A five-day summer school involving practical archaeology
Tutors: Chris Kirby, Paul Thompson and Martin Grahn
Please note: registration for this is now closed
Dates: Monday 26 - Friday 30 July 2010
Venue: TBC
Fee: £450.00
Course Reference: 5216/SU10
Want to help to find a Roman Villa?
Come and spend a week with us trying to locate and uncover the remains of a Roman villa, thought to lie in fields close to the University of Warwick. Fieldwalking and limited excavation over the last 15 years has uncovered significant amounts of tesserae (mosaic pieces) in the area and more limited evidence of Roman pottery of 1st - 2nd Century AD. A large cropmark, photographed in 1965, and more recently the detection of an anomoly in a resistivity survey, suggest that there may be structures to be found. The discovery of a villa in this area would be a significant find, as evidence of Roman remains are generally rare in Coventry and Warwickshire. In a week hopefully full of surprises, you will gain experience in surveying, planning, digging, trowelling, photography and object identification.
Timetable
Monday, 26 July
09.30 - 10.00 Registration and coffee
10.00 Welcome and introduction
11.00 Students will split into groups to undertake different areas of work and be given equal opportunities to experience all areas of work
Health and safety considerations
Site orientation: context of site in greater historical environment
Opening and clearing of excavation trench for new excavation
Surveying of site and tie-in with OS maps
Procession of finds: bagging; recording; selective cleaning
11.00 - 11.30 Coffee break
11.30 - 12.30
12.30 - 13.45 Lunch
13.45 - 14.30
14.30 - 15.00 Coffee break
15.00 - 16.00
Tuesday - Thursday: 10.00 - 16.00
Excavation of trench: trowelling; cleaning back; photography; filling-in context sheets; bagging finds; taking soil samples
Surveying: setting up Electronic Distance Metering (EDM) theodolyte; setting out survey points; taking readings; processing data; creating different scale plans
Lifting, identifying and processing finds: tips about basic conservation needs of archaeological material; system of bagging and numbering finds; information for dating different types of material - coins, pottery, stonework, etc
Friday, 30 July: 10.00 - 16.00
Completion of trench work; final photographs, plans and section drawings; 'mothballing' of trench
Final survey work: linking to aerial photographs, OS maps
Summarising the significance of excavation features and material recovered
Refreshments
Refreshments and lunch will be provided every day.
Accommodation
All of our summer schools are non-residential, however if you require accommodation Warwick Conferences is offering discounted rates if you quote the summer school you are attending.
To book please contact: 024 7652 3222 conferences@warwick.ac.uk www.warwickconferences.com
Tutor Profile
Chris Kirby
Qualifications: BA Ancient & Archaeology; MA Museum Studies
Teaching experience: 20 years in continuing education and summer schools
Work experience: 25 years field archaeology experience, 15 years museum experience, 12 publications
