Applicable only to students admitted during the 2023-2024 academic year.

Archaeology

Interdepartmental Program
College of Letters and Science

Graduate Degrees

The Archaeology Program offers the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Archaeology.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

During their first year, students should choose a chair for their M.A. research, who is determined by mutual agreement. Students should meet with their M.A. chairs on a regular basis. The Archaeology Program chair serves as a general graduate adviser and, along with the Student Affairs Officer, monitors degree progress. In addition to the M.A. adviser, the student should choose two additional core faculty members to form a three-person M.A. committee. The M.A. committee consists of a minimum of three UCLA faculty members who must hold one of the following academic ranks: professor (i.e., faculty who are members of the Academic Senate, including professor, associate professor, assistant professor), professor emeritus and acting professor. Acting assistant professors may serve as regular members, but not as chairs.

Areas of Study

Areas of study include analysis of archaeological materials; Andean South America; Bronze Age Mediterranean; Central Asia; China and East Asia; Egypt; classical Greece and Rome; India and South Asia; Mesoamerica; Near East; paleoenvironmental studies; Western North America; Western Pacific and Southeast Asia. Other areas of specialization are also available.

Foreign Language Requirement

The ability to read at least one modern foreign language, relevant to the student’s field of interest, is required for the M.A. There are three options available to satisfy the language requirement.  This requirement may be met by (1) completing three courses in an introductory sequence of the selected language at UCLA with a minimum grade of A- in each course; (2) taking an examination (in Spanish, Italian, French, or German; other languages, if deemed necessary by the committee, may be substituted) administered by the Archaeology Program; or (3) petitioning – a student who has completed a course of study in a foreign language at another accredited academic institution may petition to use this course of study to satisfy the language requirement. International students whose native language is not English may petition to use English to fulfill their M.A. level language requirement. The foreign language requirement must be completed by the end of the fourth quarter or the beginning of the fifth quarter in the program, unless the student fulfills the requirement earlier.

Course Requirements

The master’s program requires a minimum of 42 total units taken for a letter grade and distributed among at least nine courses (the three core courses listed below count toward this 42-unit total). Six of the nine courses must be taken in the form of 4 or 6 unit classes. At least two of these additional 4-6 unit courses (beyond the three core courses) must be graduate-level courses. The remaining four of the nine courses may be upper division undergraduate or graduate level courses (taken with the approval of the instructor of the course). Students should keep in mind that 500-series courses and other courses taken for Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) grade cannot be applied to the 42-unit requirement.

Incoming students are required to complete a three-quarter core course sequence that consists of Archaeology M201A (4 units), Archaeology M201B (4 units), and Archaeology M201C (4 units).  Students must also take two M205 (or commensurate course[s] approved by the program chair), laboratory based courses such as Paleoethnobotany, Ceramic Analysis, Zooarchaeology, GIS, or Lithic Analysis, among others. One course must be well outside the student’s sphere of geographic interest, selected from a pool of eligible courses in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser and the Archaeology Program chair; this course may be upper-division or graduate level, and must be taken for a letter grade.

Teaching Experience

Not required. The program assists students in obtaining teaching experience through appointments as teaching assistants in a number of other departments.

Field Experience

No graduate degree is awarded until the student has worked in the field and has demonstrated the competency to direct field research in archaeology. Both theoretical and practical knowledge of methods and techniques used in field archaeology are necessary. This requirement may be met in several ways: ordinarily the student will take a regular UCLA field course such as Anthropology 115P, Archaeology 259, Ancient Near East 261, Classics C251E, or similar courses offered by other departments. Comparable courses offered by other institutions may also be accepted.

Except for the courses listed above, any given formula to fulfill the requirement must be cleared in advance with the program chair.

Capstone Plan

The capstone is a comprehensive examination that consists of three examinations, given at the completion of each section of Archaeology M201A, M201B, and M201C respectively, and a research paper. Comprehensive examinations are graded by three readers (the professor in charge of the course, program chair, and a third faculty member) as high pass, pass, or no pass. Each of the three examinations may be retaken once. The research paper, to be completed by the end of the sixth quarter of residence, is read by three faculty members and assists students and faculty in the determination of whether a student may continue for the Ph.D. degree.

Thesis Plan

None.

Time-to-Degree

There is a limit of six quarters for the completion of the M.A. degree.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.A.	6	6	6

Doctoral Degree

Advising

Each student chooses a chair for his/her Ph.D. research, who is determined by mutual agreement. The student should meet with their Ph.D. chair on a regular basis.  The Ph.D. committee must be constituted before the end of the first year of doctoral work. The signatures of the members of the Ph.D. committee, indicating their willingness to serve, must be filed with the Archaeology Program. Admission to the doctoral program for students completing a UCLA M.A. in Archaeology is based on the recommendation by all three members of the M.A. committee; submission by the student of a plan of study, including projected course work, choice of foreign language, description of qualifying examination components, and dissertation topics; and the quality of work undertaken in the Archaeology Program (i.e., a high pass in the M.A. paper, satisfactory evaluation of the core examinations, and judgment of suitability for original research at the Ph.D. level).

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Areas of study include analysis of archaeological materials; Andean South America; Bronze Age Mediterranean; Central Asia; China and East Asia; classical Greece and Rome; Egypt; India and South Asia; Mesoamerica; Near East;  paleoenvironmental studies; Western North America; Western Pacific and Southeast Asia. Other areas of specialization are also available.

Foreign Language Requirement

Reading competence for research purposes in two modern foreign languages (including one fulfilled at the M.A. level, either at UCLA or elsewhere), relevant to the student’s research interests, is required. Competence may be demonstrated in the ways outlined for the M.A. Degree Foreign Language Requirement. When proficiency in two foreign languages is not mandated by a student’s interest, a petition outlining the justification for waiving the second language requirement may be prepared. This petition shall include a proposed program of course work or research in a field not directly part of dissertation that is equivalent to the preparation for the foreign language exam.

Course Requirements

For the Ph.D., the student is required to have taken two laboratory courses (these may include the course[s] taken by the student at the M.A. stage). Students are also highly encouraged to take additional courses in archaeological theory to build upon the expertise gained in the core courses. Students entering the program with an M.A. from another institution must take the course requirements listed in the M.A. section above.

Teaching Experience

Not required. The program assists students in obtaining teaching experience through appointments as teaching assistants in a number of other departments.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

The expectation is that by the end of the sixth quarter of the doctoral program, after the foreign language requirement has been fulfilled, students take a written qualifying examination.

The timing of these examinations is set in consultation with the members of the doctoral committee. Students must be registered and enrolled to take the qualifying examinations. The committee for each examination, in consultation with the IDP Chair, determines the conditions for reexamination should students not pass either portion of the qualifying examinations.

Departmental members of the doctoral committee administer the written portion of the qualifying examination. The format of the examination are to be determined by the student’s departmental doctoral committee. The exams may be either open or closed book. Closed-book exams should last three hours; open book exams can be extended over as much as several days and done by the student at home.

For the written examinations, the student should prepare bibliographies in consultation with their committee of 30-40 appropriate references (journal articles, book chapters, and books) on each of three subject areas. Generally, these three subject areas are divided into topical specialization, analytical theory and method, and regional cultural history.

1. Topical Specialization: Detailed knowledge of a particular topic or research question. The dissertation will ordinarily develop out of the topical specialization. Such specialization must be problem oriented.
2. Analytical Theory, Method, and Technique: All candidates must demonstrate knowledge of the diversity of theoretical orientations, general methods, and techniques employed by archaeologists today. They must also exhibit detailed knowledge of the theory, methods and techniques that are involved in their own study area.
3. Regional Cultural History: Candidates must have a detailed knowledge of one or more areas of the world. These areas must be relevant to the student’s topical specialization (item a. above). The areas need not be continental in size but will be selected to be broader than the study of local sequences. Examples: The southwestern U.S., Andean South America, the Mediterranean, China, Mesoamerica.

The bibliography should be developed in conjunction with the members of the Ph.D. committee, with each committee member responsible for overseeing the bibliography and writing the question for at least one of the three subject areas. The faculty should plan to circulate the questions amongst themselves in advance to achieve a consensus about the breadth and content of the questions. The dates of the written examinations should be established at least one month in advance in consultation with the Ph.D. committee and Archaeology Program office. The Student Affairs Officer will facilitate the scheduling of the rooms and equipment, but it is the student’s responsibility to coordinate the timing of the examinations and ensure the timely receipt of questions in the Archaeology Program office.

If the written qualifying examinations are passed, students may then make arrangements to take the oral examination.

Oral Qualifying Examination – The Ph.D. oral examination, in the form of a three hour long oral defense of the Ph.D. proposal must be taken by the end of the sixth quarter of the doctoral program (ninth quarter if a student starts at the M.A. level). The Ph.D. oral proposal defense must take place within the same quarter as the written examinations. The date of the oral examination should be established at least one month in advance with the Archaeology Program office. Before the written examinations, the candidate will be required to submit to the doctoral committee a formal dissertation proposal of approximately 7500 words (excluding bibliography and figures) indicating the research problem, geographic area, method of study, and preparation for the dissertation. At the oral examination, the student will meet with all of the members of the committee simultaneously to discuss and be questioned on the validity and feasibility of the proposal. Related questions of a wider range may also be raised. Students may be examined in the fields previously covered by the written examinations if any of the answers were considered inadequate by the members of the committee.

Students that do not pass the written examinations cannot proceed to an oral defense until such time as the written examinations are passed. If the written examinations or any portion thereof is failed, students may make one further attempt if their committee deems it appropriate.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy and awarded the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the doctoral committee.

Time-to-Degree

It is expected that students entering the Ph.D. program with a commensurate master’s degree will advance to doctoral candidacy within six quarters and will file the dissertation within 15 quarters. For students entering the program at the master’s level, it is expected that they will advance to doctoral candidacy within nine quarters of entering UCLA (inclusive of the six to advance to M.A. candidacy) and will file the dissertation within 18 quarters. The maximum time-to-degree (TTD) is four academic years (12 quarters) for the completion of the dissertation after advancement to doctoral candidacy, although the expectation is for the student to complete the dissertation as expeditiously as possible. The dissertation must be filed with the Division of Graduate Education. At the same time, an additional copy of the dissertation is to be filed with the Archaeology Program chair.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D. (entered UCLA w/commensurate M.A.)	6	15	18
Ph.D. (entered UCLA w/o M.A.)	9	18	21

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

In addition to the reasons noted above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification for two failures of the core examinations, failure to fulfill the foreign language requirement, an unsatisfactory master’s paper, two failures of the written qualifying examination, a level of incompetence on the oral qualifying examination that would lead to denial of a second examination, two failures of the oral qualifying examination in instances where a student is allowed to repeat it, or an unsatisfactory dissertation. A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification through a request for a hearing before the Executive Committee.