Welcome to the Department of Archaeology and Natural History

Archaeology is located in two departments at the ANU, the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts and the Department of Archaeology and Natural History (ANH) in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS). Undergraduate courses are largely taught by the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, while postgraduate studies are available in both departments.

Research in the Department of Archaeology and Natural History aims to understand prehistoric human societies, the environments in which they developed and the environmental consequences of prehistoric human presence. Departmental research ranges from South East Asia and the Pacific, through the tropical forests of New Guinea and the savannahs of Australia, to the islands of Oceania. See current projects for examples of the work being undertaken.

Field research in the Department is supported by modern and well equipped laboratories. Premier amongst these is our state-of-the-art microscope laboratory which supports our palaeoenvironmental research through the analysis of pollen, charcoal, phytoliths and diatoms. These microscope facilities also support the analysis of prehistoric textiles, archaeobotanical remains, zoological material and ceramics. ANH houses the largest pollen reference collection in Australia, as well as excellent plant, bone, shell and ceramic collections. Wood and insect collections are held nearby.

In addition the ANU hosts personnel and facilities with strong connections to archaeology. These include the ANU's world class dating facilities (AMS, cosmogenic, ESR and OSL) and the Scanning Electron Microscopy unit in the Research School of Biological Sciences. Mass spectrometry and a full range of analytical chemical methods are also available on campus.