Professional and Academic Practice in Archaeology

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• take responsibility for good professional practice, including safeguarding the safety of all participants and acting appropriately towards the archaeological resource;
• mastery of diverse professional archaeological skills related to survey, excavation and/or post-excavation.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• resolve unexpected developments or solving problems when events divert from what was planned;
• work in small dedicated teams with a diverse range of participants to complete a complex multi-tasking project;
• reflect on your own contribution and building your personal development as part of a collaborative whole.

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the key principles of research design as it relates to the relationship between field-based or related data generation and research planning and outcomes;
• the geographical, chronological and cultural contexts of the sites, landscapes and/or collections with which you are working.

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• design appropriate strategies for planning and implementing a field-based or related practical archaeological project;
• define appropriate methodologies for generating primary data relevant to a specific research question or questions.

The majority of the teaching and learning on this module will take place in the field. Skills with which students will become familiar include a number of the following: archaeological excavation, test-pitting, topographic and/or geophysical survey and recording, surface survey and field-walking, environmental and geo-archaeological approaches and sampling, recording methods such as drawing, photography, feature survey and/or laser scanning, post-excavation processing and recording of artefacts, archival work, and related practical activities. These skills will vary depending on the aims and objectives, and planned activities, of each project, but in all cases will include important elements relating to the generation of primary data through archaeological field and related practice. In the classroom, sessions will be dedicated to practical organisation and planning, health and safety, and the relationship between planned project activities and research outcomes. After the completion of the fieldwork task(s), teaching and learning activities will develop your understanding of the generation and use of new data for research purposes by means of sessions initiating the development of a research project of your own, skills which will ultimately support you in the design of your dissertation, whether in Archaeology or a combining discipline.

Orientation meetings and project briefings will prepare you for the fieldwork, including a presentation of the research agenda of the project(s) to which you will be attached.

Fieldwork and/or related practical activities comprise supervised practice in small-group lessons, and impromptu "show and tell" sessions during work time.

You should learn about your project and its broader context through tours, discussions, site visits or lectures during the field season, with project leaders presenting and discussing results at the end of the season.

The development of understanding of the relationship between data and research will take place by means of small-group discussion classes or supervisions.

Note that the External Repeat option is only available where students have already completed the practical/fieldwork component of the module.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.