24th October 2008, 02:55 PM
I've spent a lot of time training students on university research excavations, and on commercial sites. The number one bottom line thing that all must know is safety issues. Full stop, no contest.
All university archaeology courses (including conservation etc) should have a mandatory field methods and techniques course run by someone who has a wide range of experience (not just paleolithic digs in 'the levant' or rescue sites in the 70's. That course should cover all the basics, including the history of archaeological techniques and be enough to give an awareness and a grounding in techniques to all students studying archaeology, even if they never want to set foot on a site. They will be using data from sites so they must know the basics. The course should have visiting lecturers from commercial and research units etc, specialists, curators who can give real life examples from within the last 5 years.
Any students considering going into field archaeology should then have access to modular courses, again with visiting lecturers as required, with seminars and workshops on subjects such as matrices and context sheets so they can be explained in depth. Practical skills and awareness of their uses should be taught, as should legislation, H&S issues, surveying, and all the MAP2 site to archive type stuff.
Universities need to link up more with units, I've suggested that evening seminars are held every year for students who may want to do some paid work where a supervisor from a local unit gives them a realistic insight into commercial work so they have an awareness and can ask questions. Lecturers should maybe be given time to do placements on sites so they can keep abreast of changes/keep in touch with reality, and university research digs should really use some commercial supervisors -I've done this, and it works well, even if it can show up the 'director' as being useless (not on the sites I worked on I hasten to add).
The whole 'someone else's problem of training' needs addressing, now most entrants are via university it should have got easier, not harder. There are some excellent university courses out there, with long placements and excellent teaching, but some really are poor. Its about aptitude and attitude to a great extent, and those who are switched on can learn very fast, but they need to be given a framework within which to place this fast learning curve and that is best done at universities.
I welcome the NVQs, but they should be integrated into university courses in some way, and be rolled out properly, I sent a query to the IFA about two months ago and haven't had a response yet. The NVQs could sort this problem to an extent, if combined with effective CPD and coaching/mentoring, but it does rely on decent pay retaining sufficient experienced site staff to do this job and keep the pyramid stable.
I realise this isn't point 1: know how to fill out a context sheet, point 2: have spatial awareness and understand grid and how to lay it out, point 3: single context is the best system for urban so stop half-sectioning that pit...but its what I think about the issue behind the issue.
Anyway, point 1 is health and safety awareness, and point 2 is knowing that just cos you are going to do a masters in libyan mesolithic monkey rocks doesn't mean you haven't just f****d up digging that context!
All university archaeology courses (including conservation etc) should have a mandatory field methods and techniques course run by someone who has a wide range of experience (not just paleolithic digs in 'the levant' or rescue sites in the 70's. That course should cover all the basics, including the history of archaeological techniques and be enough to give an awareness and a grounding in techniques to all students studying archaeology, even if they never want to set foot on a site. They will be using data from sites so they must know the basics. The course should have visiting lecturers from commercial and research units etc, specialists, curators who can give real life examples from within the last 5 years.
Any students considering going into field archaeology should then have access to modular courses, again with visiting lecturers as required, with seminars and workshops on subjects such as matrices and context sheets so they can be explained in depth. Practical skills and awareness of their uses should be taught, as should legislation, H&S issues, surveying, and all the MAP2 site to archive type stuff.
Universities need to link up more with units, I've suggested that evening seminars are held every year for students who may want to do some paid work where a supervisor from a local unit gives them a realistic insight into commercial work so they have an awareness and can ask questions. Lecturers should maybe be given time to do placements on sites so they can keep abreast of changes/keep in touch with reality, and university research digs should really use some commercial supervisors -I've done this, and it works well, even if it can show up the 'director' as being useless (not on the sites I worked on I hasten to add).
The whole 'someone else's problem of training' needs addressing, now most entrants are via university it should have got easier, not harder. There are some excellent university courses out there, with long placements and excellent teaching, but some really are poor. Its about aptitude and attitude to a great extent, and those who are switched on can learn very fast, but they need to be given a framework within which to place this fast learning curve and that is best done at universities.
I welcome the NVQs, but they should be integrated into university courses in some way, and be rolled out properly, I sent a query to the IFA about two months ago and haven't had a response yet. The NVQs could sort this problem to an extent, if combined with effective CPD and coaching/mentoring, but it does rely on decent pay retaining sufficient experienced site staff to do this job and keep the pyramid stable.
I realise this isn't point 1: know how to fill out a context sheet, point 2: have spatial awareness and understand grid and how to lay it out, point 3: single context is the best system for urban so stop half-sectioning that pit...but its what I think about the issue behind the issue.
Anyway, point 1 is health and safety awareness, and point 2 is knowing that just cos you are going to do a masters in libyan mesolithic monkey rocks doesn't mean you haven't just f****d up digging that context!