The Cahir of Archaeology was founded in 1881 at the Belgrade Higher School when Mihajlo Valtrovic was given the first professorship of archaeology in Serbia. The seminar for Archaeology became an independent study unit in 1920, while from 1962; instruction at Faculty of Philosophy is being carried out within the Department of Archaeology.

Archaeology today is being studied at three levels - basic, master and doctorate. During their studies, the students participate in basic and specialized courses concerning different areas of archaeology and it's supporting disciplines like; Archaeozoology and Physical Anthropology. Subjects cover geographical areas of Europe, East Mediterranean, Middle East and Egypt as well as time periods from early prehistory to the Middle Ages. The Department of Archaeology also consists of Archeological and Paleoanthropological Collection, Center for Theoretical Archaeology and Laboratory for Bioarchaeology.

Study programs at Department of Archeology are listed among the 200 best archaeology programmes in the world, according to the QS World University Rankings 2018 (https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2018/archaeology).

The department currently employs 20 lecturers, 8 researchers and there are roughly 400 active students.