Student fieldwork
The Student Fieldwork Handbook is essential reading for all Archaeology Honours students (and prospective Archaeology Honours students).
When going on fieldwork, please take the Fieldwork report form with you, and at the end of the season get the fieldwork director to fill it in. It should then be returned by email, as a Word document or a scan, to the Fieldwork Convenor.
The Fieldwork Convenor is Dr Michael Given. Please contact him if you have any queries.
See below for fieldwork opportunities and safety videos.
Fieldwork and the archaeology degree
Fieldwork is a very important aspect of studying for an archaeology degree. Archaeology at Glasgow University gives particular attention to this aspect of archaeological training, as is reflected in the number of days of field, museum or post-excavation work students are required to complete before being awarded an Honours degree.
Due to this high investment in field training Glasgow archaeology graduates are often highly sought after by field archaeology organisations because of their level of field competence.
Participation in field projects provides an excellent opportunity to gain valuable work experience and enables contacts to be made with potential future employers. Time spent on such placements and the skills developed greatly enhance employability far beyond the field of archaeology. Important employability skills learnt on fieldwork include teamwork, task management, documentation, problem solving, health and safety awareness, report writing, quantitative data handling and persevering in carrying out sustained physical and mental work.
Fieldwork can be tailored to specific interests. Classics and Archaeology joint honours students, for example, may wish to participate in field projects focusing on sites in the Mediterranean, whilst Medieval History and Archaeology students can focus on sites of an historical age.
The Field School is an excellent opportunity to get dedicated field training and is a good starting point. Students are also encouraged to take advantage of other fieldwork opportunities both in the UK and abroad.
Fieldwork opportunities
Fieldwork opportunities are regularly advertised on the Fieldwork noticeboard on Level 3 of the Gregory Building, although more opportunities are usually advertised after Easter than before. More notices of upcoming fieldwork opportunities are also regularly emailed round all archaeology students.
There are a range of other resources listed below, though there may be some duplication between them. Look carefully at the cost implications, and for projects run by bodies other than the University always check with the Fieldwork Convenor whether a project is considered suitable before signing up for a place.
Useful links
CBA Briefing
The Council for British Archaeology publish a bi-monthly magazine, Archaeology, which contains the briefing section. This advertises a range of fieldwork opportunities, generally within the UK. They also have a factsheet: "Everything you wanted to know about archaeological excavations but were afraid to ask" ...
Past Horizons
A website of international opportunities in archaeology, covering projects around the world. Provided by the British Archaeological Jobs Resource.
Current Archaeology Information Centre
This bi-monthly magazine has some useful advice and maintains a huge database of opportunities in the UK and abroad. Although it says 'digging' opportunities, they are actually more wide-ranging than this.
Archaeological Fieldwork Opportunities Bulletin
This Bulletin provided by the American Institute of Archaeology includes an online database that allows you to search for opportunities worldwide by region, country, period, date, project type etc.
Shovelbums
Resources for Cultural Resource Management archaeologists, including a useful worldwide Field School Directory
Field Schools
A number of organisations run field schools which provide a range of training, but the costs can sometimes be quite significant. Some may allow volunteers to attend at a cheaper rate. Examples of field schools include:
- Achill Archaeology Field School: archaeological investigations at the deserted village of Slievemore on Achill Island, Co. Mayo, Ireland
- Bamburgh Research Project: Field school in and around Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland
- Grampus Heritage and Training Ltd provide a range of archaeology training placements around Europe.
- SHARP (Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project): large multi-period project in Norfolk
- Silchester Roman Town Field School: a large field school run by the Department of Archaeology, University of Reading
- Tel Dor, Israel. University of California, Berkeley project focusing on Persian-Roman levels
- York Archaeological Trust runs a series of training excavations (click on 'Get involved')
Museums and other opportunities
A range of other organisations often offer placements for volunteers. For example, students have recently worked with:
- Hunterian Museum - contact Ruth Fletcher, Student Engagement Officer (Ruth.Fletcher@glasgow.ac.uk)
- Inverness Museum
- Kelvingrove Museum
- National Museums of Scotland
- Scottish Crannog Centre
- West of Scotland Archaeological Service
and a host of other local/regional museums and institutions. Make sure you check with the Fieldwork Convenor that the work proposed can be counted towards your field experience, though.
Many excavations will expect you to provide your own trowel - traditionally this should be a WHS roll-forged 4" pointing trowel (avoid welded or rivetted trowels). These can be difficult to find though good builders suppliers may stock them (in other words, not B&Q or similar DIY stores!). They can be ordered online from an archaeological supplier such as Archaeology Tools or Past Horizons. You can also read up about trowels and their biographies in "Give me WHS or give me death!" published in Assemblage, as well as "101 Tips for Old and New Archaeologists" (a PDF from BAJR) ...
... and before you go away on your fieldwork, you may want to mug up on a range of digging songs :-)
Safety videos
For full health and safety information, please see the Student Fieldwork Handbook.
Students are required to watch the relevant videos below before going on field survey, excavation or a field trip:
Safety on archaeological field survey
Safety on archaeological excavation
Safety on archaeological field trips