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Postgraduate Taught

MSc Bioarchaeology: Forensic Anthropology

Please note: The below is for 2025 entries. Click here for 2024 entries.
UCAS code 1234
Duration 1 year full time
2 years part time
Entry year September 2025
Campus Streatham Campus
Discipline Archaeology
Contact

Web: Enquire online 
Phone: +44 (0)1392 723192 

Typical offer

View full entry requirements

2:2 Honours degree

Contextual offers

Overview

  • Our Forensic Anthropology course combines skills sets of biological anthropologists, archaeologists, pathologists and forensic scientists to facilitate recovery, identification and analysis of human remains to assist with problems and questions of legal significance
  • To aid your studies, we have a laboratory dedicated to the study of anatomical variation and palaeopathological conditions in human and animal bones
  • This fast-advancing field combines archaeology with branches of natural sciences

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View 2024 Entry

Fast Track (current Exeter students)

Open days and visiting us

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Contact

Programme Director: Dr Laura Evis

Web: Enquire online

Phone: +44 (0)1392 72 72 72

Discover MSc Bioarchaeology: Human Osteology, Zooarchaeology or Forensic Anthropology at Exeter.

Top 50 icon

Top 50 in world subject rankings for Archaeology

QS World University Subject Rankings 2024

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Top 10 in the UK for Archaeology

7th in the Complete University Guide 2024, 9th in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024

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4th in the UK for internationally excellent Archaeology research

Research Excellence Framework 2021

Entry requirements

We will consider applicants with a 2:2 Honours degree with 53% or above in their first degree in forensic science, archaeology, history, ancient history, anthropology, biology, geography, geology, chemistry, heritage, or similar. While we normally only consider applicants who meet these criteria, if you are coming from a different academic background which is equivalent to degree level, or have relevant work experience, we would welcome your application.

You are welcome to make informal approaches to the Programme Director (see above) for advice in advance of your formal application.

Entry requirements for international students

English language requirements

International students need to show they have the required level of English language to study this course. The required test scores for this course fall under Profile B2. Please visit our English language requirements page to view the required test scores and equivalencies from your country.

Course content

The programme is divided into units of study called modules which are assigned 'credits'. The credit rating of a module is proportional to the total workload, with 1 credit being nominally equivalent to 10 hours of work.

The modules we outline here provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching. The precise modules available to you in future years may vary depending on staff availability and research interests, new topics of study, timetabling and student demand.

135 credits of compulsory modules, 45 credits of optional modules

Compulsory modules

CodeModule Credits
ARCM011 Musculature Anatomy 15
ARCM012 Skeletal Anatomy 15
ARCM110 Research Design in Archaeology 15
ARCM405 Advanced Human Osteology 15
ARCM600 Bioarchaeology Dissertation 60
ARCM602 Forensic Anthropology: Principles and Practice 15

Optional modules

CodeModule Credits
MSc Bioarchaeology (Forensic Arch) optional modules 2024-5
ARCM005 Professional Skills in Archaeology 15
ARCM007 Advanced Project 15
ARCM106 Plants and Animals as Craft Resources 15
ARCM107 Digital Pasts 15
ARCM108 Experimental Archaeology: Research and Public Engagement 15
ARCM109 Practical Pasts 15
ARCM111 Approaches to Pottery: Archaeology, Archaeometry, and Experimental Archaeology 15
ARCM120 Themes in Archaeological Theory and Practice 15
ARCM130 Discovering the Past with Molecular Science 15
ARCM200 Field Study 15
ARCM225 Landscape Archaeology: Understanding the Historic Environment 15
ARCM300 Material Culture 15
ARCM403 Advanced Zooarchaeology 15
ARCM407 Zooarchaeology 15
ARCM412 Funerary Osteoarchaeology 15
ARCM415 The Archaeology of Humans and Other Animals 15
ARCM501 Researching the Historic Environment Online 15

Fees

2025/26 entry

UK fees per year:

£12,500 full-time; £6,250 part-time

International fees per year:

£25,300 full-time; £12,650 part-time

Scholarships

We invest heavily in scholarships for talented prospective Masters students. This includes over £5 million in scholarships for international students, such as our Global Excellence Scholarships*.

For more information on scholarships, please visit our scholarships and bursaries page.

*Selected programmes only. Please see the Terms and Conditions for each scheme for further details.

Dr Laura Evis is a forensic bioarchaeologist who adapts and applies various archaeological and anthropological techniques to help answer questions and solve problems for medico-legal investigations.

Topics of interest include the development of specialist search, location, recovery and recording methods for forensic casework, including work conducted in domestic, international and mass disaster settings. Laura's previous research focused on experimentally testing existing archaeological excavation techniques and recording methods to validate their suitability for use in forensic casework.

Laura teaches across a range of subjects, but specialises in forensic archaeology and anthropology.

Read more from Dr Laura Evis

Dr Laura Evis

Lecturer in Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology

Teaching and research

Learning and teaching

We seek to educate students in stimulating ways so as to develop intellectual skills for life and employment in the contemporary world, and provide a sound appreciation of archaeology.

Classes

Most of the formal classes that you attend will be based on a mixture of lectures, seminars, and workshops. The precise mix will vary between modules. These aim to outline the principal issues of the module, to explore some detailed issues, and, where relevant, to give you experience of working with a particular technique or data set.

Engagement

All members of staff are actively engaged in research, both in Britain and abroad, and regularly attend conferences, symposia and workshops. It is through this active engagement in the discipline that we are able to supply top quality teaching by experts in their field and as a result we have a 24/24 grading for our teaching from the Quality Assurance Agency.

Labs

In addition to our established palaeobotany, experimental archaeology, and microscopy laboratories, we have a new bioarchaeology lab dedicated to the study of anatomical variation, palaeopathological conditions, and the funerary context of human and animal remains. The laboratory, accompanied by a designated store for the Department's collection of human remains, provides facilities for use by researchers and students for examining skeletal remains recovered from archaeological sites. Equipment includes anatomical casts and demographic reference standards used to determine the sex, age-at-death, stature and body proportions from human remains.

Assessment

The assessment for the MSc Bioarchaeology is through a combination of class tests, essays, other written reports and projects, oral or electronic presentations, visual presentations, and a dissertation. The dissertation of up to 15,000 words is an original piece of research on a topic of your choice, subject to the approval of your supervisor.

Research areas

Bioarchaeological research at Exeter combines the study of archaeology with branches of the natural and physical sciences to address questions of health and well-being, diet, ecology, subsistence strategies and natural and human-induced environmental impacts in the past.

Bioarchaeology

Our approach is holistic and inter-disciplinary, drawing its inspiration from both definitions of ‘bioarchaeology’: as a study applied to human remains (human osteoarchaeology) and, as originally defined by Grahame Clark, as related to the integration of environmental archaeology, floral and faunal evidence – archaeobotany and zooarchaeology – in archaeological research.

Field research

Active field research programmes in North and South America and Eurasia link with extensive laboratory research to address questions of social structure and social organisation, the process of animal and plant domestication, the development of social inequality and power relations, violence and warfare, the rise of élites and craft specialists, and division of labour.

Our current research covers a range of themes:

  • use of digital technologies for the interpretation of archaeological and forensic data
  • development, adaptation and application of scientific methods for use in archaeological and forensic investigations
  • changing patterns of resource exploitation of plants and animals
  • human – environment relations, in particular the early domestication of plants and animals, and the legacy of past human impact on modern environments
  • how social relationships in the past contribute to funerary patterning in the archaeological record and how these relate to social processes amongst the living.

Read more

Facilities

As a member of the Archaeology Department and key part of our Postgraduate community you will have full access to our exceptional, modern facilities.

We have dedicated Experimental Archaeology laboratories and workshop spaces.

We have a clean lab with fume cupboards for chemical work.

We have a kiln room, a landscape archaeology project office with a giant scanner for maps and plans, and a microscope room equipped with high specification microscopes and image processing facilities.

We have wet labs for sample processing and we have state of the art surveying equipment which includes resistivity equipment, magnetometers, differential and hand-held GPS, and a total station theodolite.

Collections

On top of all that we also have extensive reference collections of artefacts, animal bones and plant remains. So whatever your specific interests within archaeology we have the kit for it.

And of course you will have access to the wider resources of the University too, including the Library, Special Collections and our new Digital Humanities Lab, a £1.2 million lab and research space for the examination and preservation of important historical, literary and visual artefacts. The lab will allow you to use high-tech equipment to find out more about our cultural heritage and examine objects in greater detail. For more information visit our Digital Humanities Lab page.

Read more

Careers

Many of our Archaeology students go on to study at PhD level, and the MSc in Bioarchaeology serves as excellent preparation. Your tutors and the Archaeology academic staff will help you put together applications for funding and develop a research proposal if you should choose to take this path.

Of course, doctoral study is not the only option available to you, you will graduate with a full range of skills that will make you competitive in the job market. You will be encouraged to become a productive, useful and questioning member of society.
You will be well placed to go onto work in either commercial archaeology or the wider heritage sector.

Recent careers

Some of our recent graduates have gone on to work directly in Archaeology or the wider Heritage Sector, with careers such as:

  • Archaeological Assistant
  • Detective
  • Experimental Archaeologist
  • Field Archaeologist
  • Laboratory Scientist
  • Museum Curator
  • Police Officer
  • Scenes of Crime Officer
  • Time Team Archaeologist/Community Archaeologist

Employment support

While studying at Exeter you can also access a range of activities, advice and practical help to give you the best chance of following your chosen career path. For more information visit our Careers pages.