Tag Archives: training

Pottery training

Learning to recognise fabrics and forms

I’ve always had a ‘thing’ for pottery, stemming from my first experience of archaeological fieldwalking and finding a pile of greyware (I won’t mention the arrowhead I also found that day). Through volunteering on excavations and at the local museum I discovered there was an awful lot more to pottery than I expected. This year I have been undertaking some intensive training learning how to accurately identify, date, record and quantify pottery.

This process has involved numerous hours using a microscope and identifying minerals within the pottery fabric and comparing them to known local, national and even international fabrics. Each kiln has its own recipe of ingredients that gets mixed into the clay so if the kiln has been excavated a specific production site can be listed. The style/form of the pottery also gives indications of date. By cross referencing this information with previously identified examples a date range and hopefully a production site is revealed. As I don’t have the experience of the fabrics I have to check every sherd against a written description or an example piece and research every form with named examples from other sites. My progress is slow and occasionally frustrating but there are multiple ways to aid this process aside from 10 years of experience.

Archaeological text books can be challenging, they have huge amounts of text with pages of finds illustrated in the back. They are very difficult to read unless you are looking for something specific. To make the information more accessible I find writing the details and similar examples from other sites next to the illustration saves a lot of time flipping back and forth looking for dates and form names. I also have pages and pages of notes with sketches of rim types as a cheat sheet. Eventually I’ll be able to do this without having to look in a book every time.

It isn’t an easy thing to learn all this information and apply it with confidence to an assemblage but it has been enjoyable. The next step is going to be creating my own reference collection and building on my notes to help ease the process of remembering hundreds of fabrics and forms.

The Archaeological Toolbox

An Archaeologists toolbox

We all know that archaeologists own at least one trowel.

But there’s more to it than that, a menagerie of tools and pieces of equipment that are integral additions to the ‘tools of the trade’. But what makes up the elusive archeologist’s kit?

To start with the obvious; trowels, they are the universal (yet unofficial) symbol of Archaeology. A necessary part of the toolkit, and almost every archaeologist will own whether it gets used on a daily or yearly basis. I’ve spoken to people about their first trowel and they can always remember what happened if it is no longer with them. Fee fondly reminiscing about hers, which is likely now buried underneath concrete and tarmac from her first University Dig, and I can say that my first is still with me – gifted by my very proud grandparents.

Cat’s clearly identified, if rarely used, trowel

Gloves of both the waterproof and thermal kind are two things that are underestimated fairly frequently. General waterproof gloves that are necessary for health and safety, but thermal gloves are pieces of equipment that I admit that I have forgotten many times and consequently suffered…

Finds bags are a staple. While they’re provided by the company, they disappear fairly quickly and it’s a good idea to have a stash of them by your side when you carefully excavate that fantastic piece of Roman jewelry no one else noticed, or when the site’s storage is at a distance from where you are working.

Two that tie together (haha) are lines of string and nails. These two are important for creating section lines, creating plans, marking GPS points for small find locations, and bartering. For future reference, a nail is worth 5 biscuits or an extra cup of tea…

A notebook isn’t absolutely essential, but it’s highly recommended… Not just to track how many nails you’ve traded for other supplies, but to mark down important numbers and information that you’ll need while on site. If you’re digging a pit you’ll need to remember two numbers just for the cut and fill, and photo numbers & GPS points are also necessary for future reference. If one of your colleagues asks who dug a certain pit number, if you can’t remember if it was you or not… you’re able to go back and look. Unluckily, if it was excavated wrong, there’s proof that it was you. On the contrary, if it was you who’d dug it and found something amazing, like the Roman jewelry mentioned before, you can prove that it was yourself that first cast eyes upon the artefact.

A well organised pencil case is essential

A pencil case is also recommended. From drawing plans to writing on finds bags, a sharpie and sharpened pencil are important. Aside from the obvious, things like scale rulers and erasers and pencil sharpeners, pencils are somewhat different. They shouldn’t be HB. These pencils will smudge and blur on the permatrace, a bit like waterproof tracing paper, that is used for plans and section drawings, and as a result of this, 6H pencils are recommended to reduce this smudging.

Tape measures are, in essence, similar to the string and nails. They’re used to measure for planning, to map out the location and size of the feature, and for your unsuspecting colleagues to trip over. Surveyor tape, I should add, is also good for measuring as tape measures may not be the right length or maneuverable enough for general archaeological use. Clips of varying types are recommended to attach it to objects, to create a reliable measuring line for your plans and/or sections.

All sorts of strategy’s are employed to clearly identify kit

Line levels are important for when you start to plan the section of your feature. When drawing plans a straight line is needed as a base line for whatever you are drawing, and the line level would be used to make sure your string line is straight for finally drawing it out. Note that these are small and easily lost, and as a result your colleagues will ask to borrow them from you… and maybe give them back.

Finally I’ll be blunt – duplicates of everything. Archeologists enjoy ‘borrowing’ from each other for indeterminate amounts of time, and I think I can safely say that we’re all guilty of this…
In all seriousness, I started my traineeship with an entire tin of nails.

In conclusion, an archaeologist’s kit is varied and an amalgamation of tools that are the core essentials of any excavation and sometimes, they might even be the part of the original set that you bought.

Heritage Research: engaging with landscape architects

At the beginning of the week the heritage team (Chris, Catriona and myself) met with the landscape architects at Influence®. We were interested in discussing the similarities and differences between their landscape and visual impact assessments and our own approaches to studying the impact on the setting and significance of heritage assets (discussed in this blog).

Landscape and visual impact assessment is often required as part of a planning application and helps to assess the effects of future development on the landscape. A report will help to inform design, in order to reduce and offset some of the adverse effects of development on the surrounding area. It will consider the existing character of the place, and potential changes to the available views. A study of the landscape can be applied to all urban and peri-urban landscapes, towns, villages and rural areas, coast and islands area; and the views can encompass a wide range of features including National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Nature Reserves, Listed Buildings, Scheduled Monuments, etc. Of course there is large overlap in the subject matter, although the principle difference between the approaches in that landscape and visual impact assessments attempt to establish and protect the landscape and views as experienced by current individuals. Our research seeks principally to outline the impact of development on understanding the past context of heritage assets and negate factors that might detract from how we comprehend the past, in essence to assess the likelihood for encountering subsurface archaeology and how developments will affect standing heritage assets.

Getting a chance to discuss the similarities and differences between our approaches helped us to appreciate the complexities of each other’s disciplines. We ended up being able to reflect on our own practices and in the future will be incorporating features from their approach to landscape and visual impact assessment into our own study of the impact future development of the setting and significance of heritage assets. It was a great opportunity and are very grateful to the staff at Influence in Newark for hosting us.

Best site hut biscuit with Tae

Recording onsite at Market Harborough

What is your job role?
Trainee Project Archaeologist

How long have you worked for Allen Archaeology?
On and off over the last six months. I started my formal traineeship in June 2016.

How would describe your excavation technique?
Detailed and meticulous

How long have you been working in archaeology?
About six months

How did you get into archaeology?
Chris Casswell is a family friend (and told me the biscuits were good). I then applied for a traineeship.

What is the best thing about your job?
Solving ancient puzzles.

Specialist skills?
I make a pretty good cuppa.

Best site hut biscuit?
The gingernut

Diving into the world of archaeological geophysics

I initially wrote to Allen Archaeology to see if I could gain experience of geophysical surveys in a commercial environment: the equipment used, data analysis and how this relates to the archaeology of the site. I am a geophysics student at University of Southampton, I don’t specifically study archaeology unless chosen as a specialism, but Allen Archaeology kindly offered me a month long volunteer placement. When I started I didn’t know much about archaeology at all; how the two fields of study were related was something I was very keen to learn!

Doing a magnetometry survey

I was immediately put onto a project with the Geophysics Project Officer, Rob Evershed. We were to use magnetometry to survey the subsurface of the Lincolnshire countryside and detect any potential archaeological sites. The survey techniques themselves were very similar to the geophysics I had completed on field trips at university: marking out the survey grids before walking a magnetometer over the ground. The only difference was the equipment had a much higher resolution and is far more expensive to run.

The data analysis on the other hand was completely new. The results were produced in a program called Terrasurveyor and were completely different from magnetometer results I had previously seen. Instead of looking for geological structures as I have done at university, we wanted to find archaeological sites. Rob was great at pointing out distinguishing features in our data and explaining their significance; such as land drains, old roads and other details which would have been inconsequential to someone untrained in archaeological geophysics. Rob taught me how background research into the area and georeferencing of old maps onto modern ones could reconcile anomalous geophysical results with archaeological evidence.

Rob showing me how to process the data

When I haven’t been out in the field I have been able to help out around the office; completing small tasks on QGIS, washing artefacts and trying to piece together a Roman tablet. I’ve had the chance to explore the archives and learnt a lot about the differences in pottery from various periods; I also had the shocking experience (for a non-archaeologist) of coming face to face with a skull!

During my time with Allen Archaeology, I have become more confident in the use of magnetometers and GPS with geophysical surveys and developed my knowledge of computer programs such as QGIS and Terrasurveyor. I have learnt how to interpret geophysical surveys and use them to find archaeological remains; and most importantly through Rob’s instruction, I have learnt how to compare the archaeological evidence (e.g. pottery) in a field with the geophysical data collected and been able to draw conclusions about the history of the area based on all the evidence. I have enjoyed my experience with AAL a lot and when I return to university in September, I am definitely going pick a couple of archaeology modules to compliment my geophysics studies.

The AAL trainee scheme

I graduated from University of Bournemouth in the summer of 2015. I had worked on some research projects as part of my degree and had some experience of volunteering, but no commercial archaeological experience. Without experience it’s normally very hard to get into commercial archaeology, as some of my fellow graduates can attest to. I was lucky enough to apply to Allen Archaeology at just the right time and was offered a start as a trainee in November.

Working at Lincoln University

I started out in the office washing and marking finds. These are important skills but they can get a bit repetitive so I jumped at the opportunity to go out on site for the first time – to Whisby quarry. It was certainly a bit of a culture shock compared to the academic digs I’d been on before! Work was fast paced, colder, muddier and harder work. However, the site was fairly straightforward and with some help from my supervisor Damian Podlinski I got through it all right.

From there it was time to move into Lincoln, where the company was digging in preparation for construction to start on a new building for the university. The site was next to the river and fairly deep, which meant it was under water most of the time. So again, wet, muddy, cold. We had a great team though and halfway through the site we’d figured out a system that made light work of it.

“Work is fast paced” this site in Yorkshire demonstrated how quickly I could work given training

Perhaps one of the most informative parts of my traineeship was the last week; I was taught GIS in the office by the GIS guru Chris Casswell. Although I knew about the program, I’d never used it before and after some initial hiccups everything went smoothly. As an added bonus using GIS didn’t involve getting either wet, mud or cold in January!

At the end of the traineeship I went to broaden my range of experience by working for another archaeological company in London for 5 weeks before returning to AAL in March. Since then I’ve worked on a number of different sites and types of job; I’ve done watching briefs both alone and supervised, I’ve excavated Roman settlements and most recently I worked on a medieval building near Lincoln Cathedral. No doubt there will be more interesting sites to come – and some cold, wet and muddy ones but the trainee scheme has allowed me to get my foot in the door working in commercial archaeology.

A secondment to the Archives

I joined the company as a project archaeologist in June 2015. For the majority of my time here so far I have been out onsite digging, firstly working on the large Roman site at North Killingholme and since then a variety of other sites across the country. Every now and again, I’m posted in the office where I participate in post excavation tasks such as washing and marking finds, which I quite enjoy.

At the end of February there was an advert on the front desk advertising a temporary secondment as an archives assistant; I jumped at the opportunity to apply. I saw it as a good opportunity to learn valuable skills; develop my interest in post-excavation processes further and increase my knowledge of artefacts.

My application was successful and for the best part of March and April I undertook the secondment; temporarily becoming an archives assistant. During this time I had the opportunity to learn a variety of new skills and experience more of the processes that happen in post-ex, alongside getting to handle all the exciting artefacts that come back from site. I helped to package artefacts to be sent to the specialists, sort and catalogue skeletons, write inventories and help organise finds from incoming projects.

My primary role was to assist and prepare a number of site archives to be deposited to their corresponding museums across the country. In this I prepared both the written site archive, so all the registers, drawings, context sheets etc. and boxed the associated site artefacts. The whole process for each site had to adhere to their associated museum guidelines, each of which was different. I assisted with site collections from Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Winchester. Some of the tasks within this were quite repetitive, such as numbering and labelling digital photographs to correspond to the photograph registers or writing accession numbers on all the documents. Nevertheless these repetitive aspects are quite necessary as without it the allotted archive wouldn’t adhere to the correct format and so would be at risk of being rejected by the museums.

I really enjoyed my time in archive department, it was great working with the Archive team and getting to know the ins and outs of what goes on downstairs. It was an enlightening experience, as I have now seen first-hand the full process to which each site and it’s artefacts and documents, takes before it finally it ends up in a museum. From being excavated in the field, then in post ex getting washed, dried, marked, sorted, catalogued, sent to a specialist, reports written, stored then finally boxed up with the related documents and deposited to a museum.

A secondment to the Geophysics team

Getting the hang of magenetometry

In February 2016 AAL opened internal applications for a Project Archaeologist to undertake a three month secondment with the Geophysics Project Officer, Rob Evershed. The secondment would give someone experience in basic geophysical survey including; undertaking the surveys, setting up surveys (gridding out and the use of GPS), data analysis and interpretations, the post-fieldwork reporting process and preparations of illustrations and preparing the archive.

I applied as I have always enjoyed taking part in geophysics projects; being able to create my own interpretations of the sites as my understanding of them develops, and the physical nature of the role which allows me to loose myself in the task at hand.

Still going

Prior to working with AAL I had experience of working on archaeological geophysics projects at another company. I hoped this role would allow me to develop my skills and put me in a position to specialise in archaeological geophysics.

GIS training with Rob

Rob has been a great (and patient!) tutor allowing me to get involved with all elements of the work. It has been challenging physically (Rob works at a very fast pace, sometimes completing 20-30 grids a day, almost twice as many as normal people), and mentally, as I have very limited experience with writing and producing reports.

Like everyone I have really enjoyed the sunny days on site, but I have also found I like seeing the project through to completion. Being able to put together background research with any topographic clues and finally seeing the processed results is a really engaging task. Equally the sites which provide us with complete surprises are great, as we are the first people to discover them; one site we uncovered evidence for a medieval settlement which had not been picked up in the background research.

I have come away feeling I know a lot more about what happens after the geophysical survey and a lot more confident in my abilities. I hope that following the completion of my secondment I might be able to start running my own, small, projects and processing my own data for producing reports.

Training in smaller companies – how and why we do it

Formal training is perhaps seen as the preserve of the larger, more established archaeological unit able to put considerable resources into training schemes and have staff specifically dedicated to implementing them. However, working for a smaller company can provide better opportunities for consistent mentoring and for a diverse training experience.

On Wednesday 20th April, AAL contributed to a session organised by the Diggers Forum at the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA) annual conference, entitled ‘The skills gap: training for competence in archaeology’.

AAL has undergone pretty rapid growth. In January 2014 there were 14 staff and by the end of last year we had 45 staff, including three trainees. Training plans are put in place for staff to progress and to change direction, for example into geophysics or archives, but this post focuses on our ‘entrance level’ training plan.

So why is training important? Well, with increasing workload and larger jobs we needed more people; not only did we need to increase capacity but also flexibility. Training gives us the chance to grow skills in-house which are tailored to company methods and needs. Like many archaeological companies out there we had recruitment problems – especially for fixed term roles. The problem wasn’t numbers of applicants but that very few had the experience we were after. Partly it was about need, and partly about gaining the confidence to do it. We’re involved in community archaeology projects, site open days, National Trust training days and short-term university teaching, so surely we ought to have the skills in-house to train other archaeologists? Most of all, training the next generation is, as one of our recent trainees put it, a good thing to do!

“A lot of companies want minimum experience that might be hard to get even with volunteer work and the like, so obviously a scheme that trains less experienced archaeologists is a good thing.”

It was important to us that we weren’t playing lip service to training as a way of paying people less, so we decided to keep the training plan short and sweet – 3 months should be enough to get a good grounding in commercial archaeology and to get people with some pre-exiting skills and experience to PCIfA level (Practitioner – the first level of competence defined by CIfA).

The training programme is aimed at people who have genuine interest and aptitude but no commercial experience, though we have found that applicants sometimes do have this, just not the amount most commercial jobs require, so they couldn’t get started on the job ladder. We wanted a way to get people on to that ladder and to keep them moving up through the company, gaining experience and moving to permanent roles over time.

Josh training the team in flint identification

The company ethos is very much that everyone should learn the basics of everything and that knowledge and skills are shared. We’re not heavily departmentalised so staff get to carry out GPS and TST survey, use GIS to produce illustrations for reports, assist with geophysical survey, take their own site photographs and so on – it is possible that this might go as we grow further, but we will try and hold on to this as much as is possible.

Trainees get a formal plan with tasks to sign off and each task has an appointed person to do the sign off. Over three months. The standard plan involves 20 days of fieldwork, 10 days in the finds and archives, eight days post-excavation work and five days survey training, plus time for an induction, basic introduction to standards, H&S and so on. The tasks are tied to National Occupational Standards.

It is not without its problems. The level of training dependant on and workload – one of our recent trainees didn’t dig on a ‘normal’ site for three months as we were working on the sampling of a the top of a paleosol for Mesolithic flints, and this meant that she hadn’t experienced stratigraphic recording. It’s vital to keep balance on site so there are enough experienced staff to support the trainees, and because we’re relatively small, the training experience is also dependent on the availability of particular staff. Good training also relies on good feedback from site supervisors – building on feedback from previous trainees, new posts will include a formal monthly meeting with an appointed mentor…but fieldwork programmes can make implementation of this tricky. Importantly all those involved need to understand the purpose of a training plan. It mustn’t become a race to complete sign off of tasks but be paced to enable time and a genuine understanding to develop.

Trainees work in the field for around 20 days in three months

Giving staff the chance to build on and share their experiences is vital (even if it is potentially a little scary for the management team) and our AAL Xmas lectures, where staff give presentations on aspects of their work throughout the year, are just one way in which we do this.

“You only need to look within the company to see that it’s working with a number of former trainees now in other roles.”

So is it working? Well, since January 2014 AAL have taken on 10 trainees (that isn’t including people like Feenagh who had started before this but were/are still progressing on training plans). Two of those trainees started with the company as short-term volunteers. Six were offered contracts as Project Archaeologist (PA) at the end of their training plans: two have now specialised in non-field areas within the company (archives and DBA), two are currently field PAs, and one left for a non-field promotion outside the company and one has taken a break from archaeology. One trainee could not be given a PA contract due to a downturn in work. Only one traineeship didn’t work out.

“There was a balanced mix of office-based and site-based work that allowed me to develop excavation skills on small-large scale excavations, whilst learning how to make the transition from site material to post-excavation reporting smoother for all involved. All in all, my experience was really quite rounded. I enjoyed it immensely and it gave me the skills to feel confident to work at any site, or in the office”

“I’m very grateful the trainee scheme exists as it allowed me to get into commercial archaeology when it might have otherwise been difficult”

“It gave me a proper view of what commercial archaeology really was and I didn’t feel like my lack of experience prevented me from going on any site or prevented any opportunities … The staff at Allen are all very friendly and helpful which made asking questions, help and generally becoming a part of the team so much easier.”

“I found my trainee programme very beneficial as I previously had no experience digging – either commercial or academic, so was a great opportunity to get into archaeology and be paid for it.”

The numbers we can take on are small – we’re not going to solve the skills shortage single handedly – and I’m not trying to claim we’re perfect, but with a little thought, it is possible for even small companies to create effective, useful and robust training programmes that benefit the trainee and the company in equal measure. The interest we have seen as a relatively new and less well-known company, with applications from across the UK and Europe, is pretty staggering and suggests that we need to find a much better way of serving the next generation.

We’re looking forward to welcoming our latest batch of trainees at the start of May and to building on and improving our training going forwards.