Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Studies (ARCH) is dedicated to educating students regarding the stewardship of legacies we inherit from our ancestors and pass on to future generations. Heritage can include material remains, monuments, landscapes, and intangible traditions. UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, calls heritage “irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration.” Uncovering heritage, ensuring its preservation, understanding the politics of memory, and engaging the public in the power of heritage requires a distinctive blend of humanistic and scientific methods. Effective training in ARCH demands understanding connections and common issues among diverse approaches. This interdivisional program draws together existing resources and faculty from Humanities, Fine Arts, Social Sciences, and Sciences to provide students with key skills and critical abilities to navigate the challenges of becoming stewards of heritage in the 21st century.
Archaeology is the study of human experience through material remains, and the impact cultural heritage has on the present. Most human experiences have gone unrecorded: because they occurred beyond the reach of written records, because those making records skipped them, or because the records are lost. Archaeology requires a distinctive combination of scientific and humanistic methods to uncover these lost realms of human experience and to ensure that they are preserved for the enrichment of future generations. Cultural heritage is the legacy and communication of that human experience as defined and redefined by those who lay claim to that past. Museums are one of the primary ways that the stories of archaeology and cultural heritage are told and sold to the public.”
