museum.

Affiliated degree programmes

The archaeology programme at Aarhus University offers a bachelor’s and a master’s degree programme in archaeology, together with an MA Programme in Sustainable Heritage Management (taught in English). We hereby cooperate with the Department of History and Classical Studies as well as the Institut for Geoscience, both at AU. In addition, a variety of elective subjects and events are offered, including Viking age Scandinavia at the Aarhus University Summer University.