Archaeology Courses in India

Archaeology is a science that studies past human life and culture through recovery, documentation, analysis, material remains and environmental data. Archaeology courses in India are available both at graduate and post graduate levels. A list of these courses has been provided at the end of the page. Archaeological courses in India are dependent on architecture, artefacts, features, biofacts, and landscapes for its study material. It is a subset of anthropology as it analyzes human cultures. Archaeology is interdisciplinary in nature as it requires the assistance of many other sciences and humanities subjects for finding different forms of evidence and research. At its most basic, the artefacts found are cleaned, catalogued and compared to published collections, in order to classify them typologically and to identify other sites with similar artefact assemblages. Archaeology professional is known as an Archaeologist. An Archaeologist studies architectural relics or monuments and analyzes the data and write reports on their findings.

Basic Methods of Archaeology

1. Survey - Archaeological project often begins with a survey. Regional survey is the attempt to systematically locate previously unknown sites in a region. Other types of survey are aerial survey, geophysical survey, underwater archaeology etc.

2. Excavation - Excavation is the best known and most commonly used method of exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. Modern excavation techniques find the precise locations of objects. There are two basic types - Research excavation and Development-led excavation.

3. Analysis - The study of artefacts and structures that have been excavated or collected is known as Analysis. It is necessary to properly study them so as to gain as much data as possible. It is the most time-consuming part of the archaeological investigation. It is not uncommon for the final excavation reports on major sites to take years to be published.

Some of its specialized fields are:

1. Aerial Archaeology.
2. Archaeoastronomy.
3. Computational Archaeology.
4. Experimental Archaeology.
5. Ethnoarchaeology.
6. Experimental Archaeology.
7. Forensic Archaeology.
8. Historical Archaeology.
9. Maritime Archaeology.
10. Zooarchaeology.

Content

The study of this science includes all or few of these:

• Principles and Methods of Archaeology.
• Structural Conservation of Monuments.
• Chemical Preservation of Monuments and Antiquities.
• Research Project.
• Archaeological Field work.

Objectives

1. Documentation and explanation of the origins and development of human cultures, understanding  culture history, chronicling cultural evolution, and studying human behaviour and ecology, for both prehistoric and historic societies.
2. Learning of the existence and behaviours of people of the past.
3. Written material records are a fair representation of society.
4. Some written records are incomplete and biased therefore they re-examined.

Basic Requirements

Those who want to pursue Archaeology for their Bachelor's degree should have studied History as a subject in +2. Graduates in any discipline can choose to pursue a post graduate diploma or degree course in archaeology. However, graduates in history, social sciences like sociology, anthropology are given preference.

One can also acquire a Doctoral degree or successfully clearing SLET (State Level Eligibility Test) or NET(National Eligibility Test) one can take up teaching and research work.

Archaeology Colleges in India

• Institute of Archaeology (ASI)
• National Museum Institute, New Delhi
• Delhi Institute of Heritage Research & Management

Few of the Universities offering Archaeology Colleges

• Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad University, Baroda
• University of Madras
• Tamil University, Thanjavur

Job Perspectives

Archaeology provides the students with numerous career options. While some of them can seek a satisfactory career in museums, archives, universities and numerous research institutes dedicated to past. Archaeology has a world-wide appeal and Archaeology graduates have great scope of jobs abroad. Archaeology is a well paid job. However, salaries of archaeology vary depending upon their skill, abilities and experiences. Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and its constituent bodies along with other organisations provide most of the archaeology jobs in India. Archaeologists can even seek employment in other disciplines as historians, linguists and surveyors and as specialists like Numismatists (study of coins) and Epigraphists (study of ancient inscriptions). Archaeologists can seek jobs in government sectors through examinations conducted by Union Public Service Commission or Staff Selection Commission and also in private environment monitoring companies or in similar organizations.

Remuneration in Archaeology Career

Basic archaeology career salary of person employed with the ASI is between Rs. 5,500 and Rs. 9,000 as an assistant archaeologist which can go up to Rs. 22,000 and up to Rs. 24,000 on reaching the post of director-general. In government departments promotion is performance-based. In private firms similar jobs can be of much higher scale and this remuneration increases with time and experience.

Few of the Job Types

• Curators
• Heritage Conservators
• Archivists
• Teachers
• Tourist Guides
• Heritage Managers
• Interpreters
• Resource Persons
• Trip Organizers
• Research / Documentation Officer
• Project Associate
• Project Assistant

Few of the Employment Areas

• Tourism Industry
• Museums
• Cultural Centres
• Universities
• Underwater Archaeology Wing
• Defence Services
• Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
• Historical Division of the Ministry of External Affairs