Thinking of a PhD in Archaeology?

The ANU is unique within Australia and the Pacific, offering postgraduate research supervision through two Archaeology units on one campus; the School of Archaeology and Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts and the Department of Archaeology and Natural History in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. In addition, there are a cluster of chronometric staff and facilities in the Research School of Earth Sciences. The Centre for Archaeological Research brings together these different bodies to create the largest group of archaeological staff (17 in total) anywhere in the southern hemisphere. Many of the staff are internationally known for their innovative research and significant publications.

The ANU PhD degree involves no course work. Each student is allocated a supervisory panel of at least 3 staff, which means that a very broad range of research topics, often of a multidisciplinary nature, may be undertaken. In recent years, the ANU has had archaeology graduate students successfully completing research in regions as far apart as Africa, Europe, the Middle East, China, Japan, Indonesia, Melanesia, Polynesia and South America, on topics ranging from the dating of early hominids, prehistoric technology and environmental reconstruction, to the archaeology of Islam, the Inca empire and the archaeology of nineteenth century goldmining. The geographical spread falls right across the Asian-Pacific region, but research themes that currently attract staff specialisation are concentrated in Southeast Asia, Oceania, Australia and South America.

Current student stories

Find out what current doctoral students think about studying at the ANU:

Choosing a topic

You may already have an archaeology PhD topic in mind, or you may wish to choose from the list we currently offer. To see these topics (they are simply suggestions - we are prepared to consider any other topics) see the research page . You may also wish to view the available facilities or for further information please contact:

Professor Peter Bellwood
Program Advisor
Email:

Master of Archaeological Science and PhD

View a copy of the flyer

Other Graduate Degrees offered in the Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology Programme include :

• Graduate Diploma in Arts (Archaeology, Biological Anthropology)
• Master of Arts, by coursework and research (Archaeology, Biological Anthropology)
• Master of Philosophy, by research only (Archaeology, Biological Anthropology)

Scholarships available at the ANU

Postgraduate scholarships for PhD research are available to suitably qualified applicants, which provide for living, subsistence and some research expenses. There is the Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) as well as the ANU and Graduate School Scholarship scheme (GSS), and for international students there is the International Postgraduate Research Scholarship scheme (IPRS). Supplementary grants are available to offset fieldwork costs in Australia and overseas. In order to apply for these, you must contact the staff member you think a potential supervisor (see below for some possibilities), either in person or by mail/email, and discuss your project proposal with her/him. Application forms and details for these scholarships are available from the ANU Graduate Administration or may be downloaded here:

For queries about these application forms, please contact the Research and Scholarships office:

Research and Scholarships Office
The Australian National University
Tel: 61 2 6125 5949
Fax: 61 2 6125 5931
Email:

You will also require three academic references from persons who are familiar with your work. Those references and all applications must be sent to:

University Admissions
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Australia

The deadline for receipt of IPRS applications from international students is:

• 31 August in any year;
• for APA/ANU/GSS scholarships for Australian and New Zealand students: 31 October in any year.

The RSPAS also has funding available for tuition and full scholarships for outstanding students. Applicants for these should enquire directly to

Sharon Donohue,
Administrator, Department of Archaeology and Natural History,
Email:

For other RSPAS scholarship opportunities, follow here:

Overview of Facilities

• General computing facilities
• Specialist digitising and image-analytical facilities for artefact analysis and mapping
• Extensive artefact, mammalian, fish and molluscan collections covering Australia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific
• Provision on a competitive basis of free radiocarbon dates for dissertation projects through CAR and the ANU Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory
• Electron microprobe facilities for the study of ceramic and lithic artefacts, and plant macrofossils
• Internationally recognised pollen reference collections for the Indo-Pacific region and expertise in palaeoenvironmental research and climate modelling
• Well established laboratories for scientific analytical work, with equipment that includes a multiwave-microwave digestion system (MMDS), a magnetic susceptibility meter and software, a hammered Livingston corer, laser rangefinders, X scape area calculators and video cameras

• 4WD vehicles and equipment for fieldwork including ground-penetrating radar, GPS (including the OmniSTAR Ranger Mapping System), compasses, tapes, range poles, dumpy levels and theodolites
• Financial support for fieldwork including work overseas
• Access to world class libraries on campus (with holdings of archaeological, ethnohistorical and anthropological literature, particularly for the Asian, Australian and Pacific regions eg. the Pacific ethnographic collections of the Menzies Library) and in the National Library of Australia and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) located nearby
• Internationally recognised research leaders acting as postgraduate supervisors, with programmes in Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology, Quaternary and Regolith Studies and Anthropology

For more details of archaeological facilities at the ANU, view the CAR Facilities page

Related Links:

• Studying at the ANU:
• ANU Graduate School:
• Archaeology & Anthropology, Faculty of Arts including Palaeoanthropology:
• Archaeology & Natural History, RSPAS:

Other ANU scholarship sites

• ANU scholarships:
• Other scholarships (Graduate School webpage):
• ANU Endowment for Excellence:
• Summer Research Scholarship:

Sarah Phear

"I am a PhD student in the department of Archaeology and Natural History here at the ANU. As a New Zealand citizen I was eligible to apply for an ANU PhD Scholarship (as an International Student) and was awarded a scholarship in 2000. I became aware of scholarship opportunities at the ANU whilst in my honours year at Auckland University, via the ANU website. After making contact with several academics in ANH and visiting the department I knew that this was where I wanted to be and so I applied for a PhD scholarship and here I am, now midway through!

" the people here are also a great resource "

The working environment here is great as with many resources in regards to printed information and specialist laboratories. ANH has a reasonably large contingent of archaeologists working in Island South East Asia and the Pacific, and the Faculties have researchers in both the Pacific and locations all around the world, so the people here are also a great resource.

Adapting to life in Canberra has been a learning experience, but the ANU campus is large with a focus upon nature fields, trees, and the lake is nearby. Canberra is an ideal place for cycling and having your bike on campus is an asset for getting to all the different libraries across campus!"

Sarah Phear

PhD candidate
Department of Archaeology and Natural History
Research School of Pacific & Asian Studies

Email: