As we prepared to fly out to the UK for fieldwork just over a week ago, I was struck by the fact that it has been almost two years since I conducted any field research. With PhD write-up, a desk job and then a post-doc 4000 miles from my field sites this could be forgiven, but still I didn’t go into archaeology to sit behind a desk so I was pretty excited about the opportunity to get back outside.
This time was extra special as thanks to support from the David L. Paletz Innovative Teaching Funds for Spring 2013 (Duke University) and Exmoor Moorland Landscape Partnership Scheme, I was able to take the entire Archaeology of Ancient Britain class and a postgraduate student assistant with me. I took out a raft of student volunteers on mission impossible Salisbury Plain, but as they were all well into their archaeology degrees and had prior field experience this was my first opportunity to introduce students to field survey. Their thoughts on the experience are recorded here.
True to form the weather played a blinder with snow storms and freezing conditions. I had warned the students to be prepared with waterproofs, gloves, boots etc. but had secretly hoped that we might get away with the weather the Exmoor team had this time last year (t-shirts for survey). Fortunately they took my warnings seriously and everyone was adequately prepared meaning that despite the snow we could progress with the survey almost as intended. Although the weather made for difficult access to the sites and hard-going survey conditions wind blown snow served to beautifully illuminate some of the topographic features.
As we progressed through the three days of field survey, locating and describing features identified from the survey of airborne data, I was impressed not only by the tenacity and good spirit of the students but also by their increasing confidence in conducting the required assessments of features. Starting with simple knowledge regurgitation, amply displayed in our “spot the feature” games played in the car and on site through Stonehenge and Avebury landscapes on Saturday, through engagement with the field survey on Exmoor over the subsequent days they developed reasoning and evaluative skills that allowed them to interpret the lumps and bumps they were seeing more effectively. By the end of the fieldwork they had the confidence not just to identify and describe features but to place them in sequence with each other where possible and to evaluate condition and threat. In small steps across a landscape, a giant leap from classroom rhetoric to practical understanding was achieved.
As it turns out the students weren’t the only ones learning. As I have mentioned before, one of the best things about teaching is revisiting things that you haven’t had the excuse to for a while. I’ve discovered the companion to this, once the students have a basic grasp of the subject matter, are the perspectives and questions that you hadn’t thought of before and don’t know the answer to, such as on meeting the infamous Exmoor ponies and being told that they were an ancient breed wondering whether horses were introduced (à la sheep and cattle) or domesticated remnants of the wild herds being tracked and hunted across Europe before Britain became an island. I don’t have the answer (though I expect someone clever out there does) but the question and the thought process that drove it is extremely satisfying to observe as a tutor, because it shows some of what I have spent hours labouring to communicate has indeed been communicated.
I learnt that survey with students illuminates the processes of analysis that more experienced surveyors can begin to take for granted. Looking through fresh eyes is invariably a useful experience whether it be at snow covered archaeology, a foreigner’s experience in your homeland, American politics (or why not all Republicans are the same) or the merits of 90s pop music as a perfect accompaniment to washing dishes. AAB students, this week you amply demonstrated that I have taught you things, thank you for teaching me things too.