Field Schools and Research Opportunities

(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

FileARH306Y1F Application Form - Summer 2024

Please submit the application form to Josie Alaimo at josie.alaimo@utoronto.ca

2011 field school on U of T campus
2011 Archaeological Field Methods (ARH 306Y) students got field work experience right here on the U of T Campus. Photo by Caz Zyvatkauskas

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.

**Please note that these are the dates from Summer 2023. We will post the dates for Summer 2024 as soon as they are available.

Preliminary Schedule Summer 2023

May 8Lecture 1 – Introduction, class mechanics, health and safety.

May 9 – Mapping instruction on use of levels and stadia for mapping (garden west of Anthropology building); begin mapping @ LRM (campus).

May 10, 11, 12  – Mapping @ LRM.

May 15 – No class (work on maps).

May 16Lecture 2 – Laying in the grid, excavation and record keeping.

May 17 – Test-pit excavation of the survey zone. Maps Due.

May 18  – Complete the survey, establish the grid, and prepare for excavation

May 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 – Excavation

May 29 – Lecture 3 – Stratigraphic profile and Harris Matrix

May 30 – Excavation, complete units

May 31 Scan of Field Notebooks Due, begin profiles of units

June 1 – Complete profile, Backfill units

June 2 – Backfill, Harris Matrix and Profile Due.

 

 

 

Prof. Ed Swenson and students in Peru
Prof. Ed Swenson and students who participated in his 2012 399 Field Course in Peru, at the temple of Huaca de la Luna, site of Moche in Northern Peru (near Trujillo)