Placement and internship case studies

I was keen to expand my experience in excavations and take advantage of the opportunities that an established, professional organisation that offered education alongside this would give.

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The organisation presented itself as a professionally run venture and outside of travel and living expenses offered its course for free. This made it effectively cheaper than a UK-based dig with the added advantage that it was accompanied by lectures and laboratory experience.

Team member performing excavations and the categorising and recording of finds.

Although slightly conditional upon the weather conditions, a typical day consisted upon finds processing and cataloguing in the morning. Alternatively there were occasionally lectures to attend. The afternoons and early evenings were dedicated to excavations at the dig site or further lab work, on loose rotational basis.

I thoroughly enjoyed the excavational work on what was an extremely rich site. I was fortunate to have discovered some of the more notable artefacts (golden flint knife and large pots), which made my enthusiasm grow further. Also the opportunity to work with a close group of new friends was good. The insight gained about the site from the lectures was also very interesting and added to the experience, as did the finds processing experience.

The fact that there was a heatwave during the placement necessitated restrictions on the time spent on excavations and the remote location of the field school limited activities beyond the local village in free time due to unreliable and infrequent public transport. The language barrier would have been more challenging but for an Italian colleague on the course.

The main skills I used were excavation technique including trowelling, mattocking, sieving and finds recognition. Finds handling and sorting were also used.

It has reinforced my desire to continue with a career in archaeology. I have not yet decided which path to follow but I hope it will include some form of excavation. It has also confirmed my interest in pre-history and that I would like to steer my future career in a direction with an emphasis on some part of this time period.

I would like to find an area of specialism that includes excavation if possible and is related to pre-history. I plan to expand my knowledge of pre-history with the aim of arriving at an area of specialism and to use and exploit the guidance of my tutors.

Engage in this project as much as you are able. This will allow you to get the most out of this experience, not only for the improvement in skills and knowledge but also to inclusive in the whole team effort and experience.

Whilst accommodation and facilities are quite good, don't expect hotel conditions, expect to live with less privacy and be adaptable to this. The course directors are approachable and as accommodating to requests and queries as they can be.