(Header image: Students at an archaeological dig in Huaca, Colorado, with Professor Ed Swenson. Photo by Prof. Swenson.)
Summer 2024 Evolutionary Anthropology Field School
- Research Excursion Program - Field school - Austria - Professor Bence Viola - More information can be found here
Summer 2024 Social Cultural Field School
- Summer Abroad Program:
ANT396Y – Italy – Italian Regional Foodways and Culture - For more details see the U of T Summer Abroad website
Summer 2024 Archaeology Field Schools
- ARH306Y1F Archaeological Field Methods
- Research Excursion Program - Field school - Peru - Professor Edward Swenson - More information can be found here
- Research Excursion Program - Field school - New Brunswick (Canada) and Maine (USA) - Professor Katherine Patton - More information can be found here
- Research Excursion Program - Field school - South Africa - Professor Michael Chazan - More information can be found here
ARH306Y1F Archaeological Field Methods
Application Process: Please fill in the following application form
ARH306Y1F Application Form - Summer 2024
Please submit the application form to Josie Alaimo at josie.alaimo@utoronto.ca
This course provides training in the methods used in archaeological survey, site mapping and laying out of excavations, use of total stations, theodolites, and GPS, excavation, stratigraphy, square mapping, and stratigraphic recording, along with a sampling of other skills and methods, such as digital field photography, conservation, augering, and remote sensing. The course is designed to be short and intensive, with approximately 15 full days devoted mainly to fieldwork, and a short preparatory period in the first week. Before fieldwork begins, there will be an open-book online test to ensure that students have covered the basics that they will need to prepare themselves for the remainder of the course. The course will include some online lectures to go over information students will need to know to do the fieldwork and to cover topics not emphasized in the text or to add Canadian content. The bulk of the course, however, will be devoted to a variety of field exercises. It is anticipated that this will include survey, topographic mapping, augering, test-pitting, and excavation, screening, drawing, field conservation, field sampling, and photography. The goal is to teach fieldwork skills and knowledge that would be useful on prehistoric and historic sites, and in both academic fieldwork and the heritage industry, and not primarily to recover “real” archaeological data about these sites.
Preliminary Schedule Summer 2024
May 6-17 – Asynchronous reading assignment, prep for fieldwork at home
May 21 – Lecture 1 – Introduction, class mechanics, health and safety.
May 22 – Mapping instruction on use of levels and stadia for mapping (garden west of Anthropology building); begin mapping @ LRM (campus).
May 23, 24 – Mapping @ LRM.
May 27 – Lecture 2 – Laying in the grid, excavation and record keeping.
May 29 – Test-pit excavation of the survey zone. Maps Due.
May 30, 31 – Complete the survey, establish the grid, and prepare for excavation
June 3-7 – Excavation
June 10 – Lecture 3 – Stratigraphic profile and Harris Matrix
June 11 – Excavation, complete units
June 12 – Scan of Field Notebooks Due, begin profiles of units
June 13 – Complete profile, Backfill units
June 14 – Backfill, Harris Matrix and Profile Due. End of in-person course requirement.
