Archaeology and Ancient History Personal Statement Example 1

My attraction to Archaeology and Ancient History has been shaped by my understanding that the past is incredibly important in our modern lifestyles; two years ago when I visited Rome for the first time I truly appreciated what this meant.

I fell in love with the city because of the way that it was so connected with its history, physically and culturally, but also because through the presentation of its ancient ruins it still retained an echo of the people who lived there.

I think a great deal of my passion for these subjects lies in the idea of learning about putting voices to people of cultures long lost to us now, but also in becoming a part of charting our social evolution through historical and scientific methods.

Through studying Classical Civilisations, I have been inspired to branch out from books I knew well like the Odyssey to read further a field. For example, I have looked at more ancient literature like the Epic of Gilgamesh, but also at other types of writing such as Aristotle's Poetics and Aristophanes' Birds.

Expanding my reading base has helped broaden my insight into Ancient culture and into how much of our great writing we owe to techniques and styles developed in the past. This has shown me the importance of language in the original text, spurring my interest in Latin and Greek.

This summer I was lucky enough to be able to attend an archaeological field school in Cornwall under the tuition of renowned experimental archaeologist, Jacqui Wood. This allowed me to experience what field archaeology was like, and to gain important skills such as section drawing, finds processing and archaeological planning.

This proved to me that my choice to switch colleges so that I was able to study Archaeology was one that really reflected what I wanted to do in the future. In AS level Archaeology, as well as the various practical techniques, we studied ritual activity in Pre-historic Britain.

I enjoyed this in particular because it had links to Anthropology and was so different from the modern ritual and religious activity I knew about. Although I enjoyed the AS, the A2 was not available at my college so I have now begun to help another student who is currently taking the AS course.

Over the past few years I have often traveled so as to experience other cultures in conjunction with my studies. An example of this is that last year I had the opportunity to go to Shanghai where for three weeks I learnt about Chinese arts, geography, culture and the Mandarin language.

Shanghai was an extreme culture shock for me, but through getting to know the Chinese students and visiting places of cultural importance I learnt valuable communication skills and made friends that I have kept and wish to continue to keep in future.

My work experience consisted of two weeks as a classroom assistant at a local infant school. By working with the children and adults I learnt to cope with tasks under a lot of pressure but also to finish important tasks that I was not pushed to do and was expected to do of my own accord.

I have also been made my form council representative which gives me the opportunity to help my fellow classmates by putting forward their opinions in student council meetings to help make the college a better environment.

I am always willing to work as hard as possible in order to do well and am particularly goal orientated.

By changing college I have learnt to take responsibility for my independent learning and expect more of myself, increasing my dedication to studying these subjects that I feel so involved with at a higher level.

I feel that because of this University would be an ideal working environment for me as well as being somewhere I have always wanted to go.