Facilities

The Department of Archaeology has an impressive suite of dedicated research and teaching facilities available for use by undergraduate and postgraduate students, housed within the new School of Humanities (opened 2011).

The School houses the Departments of Archaeology, History, Classics, Art History, Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies, providing excellent opportunities for inter-disciplinary collaboration for staff and students across the Humanities. 

The new School building houses lecture theatres and seminar rooms with state-of-the-art audio visual facilities, the Digital Humanities Centre for advanced IT and graphics work, a student computer room, and plenty of light, open student study spaces with laptop plug-in points and wireless access.

Please see a brief video of the Humanities building.

Archaeological Materials Laboratories

The Department has two dedicated archaeological materials laboratories that are used for research, teaching, and other practical exercises, and provide ample space for laying out archaeological assemblages.

The principal focus of research in the laboratories is the scientific analysis of archaeological inorganic materials, particularly metals, ceramics and glass.

The primary archaeological materials laboratory includes a high-temperature furnace used for experimental reconstructions of ancient pyrotechnology, as well as a fume hood and materials for the preparation of mounted specimens for microscope and microprobe analysis.

The ‘clean’ materials laboratory is used for sample preparation and analyses and provides a dedicated study area for research students. 

Bioarchaeology Laboratories

The Department has three new bioarchaeology laboratories; for teaching, research, and a dedicated wet-sieving and flotation area. The research and teaching laboratories are equipped with archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological reference collections and there is a growing research library housed in the larger teaching lab.

The bioarchaeological laboratories are equipped with low-power microscopes; high-power microscopes are available in the Microscope Laboratory, which may be used for research areas including charcoal analysis. Undergraduate and postgraduate students are given practical training in lab skills and undertake original zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical research as part of their course, and all Bioarchaeology PhD students are offered study space in the research lab.

Microscope Laboratory

The departmental microscope laboratory is used for research and teaching of both archaeological materials and bioarchaeology. This facility has received much recent investment and the equipment currently available includes:

• Olympus BX51 reflected and transmitted light microscope, including attachments for polarisation to study ceramic thin-sections
• Olympus BX41 transmitted light microscope
• Olympus SZX10 stereo zoom microscope
• Reichert inverted stage metallurgical microscope
• Colourview I 3.2 Megapixel colour digital camera which attaches to the above microscopes
• Computer with extra-large screen and specialised software for digital image viewing, capture and analysis  

Electron Microprobe Laboratory

The laboratory houses the departmental JEOL JXA-8200 electron microprobe run by a dedicated research technician, Dr Edward Faber. This facility is used both to support research within the Department and as a central teaching resource for students learning about archaeological materials. Many of our recent MSc Archaeological Materials students have used the electron microprobe for their dissertation research, and there is a growing PhD research group for whom the electron microprobe is central to their studies. 

Research student facilities

Research students in the School of Humanities are provided with a high quality research environment. Each student is given a personal desk with a PC and a locker in the School PhD workspace, a bright and spacious area immediately adjacent to staff offices and other facilities in the new School of Humanities building.

The intermixing of students from across different disciplines within the School creates a collegiate atmosphere and a fertile environment for cross-disciplinary exchange.

The Department of Archaeology works hard to create a stimulating and dynamic research culture for staff and students; weekly informal social events for PG students are hosted in advance of the Departmental Research Seminars, and a programme of dedicated Archaeology Masterclasses on specific themes and techniques, led by high-profile external speakers, runs throughout the year.

PGR students are also provided with quiet study spaces in the Arts Faculty Graduate Centre, close to the main University Library. 

IT facilities

The University provides its students with access to general IT facilities through a number of IS computer rooms/areas which are conveniently located around the University campuses in libraries and other IS resource centres, including a dedicated IS computer room within the School of Humanities. They:

• are open to all members of the University
• contain PC workstations and usually at least one laser printer
• are connected to the University’s data network

Many computer rooms are open 24/7 (with a short closed period for cleaning). The School of Humanities also contains many student work areas with laptop plug-in points and wireless access.
 

The University Museum

Another benefit for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying archaeology at Nottingham is the University museum which is newly located in the Lakeside Arts Centre on the main University Park campus.

The museum has been superbly refurnished and reorganized, and there is a professional museum curator who is responsible for managing the collection and archives, setting up new displays and running an extensive public outreach and education programme. The museum contains objects from the East Midlands region of the UK, dating from the Palaeolithic to the post-medieval period, and a small collection of Mediterranean material from Cyprus, southern Italy, and Egypt.

We use the museum collection extensively in our teaching of undergraduate and taught postgraduate students. The museum is also a centre for research, with a dedicated study room for scholars working on the collection. A notable recent success is the research project on our world-famous Oswald Collection of Samian pottery (luxury Roman tableware).

The museum collection provides unique opportunities for students wishing to conduct independent research on ancient material culture, from the Stone Age down to the late medieval period.

Digital Humanities Centre

All undergraduate and postgraduate students have access to the Digital Humanities Centre housed on the ground floor of the School of Humanities.

The Digital Humanities Centre provides an innovative infrastructure to explore the interface between Humanities research and information technology, and to develop new tools for scholarly humanities research and teaching. It contains a wide range of equipment and software for high-level graphical work and illustration, including A3 and large-format scanners; computers with software packages including AutoCAD, GIS, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign; a large format printer for posters; and a lighting stand and digital camera for digitising large images, maps and objects.

The Centre also contains a 3D scanner which is used by the Departments of Archaeology, Classics and Art History for creating digital scans, visualisations and reproductions of material culture objects and sculpture. The Digital Humanities Centre is staffed by run by Matt Davies, Head of Visual Resources, assisted by student volunteers, and there is an on-line booking system for the workstations and equipment.