Undergraduate Field School
The University of Reading has run a Field School for its undergraduates since 1997. Currently, students can chose between places at the Anglo-Saxon monastery site at Cookham and the Hebridean Island of Islay. The field school offers students the opportunity to experience up to four weeks of practical archaeology in the field. The field school offers hands-on experience introducing the techniques of an excavation, from recognising archaeological contexts and features on the site through to cleaning, excavating and recording them. Students will gain direct experience in all aspects of the excavation, from recognising ancient artefacts to learning how to read the wider landscape. As well as technical expertise, fieldwork helps to develop transferable skills including observation and understanding, problem solving, team work and communication skills.
You can find out more about the field school and the practical skills you can learn at the University of Reading by clicking here
For over 20 years the field school was held at Silchester. Here’s what the students got up to at the bathhouse in 2018
The Silchester bathhouse excavation has been followed each summer by a dig at Dunyvaig castle on Islay. Here director Professor Steve Mithen introduces the project and we see what the students are digging
So what do you learn at the Field school? This slide show illustrates all the different elements that are brought together as part of the field experience
Prior to the returning to Silchester, the Field School was located at the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire between 2015-17. Here’s a summary of what the students found during that time
To learn more about the Field School, applying to study, open days and more information about Archaeology at Reading you can visit the department website page here. Here’s some of our students explaining why they chose to study at Reading
The Town Life Project