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OPTIONS 2015
As part of the Diploma, all students are required to complete a fieldschool
module involving one week of excavation experience (or related
experience as agreed by the fieldwork co-ordinator Richard Thomas
[rmt12@le.ac.uk]).
To meet this requirement you have two options:
Please note that two additional fieldschools are currently being planned
by SAAH staff (as of January 2015) and will be advertised in the coming
months.
In addition to the compulsory Fieldschool module at level 2, all BA
ARCHAEOLOGY students are required to complete a further four weeks,
non-assessed (experience only) fieldwork before they can graduate. This
field experience can be gained at any approved field project, anywhere in
the world.
Below you will find detailed information about the two SAAH fieldschools
(AR2560, AR2562), information on self-organised fieldschools (AR2550)
and what is required for experience only.
Registration
If you wish to complete your fieldschool module by attending the Bradgate
Park excavations then please specify which week you wish to attend as
soon as possible as overall numbers on the projects are capped. In order
to attend Bradgate Park you must have formally registered to take the
module by 1st May 2015. In doing so, you will be joining the June intake
for this module.
Assessment
For this level 2 module you are expected to submit two pieces of work for
formal assessment: a portfolio and an essay. You will be provided with
further details of these on registering for the module. You must submit
both elements of the assessment and satisfy the fieldwork terms to
complete this module.
The Mohegan work week runs from Monday morning through Friday afternoon.
The Monday morning session will begin with a site tour and orientation, plus
some actual fieldwork. Daily work runs from 9 am to 4 pm. Students staying at
Connecticut College should be prepared to leave for work promptly at 8:30 am
each day. Please contact Craig Cipolla if you plan on driving to the site with your
own vehicle.
We will work in the field almost every day. (On rain-days we will work in the
Mohegan archaeological laboratories washing and sorting artefacts.) This means
that you should come prepared to work outdoors every day, i.e. wearing clothes
that you dont mind getting dirty. I recommend wearing long pants, hiking boots,
long socks, and hats to keep the sun off. You would do best to choose clothing
that is also fairly breathable since it can get hot and humid in Connecticut during
July/August. I also recommend bringing a sweatshirt and light rain jacket in case
of unexpected weather (this is New England after all!). Since we will be working
in the woods, poison ivy and Lyme disease (transmitted by deer ticks) are two
very real dangers. With the proper clothing and preparation, we will do our best
to avoid these problems. We will discuss these issues further once we all arrive,
but you can read more about Lyme disease here:
http://www.aldf.com/lyme.shtml. You may also want to invest in a cheap pair of
sunglasses, some poison ivy wash (e.g. Tecnu), sunscreen, bug spray (I
recommend Deep Woods Off with DEET), a reusable water bottle, and reusable
lunch bags and Tupperware (everyone should bring their lunch and a healthy
supply of water).
Field equipment and supplies that you should bring:
Registration
If you wish to complete your fieldschool module by attending the Mohegan
excavations then please specify which week you wish to attend as soon as
possible as overall numbers on the projects are capped.
Assessment
For this level 2 module you are expected to submit two pieces of work for
formal assessment: a portfolio and an essay. You will be provided with
further details of these on registering for the module. You must submit
both elements of the assessment and satisfy the fieldwork terms to
complete this module.
Registration
When deciding which intake to take your assessment in, you will need to
consider the following guidelines in advance:
If your fieldwork is completed between 1st December and 30th March at
the latest you should join the February intake.
If your fieldwork is completed between the 1st April and the 31st July at
the latest you should join the June intake.
If your fieldwork is completed between the 1st August and the 30th
November at the latest you should join the October intake.
Assessment
For this level 2 module you are expected to submit two pieces of work for
formal assessment: a portfolio and an essay. You will be provided with
further details of these on registering for the module but should be aware
that the submission deadline for both assignments is that listed under the
relevant registration intake above. You must submit both elements of the
assessment and satisfy the fieldwork terms to complete this module.
In order to be able to provide help and advice in the preparation of the
essay we ask students to produce a short reading list of books/articles you
plan to use in advance of submission. This is not formally assessed.
Fees
Students taking the Self-organised Fieldschool module pay a reduced fee
of 200 for this module regardless of where they are based. This fee will
cover the assessment element of the module. Fees are due when
registering for the module, further details on your assessment will only be
provided once fees are paid.
Experience Only
What is an 'approved' field project?
Any project organised by a university, archaeology unit or local
archaeology institution would be fine, but you need to check with us first.
If you have identified a project you would like to work on you need to fill
out the fieldwork proposal form on Blackboard (under Fieldwork: AR3999)
in which you will need to tell us the name of the project, who is organising
it, and provide a website link to the project. Once this is completed,
submit the form to the DL hub (artshumsdl@le.ac.uk) and the fieldwork
co-ordinator (rmt12@le.ac.uk). We will then email you to confirm whether
it is a suitable project.
You are of course welcome to come to the Bradgate Park project that we
run every year in June and July. There would be a small charge for
students who wish to attend to gain further experience (250 per week).
Other staff in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History welcome
students on their fieldwork and will send out emails to current students
asking for volunteers when opportunities arise.
What constitutes a week?
Many projects have a six day working week, but others may allow you to
attend for a five day working week. So a week is either five or six days in
the field.
Do I need to do the four weeks all in one go?
No. You can do one four week block of fieldwork if you would like to, or you
could do four separate weeks, or even include single days of fieldwork. As
long as your total amount of field/lab experience reaches six weeks (four
weeks experience plus attendance on the AR2560 Fieldschool and AR3551
Archaeological Practice modules) before you graduate.
How do I record my field experience?
There is a field experience recording sheet on Blackboard (under
Fieldwork: AR3999).Make sure you take a copy of the form with you and
get the project director, or field director to sign it for you.
I have health issues that mean I cannot dig (or dig for extended
periods); does this mean I cannot take part in field projects?
In any field project there is a variety of tasks that need to be carried out in
addition to excavation. Survey, recording, and finds processing are all very
important. As long as you talk to the organisers in advance, you will be
able to do a range of tasks and gain wide experience. Occasionally
students have issues that make it difficult to be away from home or work
outside, and it is possible in exceptional circumstances to gain this nonassessed four weeks of field experience working in a local museum or
similar.
Irrespective of whether you choose to come and dig with the School or
wish to organise your own fieldwork arrangements in conjunction with us
we hope you will enjoy the module and at the same time learn more about
the process of archaeological field investigation.
Best wishes,
Richard Thomas
Fieldwork Co-ordinator
School of Archaeology & Ancient History
University of Leicester
LE1 7RH
E-mail: rmt12@le.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 116 252 3343