The Department of Archaeology, one of the earliest and largest departments in the nation was founded in 1960. Many domestic famous archaeologists such as Xu Zhongshu, Feng Hanji and Tong Enzheng have ever studied and worked here. It is also the only one education institution who offers a wide array of programs from B.A, M.A, Ph.D and Postdoctoral.

The Archaeology program was authorized by MOE as the First Grade Discipline(2011),and also is the first PhD Archaeology Program authorized by National Academic Degree Committee(1981),the Key Base for History Teaching and Research(1995),the Key Discipline of 211 Project(2002) ,The Key Discipline of Sichuan Province(1996). The Department is involved in a series interdisciplinary research centers and panels such as Center for Tibet Studies (MOE National Key Research Bases for Humanities and Social Sciences, 2000),and three MOE Innovation Bases of Project 985(Cultural Heritage and Cultural Interaction, Chinese Tibet and South Asian, Local History and Ethnicity) .

The Center for Archaeological Sciences (CAS) affiliated to the department, is MOE National Key Labs for Teaching and Studying, including 7 Archaeological labs: Digital Archaeology, Museology, Conservation, Archaeobotany, Lithic Analysis, Environment Archaeology and Physical Anthropology. The department owns its Archaeology and Ethnology Library. University Museum, collected 80000 artifacts ,the earliest university museum in China founded 1914，is the another most important research and teaching resources.

The Department consists of 24 faculty members, including 5 professors and 8 associate professors and 9 lectures, 2 administrative staffs. The courses what faculty afforded are most focused Pre-Qin Archaeology (Prehistoric Archaeology), Qin-Ming Archaeology (Historic Archaeology), Specialized Archaeology, Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies, and Art History.

Rooted in a longtime and characteristic academic tradition, the Department has been most influential in these research fields: Historic Archaeology, Theory and Methodology of Historic Archaeology, History of Chinese Archaeology, Early Culture Exchange between East and West, and has been ranked to the top one in these field: Archaeology of Tibetan Plateau, Sichuan Archaeology, Taoism Archaeology, Art History of Tibet Buddhism.

The graduated program of department is designed to develop outstanding professionals for careers in research and teaching at leading academic institution. The Department offer MA (required no more than 3 years) major in these subfield: Pre-Qin Archaeology, Qin-Ming Archaeology, Specialized Archaeology, Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies. While the Department also offer M.C.H.M degree in three directions of Museum Studies, Relics Study and Arts History, Archaeology. The Ph.D. program (required no more than 5 years) is offered at 5 subfields: Pre-Qin Archaeology, Qin-Ming Archaeology, Specialized Archaeology, Cultural heritage and Museum studies. The Department also affords postdoctoral position for 2 years research.