Temaomtale ARK216

This course is aimed at advanced BA Archaeology students with no or very little practical field experience, but an interest in how fieldwork works. As archaeologists, we are highly dependent on generating our own data sources, and excavation remains a crucial part of this – it is where we obtain evidence for structures, environmental information, and most of all – finds! But how does it all work? What are the main steps that any archaeological excavation goes through, from planning through to post-excavation analysis? And how do method and theory (the how and the why) hang together?

In this course, we will on the one hand look at the historical development of fieldwork methods. Archaeological methods and questions have tended to influence each other, and so the choice of good methods is dependent on what you want to find out. For field archaeology, we will trace how the minimum standards we use today were established, and how they continue to develop. In this part of the course, you will get the chance to try your hand at some of the main activities of excavation: filling in a risk assessment, drawing a section, trying some survey, and so on.

Finally, we will take a look at post-excavation analysis, as much of this has to be planned already during excavation. You will try your hand at report writing, including the visual representation of results, and think through possibilities for follow-on research strategies.

This is a very hands-on and practical course, with plenty of group work. So come prepared to participate! Also, if you have been in the field before, you may find this course a little too basic.