Sheffield Centre for Historical Archaeology

The Sheffield Centre for Historical Archaeology is characterised by both breadth of chronological coverage and by unity of focus. This centre takes as its basic premise (and acquires its distinctiveness from) the argument that `historical archaeology´ is the archaeology of literate societies – in our case ranging from the Classical period to early modern world. It follows that one of the main research foci of all members of this centre is the relationship between material culture and texts (and more broadly between the disciplines of Archaeology and History). This focus contributes to the inter-disciplinary nature of the research carried out by members of this centre – who also have close working relationships with osteologists, anthropologists, classicists, zoologists and others. Again following on from considerations of the relationship between texts and objects, members of this centre have a special interest in demonstrating the particular ways in which material culture was used to structure and enable human action in the past. This finds expression, for example, in their studies of gender, funerary behaviour, the appropriation of the past and the construction and transformation of identities.

The links on this web page tell you more about the staff of the Centre, SCHA events, current research activities and opportunities for postgraduate study.

If there is any further information you require - as a potential student, visiting scholar, or a participant in our events - please just drop us a line.

Department of Archaeology,
University of Sheffield,
Northgate House,
West Street,
Sheffield, S4 1ET.
Tel 0114 22 25103
Fax 0114 27 22563

email: archaeology@sheffield.ac.uk