ARCL3057 Handbook 2014
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Institute of Archaeology
University College London
BA Classical Archaeology and Classical
Civilization, Third Year Core Course
Course ARCL3057 FIELD STUDY TOUR
(AND FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY)
0.5cu
Course Coordinator: Corinna Riva
j.tanner@ucl.ac.uk@ucl.ac.uk
Room 105
0207 679 1525
This course is based on field-study normally undertaken during the
summer between the second and third years of the degree for
students on the Classical Archaeology and Classical Civilization
degree. All fieldwork must be completed by the start of your final
academic year.
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Aims
This course aims to develop students’ field study skills, primarily in the context of individually
designed programme of site and museum studies in the ancient Mediterranean. The study tour will
allow students to pursue more deeply aspects of their coursework in their first two years, and prepare
for their final year dissertation, through extended critical first-hand examination of sites and artifacts in
the ancient Mediterranean.
Learning Outcomes
(a) Ability to gather and record museum and site-materials relevant to specific issues in classical
archaeology, involving basic skills of identification, recording and note-taking in museum and
site contexts.
(b) To be able to be precise, be cautious in the assessment of evidence, and to understand through
practice the limitations of inference from the surviving remains of archaeological sites..
(c) Ability critically to assess the significance of and evaluate different styles of presentation of
the past in archaeological sites and museums.
(d) To have achieved a level of competence in a range of transferable skills including to be able
to:
(1) plan and organize and successfully carry out an individually tailored programme of
self-guided study.
(2) identify problems and questions
(3) undertake the analysis of factual information
(4) recognize the weaknesses in the arguments of others
(5) with guidance, undertake tasks independently
(6) present knowledge in a way that is comprehensible to others
(7) demonstrate an ability to listen and comprehend when presented with new ideas or
information
(8) demonstrate visual skills in recognizing and describing site remains and artefacts
(9) apply an understanding of relevant archaeological concepts and methods in non
archaeological situations
Course Information
This handbook contains basic information about the content and administration of the course. If
students have queries about the objectives, structure, content, assessment or organization of the course,
they should consult the Course Coordinator.
Teaching Methods
There is no formally taught element to this course which is based on student-centered
learning. You are required to develop a plan for a 42 day study tour in conjunction with the course
tutor. The study-tour is normally carried out in the summer between the second and third years of the
degree.
Students may substitute up to three weeks of the study tour, with three weeks of conventional
archaeological field work, for which they should consult the handbook for ARCL3056 Fieldwork
Portfolio. Fieldwork is defined as archaeological work in the field (i.e. excavation or field survey) and
closely associated activities if part of a field project (e.g. finds processing, on site visitor interpretation
or finds illustration).
Workload
Forty-two (42) days fieldwork and forty (40) hours written and illustrative work.
Method of Assessment:
The submission of two pieces of work (as specified below) not exceeding a total of 5000 words. This
must be supported by a hardback field notebook prepared in the field, comprising a diary of the studytour and – where appropriate – a record of participation in archaeological fieldwork. Students doing
archaeological fieldwork as part of this course should also ensure that the relevant yellow fieldwork
report form(s) signed by the director or a member of staff of the fieldwork project(s) attended have
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been submitted to the Fieldwork Tutor (please check with Charlotte Frearson). The field notebook and
report forms are required but are not part of the marked assessment.
Criteria for Assessment
The criteria for assessment used in this course are given on the reverse of the appropriate coursework
coversheet (yellow).
The coursework is marked by two internal examiners, and can be re-assessed by the External
Examiner. Therefore, the mark given by the internal examiner (prior to return) is a provisional
assessment for guidance only, and may be modified after consultation with the second internal
examiner or by the External Examiner.
Submission of Portfolio
The submission deadline for the Portfolio is absolute. Late work submission will incur a penalty
unless an extension has been granted in advance. If students are ill or have serious personal or family
difficulties, they must complete an Extension Request Form (ERF) (copies available from room 411A)
and obtain the approval and signature of the Course Co-ordinator AND either their Personal Tutor or
the Year Tutor, ON OR BEFORE the submission date. ERFs should normally be accompanied by a
medical certificate or other documentation justifying the circumstances (e.g. a note from their Personal
Tutor). If students do not submit either the Portfolio or an ERF on or before the submission deadline,
the maximum mark that can be awarded is a minimum Honours pass (40%). If there is an unexpected
crisis on the submission day, students should telephone or (preferably) e-mail the Course Co-ordinator,
and follow this up with a completed ERF.
The Portfolio should be handed-in to the reception desk, for the Course Co-ordinator before 4pm on the
submission date specified. Allowing for vacations, every effort will be made to return assessed work
within four weeks of the submission date. Within a fortnight of its return to students, the assessed work
should be returned to the Course Co-ordinator, so that it can be second marked and is available to the
Board of Examiners. Because assessed work forms part of the student’s academic record, it needs to be
retained until well after the completion of the degree. If work is not returned to the Course Coordinator, the student will be deemed not to have completed the course. Students are strongly advised
always to keep a copy of all work, and to make a copy for retention of all work after it has been
assessed and commented upon by the first examiner, if they wish to make future reference to the
comments on the work.
Portfolio format and presentation
The Portfolio must be word-processed and should be printed on one side of paper, using 1.5 spacing
(unless the format of an element requires a different format). Adequate margins should be left for
written comments by the examiner. Students are encouraged to use photographs, diagrams and/or tables
as appropriate. These should be clearly referred to at the appropriate point in the text, and if derived
from another source, this must be clearly acknowledged. Students should adhere to the word limits (see
below) it are intended to help ensure equality of workloads between courses as well as to encourage the
useful transferable skills of clearly structured argumentation and succinct writing.
It is important that students reference their sources of information as accurately and as fully as
possible. If a student summarizes another person’s ideas or judgments, or reproduces their figures or
diagrams, a reference must be made in the text (using the Harvard convention) and all works referred to
must be documented in full in a bibliography. Referencing styles are outlined in the Undergraduate
Handbook. Not all elements of the portfolio will however require a bibliography.
Plagiarism
All work submitted as part of the requirements for any examination (which includes all assessed work)
of the University of London must be expressed in the student’s own words and incorporate their own
ideas and judgments. All students have received a copy of the College’s rules on plagiarism; the
Institute’s guidelines are included in the Undergraduate Handbook. Examiners for this course will
scrutinize all work for evidence of plagiarism or collusion between students. Plagiarism is defined as
the presentation of another person’s thoughts or words as though they are one’s own. Plagiarism
constitutes an examination offence under the University Regulations and students found to have
committed plagiarism may be excluded from all further examinations of the University and/or College.
ANY QUOTATION FROM THE PUBLISHED OR UNPUBLISHED WORKS OF OTHER
PERSONS MUST BE IDENTIFIED BY PLACING THE QUOTE IN QUOTATION MARKS, AND
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THE SOURCE OF THE QUOTATION MUST BE REFERENCED APPROPRIATELY. The concept
of plagiarism also includes self-plagiarism, which is the extensive use of the same sources and
materials in more than one piece of assessed coursework, submitted for the same or for another course
taken as part of the degree. To avoid charges of collusion, students should always ensure that their
work is their own, and not lend portfolio work or drafts to other students because they are likely to be
penalized if the second student copies the work and submits it as their own. If students are unclear
about the definition of plagiarism, they should review the notes on plagiarism and examples of good
and bad practice with respect to sources, included in the Undergraduate Handbook and consult their
Personal Tutor.
Communication
The primary channel for communication within the Institute of Archaeology is e-mail. If you wish to be
contacted on your personal or work e-mail, please arrange for email sent to your UCL address to be
forwarded to your other address. Students must consult their e-mail and student pigeon-holes in the
Basement Common Room regularly. Also please ensure that the Institute has your up-to-date telephone
number, and that this is correct in Portico.
Attendance
You are required to have attended a full forty-two (42) days field-study to complete this course. When
an excavation has one or two days off per week these may be included within your 42 days if an
archaeologically related activity (e.g. visit to local archaeological sites or museums) is properly
recorded within your field notebook.
Student feedback
In trying to make this course as effective as possible, we welcome feedback from students during the
course of the year. An anonymous course assessment questionnaire will be circulated. These
questionnaires are taken seriously and help the Course Coordinator to develop the course. The
summarized responses are considered by the Institute’s Staff-Student Consultative Committee,
Teaching Committee, and by the Faculty Teaching Committee.
If students are concerned about any aspect of this course we hope they feel able to talk to the Course
Coordinator, but if they feel this is not appropriate, they should consult their Personal Tutor, Year
Tutor, the Academic Administrator (Judy Medrington), or the Chair of Teaching Committee (Karen
Wright)
The fieldstudy
Approval of your study tour must be given by the course tutor prior to undertaking the study tour. If
you opt to do archaeological field-work to substitute for part of your study-tour, this should be
approved by the ARCL3057 course tutor and the Fieldwork Tutor prior to you undertaking any
fieldwork. The approval form is the same as the fieldwork grant application form and must be filled in
even if a grant is not being applied for.
(No fieldwork undertaken before you registered at UCL or undertaken as part of any other
course (e.g. Prim Tech or your first year field training course) can count as part of this course’s 42
days. Ideas for fieldwork can be found in the Institute’s Fieldwork Bulletin produced each January and
by following up web pages listed in the Bulletin.)
The Portfolio
This course is assessed by a Portfolio normally consisting of two elements, ring bound into an A4
folder, and not exceeding a total of 5000 words. Both elements should include a pictorial element
including photos, plans, finds and site drawings, as appropriate. Credit will be given for presentation as
well as content.
The Portfolio consists of two elements:
(1) A discussion of the implications of new materials you have encountered from at least two sites
or museums visited during your study tour for long standing debates in classical archaeology,
or major issues addressed in your courses. (2500 words)
(2) A critical evaluation of the presentation of material in two sites or museums you have visited
(2500 words)
Students electing to include an element of fieldwork may substitute one of these elements with the
project critique from ARCL3056:
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3) Project Critique: A critique of the aims and methods and its context within wider research
debates, of one field project attended as part of your fieldwork, and which has not been examined on
another course (2500 words)
NOTES ON THE PREPARATION OF PORTFOLIO ELEMENTS:
(1) A discussion of the implications of museum or site materials for long-standing debates.
Select a long standing debate you have read about or come across in one of the courses taken
in your first two/three years. These can be big debates like the origins of the polis or the
decline of Roman art, or small ones, like the iconography of askoi. Outline the debate and
then discuss the relevance of the materials you came across to the debate.
(2) A critical evaluation of the presentation of material in at least two sites or museums you
have visited. Both museums and archaeological sites vary greatly in the ways in which they
present their materials to the public. Describe the presentation of sites or museums paying
special attention to character of the information communicated to the public, and the way in
which the site or museum seeks to engage the public. What do they assume about their public?
Does the presentation of the material have a particular agenda?
(The field notebook. To be submitted with the portfolio, though not for assessment). Throughout
your fieldwork you will be completing a field notebook. You were given a green hardback
field notebook before you attended Prim Tech. In the back are notes on how to fill in this field
notebook. The notebook should also be used for writing a travel diary recording the sites and
museums you visit, and the observations you make there, during the course of the study tour. )
DEADLINE:
You are required to submit your Portfolio (together with supporting field notebook) by 4pm on Friday
in week 5 of the first (autumn) term of your final year. Remember: All elements within your portfolio
must be on A4 sheets only and properly attached. Any loose element or element larger than A4 (e.g. a
fold out) will not be marked.
Further guidance and reading-list :
Notes on site and in Museums
As a rule of thumb, nobody ever takes detailed enough notes, but all should attempt to do so. You may
know what has been fully recorded by others, but there may be unsuspected details that you could not
see in photographs of objects, or objects that catch your interest that you have not seen before. Notes
will serve to jog your memory so you can follow up on material when you return. Be sure to record the
museum number of objects you are interested in, in order to be able to follow up on them later.
You should also consider the set of questions which arise from the way the past is represented on sites
and museums: why, for example, the Roman period is emphasized on sites of the west coast of Turkey;
why are there apparently no post-antique remains on the Akropolis; what does the “National Museum”
in Athens tell us about modern Greek conceptions of national identity? What other kinds of people are
visiting these sites and why?
There is a substantial recent literature on these questions, of which the following are
particularly recommended to set you thinking before you travel:
Horne, D. 1984. The Great Museum: The Re-presentation of History
Lowenthal, D. 1985. The Past is a Foreign Country
McBryde, I. ed. 1984. Who Owns the Past. Esp. chapters 4-6
MacDonald, S. ed. 1996. Theorizing Museums. Esp. Pröster, Urry, Fyfe and Ross.
Pearce, S.M. 1992. Museums, Objects and Collections. A Cultural History.
Yalouri, E.2001. The Acropolis: Global Fame, Local Claim.
You may also wish to consult the reading list for ARCL2019 Public Archaeology, which has an
excellent collection of readings concerning aspects of heritage and museum and site presentation which
might be particularly helpful to read prior to your tour, and inform both your visits to sites and
especially the 2nd element of the portfolio.
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Planning your study tour
Students normally start planning their tour during the second half of the second term of the
second year. Planning involves identifying the sites and museums which you will be visiting, and
putting together a day-by-day itinerary of your activities for the 42 days. Bear in mind, that planning
well ahead should help you with budgeting, since it will make it much easier to get cheap flights, hostel
bookings etc.
Budgeting:
In formulating your itinerary, you should also be aware of the budget constraints within which
you should be operating, at least in terms of the maximum grant that you can receive from the Institute.
The limits for 2013-14 are set as follows:
Up to two flights within Europe, max £230 per flight: £460
Subsistence, £20 per diem (x 42): £840
Internal travel supplement: £3 per diem (x 42): £126
Total: £1426
Bear in mind:
a) If you are taking an international flight, the normal expectation is that you will be spending at
least 3 weeks in the country of destination. This means that normally study tour students chose
to visit just 2 countries, though you could visit more with clever use of ferries/coach travel etc.
b) We are happy to allow you to use anything you can ‘save’ by booking flights for less than
£230 to cross subsidize your internal travel and subsistence costs. So: if you are able to book
a return flight to Athens, for example, for £170, you would be able to use the £60 saved to
support your subsistence/internal travel costs whilst in Greece. This recognizes that your
internal travel and subsistence costs may be a little higher than students working on a standard
field project, as also the £3 per diem internal travel supplement.
Approval of itinerary and budget:
Your itinerary and budget needs to be agreed with Corinna Riva before you fill out the
Application for Approval of Fieldwork Grant form, attainable from the rack outside Judy Medrington’s
office (411A). This form then has to be signed by both Corinna Riva and Mark Roberts, the fieldwork
tutor, and you need to allow at least six weeks from the date of the submission of that form.
In addition to a detailed itinerary, I will expect to see a budget detailing your estimated flight
costs, accommodation/subsistence costs, and internal travel costs. Planning and budgeting is a useful
exercise for you, and in order to stick within the IoA limits (and avoid incurring unexpected personal
expenses) you will need to plan quite carefully: looking for cheap flights, identifying affordable
hostels, planning an itinerary which is realistic in terms of the amount of internal travel within a
specific country : it is probably not realistic, for example, to plan to spend time in Crete, Kos,
Samothrace, Dodona, Thessaloniki, Athens and Sparta in the context of a three week tour of Greece –
ferry and internal flight costs would be prohibitive – so think about which regions or areas to focus
your attention on, in relation to the interests you have developed over the last two years.