What you learn on the fieldschool

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Download syllabus below

During the Astypalaia Bioarchaeology Field School we teach:

• Excavation and recording of children's burials, including mapping and photography

• Conservation procedures for bones and teeth, including methods for lifting them safely

• Cleaning, labelling and storage options for human remains

• Identification and siding of young children's skeletons and dentitions

• Procedures for sorting out commingled burials

• Measurement and study of childhood growth in the skeleton and dentition

• Morphological variation in young children's bones and teeth

• Recording results on a database

• Conservation issues for a human remains collection and preservation of project data

• Issues of interpretation with archaeological assemblages of children's remains

Our aim is for students to develop professional skills, experience and factual knowledge that they will find useful on other archaeological projects and for their own research.  They develop confidence and experience of teamwork that stand them in good stead for work in the field and laboratory.  Most of our students come from outside Greece and we introduce them to a language and culture which is very different to their own.  This is valuable experience if they are going to go on to further archaeological projects in countries away from home.

The syllabus can be downloaded below.  On the first day we introduce the staff, we divide students into their laboratory groups and we assign their supervisors.  We show them around the laboratory and its facilities.  Then we have lectures to introduce the island and its history.  After lunch we introduce the project in lectures and end the day with a visit to the island's small museum.  For the next four days there are more lectures about development of the skeleton and dentition in young children and we teach identification skills in practical classes.  In between these, students spend time in their laboratory groups, learning about the procedures, skills and organisation.  On the last day of the week they start work in small groups on burials which their supervisors have prepared for them.  Everyone gains experience of the different stages of the process.  This continues into the second week and at the same time, students are revising for their test, which takes place before the end of that week.  We find that our students rapidly become confident in identifying the tiny remains that we deal with.  During the third week, many students are well enough established to start working individually on a burial under their supervisor's care.  They complete all the stages of the work, showing a box of properly stored remains and completed record sheets to the director for final approval.  Our hope is that each student will work on 5 or more burials during their time with us, but speed varies, particularly in relation to the complexity of the burial.  Each student keeps track of their progress and learning through a notebook which is provided for them.  There is also a series of 3 seminars spread through the last 3 weeks of the school, based on journal papers which are provided so that each student can prepare a very short presentation.  We cover a range of topics related to study of children's remains in archaeology.

We take students with all levels of experience in human bones and teeth, so we start at the beginning in our classes and assume no prior knowledge.   We usually find that everyone benefits from this, even experienced students, because we require a very detailed knowledge of neonate skeletal and dental anatomy for our work and many of our procedures are unique to the project.  For that reason everyone goes through the same training and we check on their knowledge with a test before they work on the burials in earnest. 

We provide an assessment and certificate at the end of the field school, based on the test, notebook, seminar and laboratory work.  University College London does not formally examine its field schools, so we are unable to award credits for transfer.  We can often however, provide students' tutors with written evidence which may allow the grade to be used as part of the assessment for a course in their home university.

Download syllabus below