Excavation & Post-Excavation
Excavation is how archaeologists learn about people and places in the past. Traces are left by ruins, material culture, biological remains – both human and environmental – and these are are investigated through recording and retrieval.
Field work has many components and may include excavation, or ‘the dig’, walk over surveys, drawings, lab work, and scientific analysis.
Excavation Skills
Each student will be taught the essential skills of excavation. Our end-of-school field assessment is an opportunity for student to demonstrate basic mastery of the theory and practice of excavation. Students will learn feature and context recording, soil characterization, stratigraphy, and the Harris Matrix.
Each student will learn how to fill in context sheets, record finds, take levels (with dumpy level and MLID) and coordinates (manually and MLID), complete scale drawings, and take archival photographs. As digital skills are becoming increasingly important in field work, each student will enter records into our digital site recording system.
Each of our units of excavation (trenches) has a dedicated Trench Supervisor to teach skills, oversee the use of trowels and other excavation tools, and work with students on preliminary identification and assessment of excavated objects and ecofacts. Our trenches are small sub-communities of support and learning.
Post-Ex Skills
Post-Ex work on site and in the lab in St Andrews ensures that all students know how to differentiate between types of find (ceramic, animal bone, worked stone, etc), clean, bag, label and record finds. When relevant to the work of the excavation, students may also carry out basic environmental sampling. The end-of-course assessment is an opportunity to display these skills.
Every student works intermittently in post-ex, under the direction of the dedicated intern who serves as Site Registrar.
