Overview

This course aims to give students an introduction to the different areas of archaeological work, providing students with an overview of the main archaeological techniques used in Britain today. Much of the teaching for this course will take place at the University's Henfaes Research Centre, where practical fieldwork will take place. This will include sessions on: carrying out a desktop assessment; laying out grids for a survey; excavating a test pit; recording in the field using context sheets, photography, and measured drawing; and different approaches to post-excavation work. It will equip students with the necessary knowledge of archaeological practice for their degree, as well as providing key employability skills.

Lectures will tackle a variety of topics, such as: what is archaeology?; desk-based research; aerial photography and LIDAR; geophysical survey and fieldwalking surveys; the excavation process and recording; ways to analyse bones, soil and plant remains; site formation processes; post-excavation tasks and dating techniques; technology and materials

Fieldwork days will take place at the University's Henfaes research centre, and will include: setting up a survey grid; digging a test pit and context sheets; archaeological drawing; wet sieving soil samples; post-excavation tasks for finds.

Seminar workshops will include computer workshops to find archaeological online databases and maps, and guidance on writing desk-top assessments.

Assessment Strategy

Threshold Threshold students (D- and D) will have done only a minimum of reading, and their work will often be based partly on lecture notes and/or basic textbooks. They will demonstrate in their written assessments some knowledge of at least parts of the relevant field, and will make at least partially-successful attempts to frame an argument which engages with archaeological controversies, but they will fail to discuss some large and vital aspects of a topic; and/or deploy only some relevant material but partly fail to combine it into a coherent whole; and/or deploy some evidence to support individual points but often fail to do so and/or show difficulty weighing data (thereby relying on unsuitable or irrelevant data when making a point). Alternatively or additionally, the presentation of the work might also be poor, with bad grammar and/or punctuation, careless typos and spelling errors, and a lack of effective and correct referencing.

Good Good students (B- to B+) will demonstrate a solid level of achievement and depth of knowledge in all the criteria in the C- to C+ range, and will in addition exhibit constructive engagement with different types of archaeological writing and interpretation. Ideas will be communicated effectively and written work will include a good range of reading and demonstrate a clear understanding of the issues and of the existing interpretations expressed in a well-structured, relevant, and focused argument. Students at the top end of this band will engage with and critique the ideas that they come across, and synthesise the various interpretations they find to reach their own considered conclusions. Written work will be correctly presented with references and bibliography where appropriate.

Excellent Excellent students (A- and above) will show strong achievement across all the criteria combined with particularly impressive depths of knowledge and/or subtlety of analysis. In written work, they will support their arguments with a wealth of relevant detail/examples. They will also demonstrate an acute awareness of the relevant historiography and give an account of why the conclusions reached are important within a particular archaeological debate. They may show a particularly subtle approach to possible objections, nuancing their argument in the light of counter-examples, or producing an interesting synthesis of various contrasting positions. Overall, the standards of content, argument, and analysis expected will be consistently superior to top upper-second work. Standards of presentation will also be high.

Another level Students in this band (C- to C+) will demonstrate a satisfactory range of achievement or depth of knowledge of most parts of the module, and will make successful, if occasionally inconsistent, attempts to develop those skills appropriate to the study of archaeology at undergraduate level. In the case of the written assessments, the answers will attempt to focus on the question, although might drift into narrative, and will show some evidence of solid reading and research. The argument might lose direction and might not be adequately clear at the bottom of this category. Written work will be presented reasonably well with only limited errors in grammar, punctuation, and referencing, and not to the extent that they obscure meaning.

Learning Outcomes

• Develop and present structured arguments in assessments, supported by appropriate archaeological sources.

• Develop effective study skills such as reading, note-taking and active participating in fieldwork and seminars.

• Recognise and discuss different ways to analyse and interpret archaeological evidence.

•  Describe the way in which archaeological work is carried out today, including the methods for investigating, recording, and interpreting different types of archaeological evidence.