Independent Learning Archaeology Field School (ILAFS)

Independent Learning Archaeology Field School (ILAFS)
Access Cambridge Archaeology (ACA) Independent Learning Archaeology Field School (ILAFS) Welcome to the University of Cambridge. You’re currently sitting in a lecture theatre used by students in the Department of Plant Sciences. Students at the university attend lectures as well as supervisions (discussions with 1-3 students and a teacher), practicals, lab work, seminars (c.20 people), field trips and plenty of independent learning which this lecture is going to introduce you to.

Timetable for the day 10:45 am Arrival and registration 11:00
Lecture and discussion: ILAFS research aims and report writing skills. 12:00 Toilet break 12:10 Writing your report 12:35 Lunch and College tour 2:00 Tour of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology 3:00 3:10 University talk from a Schools Liaison Officer 3:50 Feedback forms 4:00 Departure 6th formers, you will have a talk/workshop instead while the other pupils are at the museum

What will you gain from this lecture?
Access Cambridge Archaeology (ACA) The concept of independent research How to think critically on a topic How to engage with multiple types of evidence How to write your report For the next 1.5 hours we’re going to run though these different ideas. You may be sitting there terrified at the idea of writing a report, but don’t worry, by the end of this lecture you should have a good idea of how to start. You have a booklet with some of this info in, and space for notes in the margin/ lined paper.

Access Cambridge Archaeology (ACA) Access Cambridge Archaeology (ACA)
Between 2005 and 2016 ACA have supervised the excavation of 2,243 archaeological test pits. The Bigger Picture From the test pit excavations we can start to answer the following questions: Over the last 2 days you have excavated, and probably learnt a lot about one particular back garden. While that’s probably interesting to the homeowner, those bits of pot you found are not the most important archaeological discovery of the century because unless you hid it very well, none of you found Stonehenge or similar did you? We’re interested in investigating the wider patterns of settlement- where people lived. So what’s really important is how your excavation fits into the bigger picture. While one test pit could tell us a little, 2,243 can tell us a whole lot more. With this level of data we can start asking and answering some bigger questions about how settlements began, changed and developed. As we Cat/Alison talked about on Day one, these are the questions on settlement that archaeologists investigate and which you were asked to start thinking about during your excavations. Your test pit results feeds into research of these questions and its now that we can start to identify the similarities and differences between all your results and compare those to other villages we’ve excavated in the county and even East Anglia as a whole. Get the participants inspired and excited to be part of this. What are the requirements for a settlement? What did settlements look like in the past? How are settlements influenced by the landscape around them? Did settlements change in different parts of the country? What can excavating in these settlements tell us about major historical events (for example: The Black Death)

The first study of rural settlements:
Only in the 1950’s did people start to get interested in ‘ordinary’ settlements. People got interested in deserted villages first because they are obviously old and have a sense of mystery about them Deserted village sites quickly became known by the acronym DMV (Deserted Medieval Village) Desertion is rarely a sudden event and there are usually many different causes. In many cases medieval villages are not deserted in the medieval period, but later. Nucleated villages are more likely to become permanently deserted than dispersed settlement Settlements which were smaller, poorer, later and remote are more likely to be deserted. ‘Good’ sites hardly ever become permanently deserted. Archaeologists have been looking into the development and patterns of settlements for many years. Initial work looked at deserted villages. These striking examples of abandoned villages caught the imagination and could be clearly identified in the landscape. Wharram Percy (NE of York) is one of the largest and best preserved of Britain's 3,000 or so known deserted medieval villages (picture bottom right). You can see the original roads through the settlement and the building plots on the raised platforms. Examining DMVS, archaeologists tried to understand why these villages had become deserted; why had one village been deserted, where as another continued?

We need to study sites that are NOT deserted…but how?
It is now agreed that people should not just study deserted settlements in isolation, but also looking at Currently Occupied Rural Settlements (CORS) Because : CORS are likely to be more representative of the experience of more people in the past. CORS and DMVs together represent the whole of the medieval settlement pattern, not just one little bit of it. Fascinating though DMVs are, they only tell us one side of the story. Why had one village been deserted, where as another continued? What factors allowed it to survive? Did it see a drop in population too, but managed to continue? Historical documents can only take us so far, which is where archaeology and yourselves have stepped in. Now as these villages are still standing, we can’t just open up large areas to carry out excavations as we can do in DMVS. By digging small archaeological test pits that can fit into smaller spaces such as gardens, yards and parks. We have to look at the results from both CORS and DMV’s when looking at say medieval settlement patterns across East Anglia – and this is an important point you’ll want to make in your write up.

The solution…. You! It’s the 1m square test pits that enables archaeologists to look at areas that would normally be completely inaccessible and already been built over. YOU help us solve this issue and are contributing to this original and ongoing research at the University of Cambridge so you should all feel proud of being part of that!

N 0 miles 50 Old Clee Healing Wiveton Binham Hillington Hindringham
Terrington St Clement East Rudham Paston Gaywood Peakirk Acle Ufford Wisbech St Mary Brundall Castor Carleton Rode Thorney Sawtry Garboldisham Great Gidding Ramsey North Warnborough Isleham Rickinghall & Botesdale Blythburgh Houghton Blo’ Norton Willingham Southwold Rampton Chediston Cottenham Hessett Walberswick Girton Sharnbrook Riseley Histon & Impington Coddenham Great Shelford Clare Potton Long Melford Bramford This is the wider research that you and ACA have been doing: these are all the villages we have excavated in through East Anglia and beyond since 2005 with students such as yourselves. We make this research public to local historic record offices and the communities we excavate in. We can already begin to build up a pattern of the settlement in different parts of the region, which we’ll go through briefly over the next few slides. Foxearth Ashwell Wendens Ambo Pirton Clavering Thorrington Manuden West Mersea Little Hallingbury Mill Green Great Amwell Writtle Southminster Daws Heath Hadleigh

Riseley As a bit of background for the next few slides, here is the geology of this region is. Lets see how it influences the patterns of settlement in this area.

(late 1st – late 4th century)
Wiveton Roman (late 1st – late 4th century) Binham Terrington St Clement Hindringham Paston Gaywood Peakirk Acle Wisbech St Mary Ufford Carleton Rode Castor Thorney Ramsey Isleham Garboldisham Chediston Houghton Willingham Cottenham Hessett Walberswick Girton Swaffham Bulbeck Sharnbrook Coddenham Gt Shelford Potton Toft Long Melford Stapleford Bramford The results of your test pit gives us an idea of when settlements developed, and through the amount and distribution of those deposits, how large the settlement was. Beginning at the Roman periods, we see a concentration of Roman activity through north Hertfordshire, south Cambridgeshire and east into Suffolk. Also sites at around the east coast and on the edges of the fens. Shillington West Wickham Clare 1-9% 10-19% 20-29% 30-39% 40-49% 50-60% 61%+ Meldreth Ashwell Clavering Nayland Pirton Manuden Thorrington Little Hallingbury West Mersea Amwell Writtle Daws Heath

(late 4th – late 7th century)
Wiveton Early Anglo-Saxon (late 4th – late 7th century) Binham Terrington St Clement Hindringham Paston Gaywood Peakirk Acle Wisbech St Mary Ufford Carleton Rode Castor Thorney Ramsey Isleham Garboldisham Chediston Houghton Willingham Cottenham Hessett Walberswick Girton Swaffham Bulbeck Sharnbrook Coddenham Gt Shelford Potton Toft Long Melford Stapleford Bramford West Wickham Moving into the early Anglo-Saxon period we see the decline of urbanism after the Romans. This is the period you might know as the ‘Dark Ages’. When the Roman ‘left’ Britain, we are not talking about a huge number of people leaving, just that the co-ordinating force of the Roman Empire is no longer in place. Settlements appear to become more dispersed, rural ones, rather than large ‘urban’ areas. Thee evidence in the south and west of the region appears to be mainly on the chalk bedrock, the soils of which are freer draining and easier to cultivate than the clays to the south. Shillington Clare 1-9% 10-19% 20-29% 30-39% 40-49% 50-60% 61%+ Meldreth Ashwell Clavering Nayland Pirton Manuden Thorrington Little Hallingbury West Mersea Amwell Writtle Daws Heath

(late 9th–late 11th century)
Wiveton Late Anglo-Saxon (late 9th–late 11th century) Binham Terrington St Clement Hindringham Paston Gaywood Peakirk Acle Wisbech St Mary Ufford Carleton Rode Castor Thorney Ramsey Isleham Garboldisham Chediston Houghton Willingham Cottenham Hessett Walberswick Girton Swaffham Bulbeck Sharnbrook Coddenham Gt Shelford Potton Toft Long Melford Stapleford Bramford West Wickham In the late Anglo Saxon period we see the development of urban areas again - particularly through north Hertfordshire and south Cambridgeshire with also a cluster beginning to develop around the fen edge, the Norfolk coast and inland through both Norfolk and Suffolk. The majority of south Essex appears to have very little in the way of habitation during the Late Anglo Saxon period, as the clays are still not being favoured. Shillington Clare 1-9% 10-19% 20-29% 30-39% 40-49% 50-60% 61%+ Meldreth Ashwell Clavering Nayland Pirton Manuden Thorrington Little Hallingbury West Mersea Amwell Writtle Daws Heath

Early 12th–mid 14th century)
Wiveton High medieval Early 12th–mid 14th century) Binham Terrington St Clement Hindringham Paston Gaywood Peakirk Acle Wisbech St Mary Ufford Carleton Rode Castor Thorney Ramsey Isleham Garboldisham Chediston Houghton Willingham Cottenham Hessett Walberswick Girton Swaffham Bulbeck Sharnbrook Coddenham Gt Shelford Potton Toft Long Melford Stapleford Bramford West Wickham It is only with the development of improved ploughs and other farming techniques that the heavier clay soils are cultivated. We also see further development of urbanism during the medieval period. Populations were highest in the east of England at the time of the Domesday survey, indeed the Little Domesday Book was created for just the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex! The fertile soils of the east with the good trade links to the continent made this part of the country a desirable place to live, both inland and along the coast. The fens yielded valuable natural resources and their isolation was also favoured by many monastic establishments also. Shillington Clare 1-9% 10-19% 20-29% 30-39% 40-49% 50-60% 61%+ Meldreth Ashwell Clavering Nayland Pirton Manuden Thorrington Little Hallingbury West Mersea Amwell Writtle Daws Heath

(late 14th – mid 16th century)
Wiveton Late medieval (late 14th – mid 16th century) Binham Terrington St Clement Hindringham Paston Gaywood Peakirk Acle Wisbech St Mary Ufford Carleton Rode Castor Thorney Ramsey Isleham Garboldisham Chediston Houghton Willingham Cottenham Hessett Walberswick Girton Swaffham Bulbeck Sharnbrook Coddenham Gt Shelford Potton Toft Long Melford Stapleford Bramford West Wickham Here we can see a sharp difference between the high and later medieval periods; a sharp decrease in population. These are separated by an event which greatly affected the population of East Anglia and the nation as a whole – The Black Death. However some settlements are continuing to thrive, such as Walberswick on the Suffolk coast and Thorney in the middle of the fens (likely because of the monastery). We assume that there was a population decline in every settlement during the 14th century, but this project has proven that this is not always the case. Shillington Clare 1-9% 10-19% 20-29% 30-39% 40-49% 50-60% 61%+ Meldreth Ashwell Clavering Nayland Pirton Manuden Thorrington Little Hallingbury West Mersea Amwell Writtle Daws Heath

(late 16th–late 18th century)
Post-medieval (late 16th–late 18th century) Wiveton Binham Terrington St Clement Hindringham Paston Gaywood Peakirk Acle Wisbech St Mary Ufford Carleton Rode Castor Thorney Ramsey Isleham Garboldisham Chediston Houghton Willingham Cottenham Hessett Walberswick Girton Swaffham Bulbeck Sharnbrook Coddenham Gt Shelford Potton Toft Long Melford Stapleford Bramford West Wickham The east recovered well, and not many DMV’s have been recorded in this region…new people came into work the land and the vast majority of the settlements began to thrive again and develop into the settlements we see today. These slides show how valuable your work is, and how your test pit adds to the archaeological record. We wouldn’t be able to see this pattern without it. One important point I would like to make is that there are some blank area, not because we haven’t found anything but because we haven’t dug there. There are still lots of areas we don’t know about. Will just have to encourage more schools to get digging in north Norfolk. Shillington Clare 1-9% 10-19% 20-29% 30-39% 40-49% 50-60% 61%+ Meldreth Ashwell Clavering Nayland Pirton Manuden Thorrington Little Hallingbury West Mersea Amwell Writtle Daws Heath

Being part of the research: Completing your ILAFS written assignment
AIM: To give you a chance to develop skills and gain analytical writing experience which will help you working for your GCSEs and when you begin A Levels Your task now is to write up how the excavations you have done fit into this research, and add further to this body of knowledge. Your report should focus on your test pit, and others in the village but also look at these wider factors and questions. You will need to include background research, the results of your excavations, details from other test pits, and present conclusions about your research aims. It will become part of our permanent research record, be a souvenir of the two days you spent digging, and help you develop vital skills of indepent writing which will be of use when you start A levels and later at university. We are going to go over how to achieve over the course of the morning.

How to structure your report
Introduction and background Previous research Aims and methods What are we trying to find out? General information (i.e. not specific to your test pit) Data What did we find? Discussion and conclusions about your test pit. What might this mean? Information and ideas specific to your test pit This is the typically how you should structure your report. The introduction and aims can be more general but the results and discussions sections MUST be specific to your test pit data.

Section 1: Introduction and Background Present the current knowledge
For example, some of the things we mentioned at the start of Day 1: What are the requirements for a settlement? How were settlements influenced by the landscape around them? What did settlements look like in the past? Did settlements change in different parts of the country? What can excavating in these settlements tell us about major historical events (for example: The Black Death, agricultural revolution, civil war, changes in transport) What are the requirements for a settlement? - What are the factors that meant people lived here in the first place? How were settlements influenced by the landscape around them? How did the landscape shape the village? What did settlements look like in the past? - How can we describe how the villages has changed. Did settlements change in different parts of the country? - Is the change in this village typical? Was it part of a wider trend? What can excavating in these settlements tell us about major historical events (for example: The Black Death, agricultural revolution, civil war, changes in transport) - Can we correlate the data with other types of knowledge? With all reports you are writing this for someone who has knows nothing about settlement development or this wider project. So the first thing to do in your introduction is to present what we already know about the village. Set the scene before going on to how your investigations develop this knowledge. But what kind of information do we need to include? What background knowledge would be helpful? well, to work that out, we need to think about the aims of our research: these are some of the questions we presented to you on Day 1 in the hope that you kept some of them in mind when you’ve been working! Factors influencing settlement Shape of the landscape Previous research into changes in the village. Was this part of wider changes. What else was happening at the time?

Riseley We can see here a slightly more detailed a wider picture of the south and east of England (particularly for those site in Hampshire and Lincolnshire). We can see the white area of the fens again around the Wash and extending north into Lincolnshire with the band of chalk in light green extending south and west and then continuing east again along the south downs. The orange is the clay leading to the east coast with the crag sands and gravels.

What are the main requirements in choosing a site for a settlement?
Access to a water supply Away from flood risk areas Defensive Need for building materials (stone or wood) Fertile land (the more crops you can grow the bigger settlement you can support) Flat land (so easy to build on) Fuel supply (wood) Communication routeway (access and trade) So with this village I’m about to build, I have found a suitable area, where in the landscape are we going to settle? What factors will influence our decision? DISCUSSION QUESTION: What would YOU want access to if you are starting a new settlement? Main two are south facing slope and by a river crossing. (Before having the answers up get the students to make suggestions) Include some of these ideas in your report: where is the village in the landscape and why is the village sited there? What is the geography of your village? What factors would have made that a good place to live? You can find this out from the things you noticed when you were there, use an OS map and look at the contours, water sources, old maps, other research etc.

Types of settlement pattern
So we have some ideas about why our settlement was established, it is also a good skill to be able to describe the type of settlement in your report. Think about the village you were just digging in, you have modern and historic maps in your day 3 booklets so look at these now…how would you describe it? Was there just one main road through the village and the houses were built off that? (linear). It is quite spread out in the landscape, not necessarily close to roads? (dispersed). Was the settlement quite densely occupied around a central point or crossroads? (nucleated) or perhaps where you were was in a new grid, very square formation (planned). We’ll have a look at the maps together and see how the settlements developed

Historic map of settlement
This is the later 19th century map of the village… Include any history about the village that you can- what do we already know? We’ll go through some sources/ places to research later on.

Modern map of settlement
A modern map of the village

Compare the historic and modern map of settlement
Here we can compare the two settlements over 100 years apart? What is the same and what do you think has changed?

Why do you think the needs of the settlement changed after 1800?
What happened in the UK during the 19th century? Settlements forming Pre-1800 Settlements forming Post-1800 Key points: Good defence Close to water Close to woodland On useful farmland Flat land Good communications Key points: Close to resources (for industry) Close to port (trade) Faster communication The points on the left are what we have already talked about….why a settlement is where it is in the landscape. But how would these needs be different for settlements forming more recently? Why would human needs change over time? Could the needs of the settlement now be different to those in the past, and how do these work together? QUESTION: What happened in 1800s that changed settlement needs? Ans: Industrial revolution Wider roads, trade networks, trains, wider food networks and global markets. How do you think that may have affected the settlement you dug in? or not? We see a great migration of population from the country to the towns and cities to work in the new factories and industries that are booming at this time. Why do you think the needs of the settlement changed after 1800?

Where to find this information
Achieving our research aims – How do we investigate the past? Where to find this information Details of these sources are also included in your workbooks. Records of archaeological sites and finds are available online at Historical evidence may be found online at Domesday Book data can be searched online at Portable Antiquities Scheme National Archives online: Google books and google scholar Local libraries and museums often have short books about the history of a village. Your school library for books on British history. People- we will swap information later on. Try to use a mix of both internet and published sources (books). All sources must be referenced correctly (I will demonstrate this later). Include 1-2 pages of information if possible, try to have an overview. So we’ve covered a lot of the background you’ll need for the report but for detailed information about your village, try some of these websites and books. These are all listed in your booklet but I’ll go through a couple of these now.

When googling, include only the keywords, no words like ‘and’ it’ ‘the’. This cuts out the ‘noise’ from pages and means google will find you the things you actually want. Use specialist words like CORS or DMVs in your search; you will get more specialist articles and sites rather than generalist ones. Go to books.google.co.uk, or just add the phrase ‘google books’ at the end of your search.

Your aim is an archaeological question
Section 2: Aims Your excavation will tell us: Past activity in your location. Comparing your excavations will tell us: How the whole settlement changed over time. Comparing this to other evidence will tell us: How settlements across the region developed and what impact historic events/ other factors may have had on this. Your aim is an archaeological question Aims: what questions are we trying to answer? Having found out about the history of the village, we now need to use this information to write about the aims (questions) of the research we have carried out (excavation). What questions are we trying to answer? Based on what you have already learnt about the village is there a particular question you could examine more closely?

Achieving our research aims – How do we investigate the past?
We have stated our aims, now how are we going to get the data to prove it? DISCUSSION QUESTION: What data do archaeologists use to find out about the past? Excavation (test pits), Excavation (large sites), aerial photography (can you see the ancient river and field system here), Old maps (the map here is the Downing site- where you are sitting- in 1880, it used to be part of Downing College’s gardens), Documents, Scientific analysis, Experimental archaeology. ANYTHING ELSE??

Methods- how do you propose to achieve those aims?
You will need to include a methodology section in your report. Outline the steps you took (look at the back of your record booklet if you forget) and details of how you excavated. For this project we are finding out about the past through excavating 1m square test pits. It is important to include how we went about this so other people can evaluate whether they think our data will be reliable. (Click to reveal mark scheme and final) You will need to include the method of investigating in their report, this is basically how you excavated your tp but this shouldn’t be overlong NOT A DIARY.

Locating our work The reader also needs to know where we are digging; we aren’t just digging up holes randomly! Why is the test pit where it is? Here is an example of how to ‘read’ the mark scheme. Ask students to read through and see which of these they think it matches up with. Very easy to pick marks up on, but need to include maps at 3 scales to get the marks. Some village OS maps are later so I let in go that they weren’t here. 3 rubbish maps at the three different scales will get you the marks but 1 beautiful map won’t.

Data and results. Lots of different ways to do this
Data and results. Lots of different ways to do this. Key points; all in order, presented context-by-context, list of finds, details of the physical description of the level. Lots of marks lost here by not including the illustrations. ALL of the section drawings are required, even if they all look the same. Don’t need to be particularly fancy, they just need to be present. You need to record the results of finds/data from your individual TP as well as the pottery from ALL TPs in village that year (if we have excavated there in previous years you can also – pot maps on ACA website) Section drawings

Present your Data! What are you adding to the archaeological record?
Include: Pottery (and dates) All other finds Photos Context drawings Section drawings (at end) Soil type Other observations e.g. Was the context disturbed? How does this affect findings? Look online for other reports. What things are important to present? What are you adding to the archaeological record?

VITAL: Pottery report www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk
We have sent your pottery to an expert to be expertly identified! This information will be available shortly- hopefully early next week. You can access this, and the photos we took, online. From our home page look at the drop down list at the top for project reports, then click on the county you were in. This will present a list of all the villages we have excavated in for you to find where you were digging. If there was previous excavations in that settlement they will also be available for you online by year. Also link / documents from local history co-ordinator to BSC.

Photos www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/photos/******/ e.g.
We have sent your pottery to an expert to be expertly identified! This information will be available shortly- hopefully early next week. You can access this, and the photos we took, online. From our home page look at the drop down list at the top for project reports, then click on the county you were in. This will present a list of all the villages we have excavated in for you to find where you were digging. If there was previous excavations in that settlement they will also be available for you online by year. Also link / documents from local history co-ordinator to BSC.

Discussion and Conclusions
Bring ALL the results together and interpret them Answer your aims Past activity in your location. How the whole settlement changed over time. How settlements across the region developed and what impact historic events/ other factors may have had on this. The discussion and conclusion is to me the most important: ok you found all of this stuff, so what does it tell us. What was the point of all that work, what have we found out? You want to relate your data back to the main aims, did we manage to find everything out? What questions go un-answered, what work would be needed to fulfil your aims? Look at your own test pit data, but at the results of the other test pits. You need the pottery report to do this. Remember, we can find a little bit from one test pit, but a whole lot more from many, so use all the data that is available.

1) Past activity in your location.
Base your conclusion on evidence e.g. Metal slag = metal production, Tumbled and small pottery = manuring Victorian pottery= Victorians What could absence of material teach us? Nothing?

How the whole settlement changed over time.
We have shown you how settlements across the region have changed, how about in your village? Anglo-Saxon (purple) Early Medieval (blue) Late Medieval (Light blue) Post-Medieval/ Early modern (green) Modern- all currently visible houses.

How settlements across the region developed and what impact historic events/ other factors may have had on this. Physical environment: Factors might include, changing river/ coastlines, geology, topology. Human changes to the physical environment: Deforestation, land reclamation, channelization of rivers, drainage, use of natural resources including agriculture. Access, Trade and Centres of influence: Rivers, roads, rail. Markets, and other trade centres. Indicators of wealth. Religious centres of pilgrimage, power or control. Events: Impact of events at the local (coming of the railway), national (industrialisation) and international (wider trade networks) levels. Other events may be the black death, civil war, reformation, enclosures, or any other. Bringing together background research and your data, can you see the impact of any wider factors ? 1. You could focus on how humans have settled in and used the natural landscape. We don’t have mountains this far south, but there may be other natural features that could have dictated the layout and position of the settlement. 2. How have people influenced that settlement? Has the landscape been managed or changed by people? 3. Railways, Markets, Turpike roads, Churches as places that control , protect or prosper. Physical things that all could have greatly influenced the development of a settlement. 4. Can we link the evidence to wider national events happening at the time which you’ve probably all learnt about at school. How about the Roman invasion of Britain- we saw the change in urbanism in the mapped results we looked at earlier? Viking raids, The Normal Conquest and the rise of fortified settlements, The Black Death during the 14th century that killed over a quarter on the entire population of England. All these would have greatly affected how people lived. Additional more recent events may include the English Civil war during the 17th century (homes re-fortified then the majority were destroyed at the end of the war, Another example would be the enclosures and the rise of ‘wool towns’, towns who owed their wealth to the success of English wool. There are many well preserved examples of these in Suffolk in particular. When the wool trade collapsed, the town stopped growing. The Agricultural Revolution (18th/19th century increase in productivity due to improved technology and as already talked about the Industrial Revolution (the move from countryside to towns for work, increased trade with the rest of the world)

Conclusion/ Evaluation
Does your research support or disprove your background research of the village? Did you achieve your research aims? - What question have we been able to answer. - What do we still not know? Make suggestions for future work which would help us understand the history of your village further. The discussion and conclusion is to me the most important: ok you found all of this stuff, so what does it tell us. What was the point of all that work, what have we found out? You want to relate your data back to the main aims, did we manage to find everything out? What questions go un-answered, what work would be needed to fulfil your aims? Look at your own test pit data, but at the results of the other test pits. You need the pottery report to do this. Remember, we can find a little bit from one test pit, but a whole lot more from many, so use all the data that is available.

What do you think is important in Riseley?
Discussion: What do you think is important in Riseley? We are going to share what each test pit found. You need to write down what everyone says in your test pit.

Test Pit Locations

Share your knowledge! Share the following with the group:
A short summary of your test pit. Any useful information from homeowners (e.g. was there something on your site before such as a pub, was the land previously built on, how old was the house?) Any knowledge about the village Everyone make a note of what is said in your workbooks- it will be useful for your report. You have 2 minutes to discuss what you found and then tell everyone else. Did you find out any interesting facts about [SITE] from the home owners that would be useful for others to know. Each test pit briefly sums up what they found. Each pupil needs to write down what is being said. I will also link / documents from local history co-ordinator to BSC.

Report structure Introduction and background (J1). What was already known about the history of the village before you excavated? Why do we want to learn about rural medieval settlements? Aims and methods (J2 and J3). The reasons why the excavation was carried out? Exactly how you did the excavation? General information (i.e. not specific to your test pit) Information and ideas specific to your test pit Data. Where was your test pit? What did you discover? Focus on facts of what you saw and recorded, presented in order, context by context. Present changes and finds in your test pit as well as data from other test pits, how did your compare? Discussion and conclusions about your test pit (J6). Your ideas about what you found and what it might mean. What do the test-pits tell us about the village? How does your data link in with the background information given at the beginning? Your evaluation of how well you think your excavation fulfilled its aims. So this slide sums up everything we’ve just talked about regarding the structure of your report As mentioned in the beginning, it should be about the specific test-pit excavation that you individually participated in, and the majority of the report should be concerned with presenting these data. However, these need to be contextualised within the wider project.

Your are here TOILET BREAK Toilet The door juts out of the wall and has columns either side. Go through the studded wooden doors, through the next set of doors to the right, and down the stairs.

Completing your ILAFS written assignment: getting the best from your work
Having just gone through all the content of the report we are now going to look at the technical details you need to know on how to produce a well written report at will get you a high grade.

What you are being asked for:
‘A technical report on a practical project involving data-gathering and analysis…which is structured correctly and which contains no plagiarised material’ Report must be specific to your test-pit Must include both written descriptions and images What the report is not: An essay on the history of the village A diary account of the 3 days spent on the ILAFS project A ‘group’ project - each report must be unique Brief overview on what the report is, what this means in terms of the specifics and what it is not. The report should be like a cross between a science report: the results of your experience (excavation) and a history essay (discussion of previous research and your own conclusions).

Resources Your excavation record booklet pit, with context drawings, finds information, context descriptions, section drawings and notes Any other information you can find in your library or the internet – the Day 3 booklet contains a list of places to start. Your photos, memories, ideas and inferences A report with details of the pottery from your ILAFS (and other sites) This will be vital to allow you to know about the other test pits. Advice and information on Pottery report will be available soon on our website and will be ed to your school as well.

General requirements You must each complete your own, unique written assignment, although you can work with others who attended the ILAFS in discussing your ideas and planning your report. The minimum amount of time you should spend on this assignment is about 3 hours. There’s no maximum amount of time we recommend (do as much as you want, within reason!). Minimum recommended word limit is 1,000 words, maximum is 3,000. Assignments must be handed in or ed to the teacher who accompanied you on the Field School. They can then be ed to ACA at Deadline – 4 weeks after end of ILAFS (13th October) Your assignment will be assessed by the University of Cambridge and you will receive detailed feedback and a certificate to mark your successful completion of the Independent Learning Archaeology Field School. Deadline is flexible at the discretion of the school. Don’t copy each other

Marking 108 marks possible divided up as follows:
54 marks - Report structuring and data presentation 18 marks - Research skills 18 marks - Writing skills 18 marks - IT skills Your report will be assessed against specific criteria as described in the mark-scheme. If you follow all the requirements of the mark-scheme you will gain very high marks. If you leave things out, you will lose marks which may give you a low overall mark even if other parts of you report are very good. Summary of how many marks are allotted for each part of the report. Lots of overlap between these section both intuitively and in the markscheme (as you will see later) For example, IT skills- likely to pick up more marks if you’ve included all your illustrations as it just gives you more opportunity to show how good you are with a computer! Will go through each of these in turn, skipping research skills, and then returning to this at the end, as this tends to be the weakest component of most of the reports and is where a lot of pupils lose a lot of marks. Point out that we have just been through the Report structuring and data presentation sections, so we’re going on to the writing skills.

Clear mark scheme used which is on the ILAFS website and which they should follow as they are completing their reports. Emphasis low, middle and high indicators, and that marks can range within them. Make sure that they read these through, because if they think they have done everything on there, I probably will too and they’ll gain more marks. Sometimes if something is ‘missing’ they can’t move up to the next level.

Research skills Most people fail on this part! Make sure it’s not you getting a ‘U’ ! We have gone through sources of information: this is how to use them correctly in your work.

Consulting information sources: - Range of books and websites
More, and send link to BSCs Appropriate sources and where can they be found? Some information is included on the HEFA ACA project website. Key point to remember is both websites AND books. List of places to look in their booklets.

Analysing pre-existing information: What should be included?
Origins of village/name Understanding the natural landscape: Geology, old river courses or coastlines, trade routes. Historical sources/maps Previous archaeological research (Both ILAFS - if we’ve dug there before the data is on our website) and community excavations Present what we already know about the settlement. Present the ideas we went through earlier, backed up with evidence from several sources. What sort of ‘pre-existing information’ should be included and discussed?

“The sources have been referenced correctly”
Non-plagiarised (non-verbatim), put into OWN words (unless included as a quotation) Reference given after each piece of information included from an external source. -Either numbered -Reference given in brackets Full bibliography (list of references) given at the back of the report Correct referencing comes up in both sections, clarification of what we mean by this. We do prefer the references in brackets, but anything is fine as long as the information is there!

Examples of higher range descriptor work – clear in-text referencing, pulled information out rural settlements etc

Then moved on to specifics of the village

Pull up bibliography from the same report, see how they numbers given in the text all match up with a reference. Full references given here, names, dates, titles, dates of access, mixture of websites and books, including website eternal to the ILAFS project.

Writing skills Don’t need to say too much about this! Just write clearly and accurately, and read through your work before you hand it in. Pet peeves of mine- american spellings and the use of imperial measurements-don’t do it! Write formally and impersonally about the data, not how you felt when on the dig. Good things- use the words you learnt whilst on the HEFA dig.

Check for clarity: review your work!!!!
L1. Correctly structured report: The report is structured entirely according to the guidelines (background, aims, methods, location, data and conclusions), with no sections omitted or incomplete. Written language conveys a sense of purpose and direction, linking one section to another in an effective way which aids understanding. Firstly, make sure that the report is structured correctly. You can see for the contents page, and the report we’ve just worked through a good example of this. Also layout: have a simple, clear and readable report! Don’t spend ages adding word art or fancy colour schemes. They won’t get you extra marks and might even distract the marker and make them more likely to miss something or mark you down. Have someone (parent, friend who didn’t go on the dig, older sibling) read through your report- can they understand it? It needs to be understood by someone who wasn’t on the dig. This is a record, meant to last. - Reviewing is a key skill to learn for all your work: if there is no-one around Check for clarity: review your work!!!!

L2. Correct use of spelling, grammar and punctuation
Spelling, grammar and punctuation are almost always correct. Popping up another example here for the writing skills. Correct spelling, grammar and punctuation, and use of effective writing style. Obvious indicators include use of specialised terminology. Not necessarily the case that the longest reports gain more marks for writing, but longer introductions and conclusion tend to get more marks. Pupils give themselves more opportunities to demonstrate their writing skills, and show off their ability to write engagingly, and in different tones/styles. L3. Use of effective writing style Writing style is engaging while still be cogent and accurate in conveying and interpreting data. Writing form and style are adapted to suit different purposes (e.g. factual data presentation vs. more speculative analysis). A wide range of vocabulary (including specialised technical terms) has been used appropriately and to good effect.

IT Skills Should all be good at this, this is worth 18 marks so not insubstantial. Please remember to do your work on a computer! I’ve had to give zeros before as some reports have been handwritten.... Not too jazzy/ word art

M1.Tables, images, maps and plans have been generated and included digitally
Original tables, images, maps and plans have been created by the author making creative use of software features to convey information effectively and engagingly M2. Effective use of a word processing package to create a professional report The report digitally integrates information from many sources consistently well and uses layout devices such as justification, borders, titles, headings, text and graphics in a clear and consistent way to aid reader comprehension. Key is original tables, and a range of different types of images. Just to pick some examples here, digitally redrawn context plans, photographs, maps and tables, that go ‘above and beyond’ simply scanning illustrations from the test-pit excavation booklet in and/or copying and pasting maps from the internet or HEFA website. Second one here, mostly about looking nice- a lot of these look better in colour etc. Pupils who don’t had in a computer produced report receive zero. Ones which are just blocks of text don’t leave the lower mark bracket (1, 2 or 3 marks)

Example of a good report: This student got an A
Example of a good report: This student got an A*, and in fact exceeded our expectations. You don’t have to produce something this good but here it is as an example of what can be achieved. Has Title cover: note, I have removed her name and school Has name (was one of these 4), site, date. Nice and clear outline Good background and correctly referenced! Aims and objectives Objectives and clear, brief methods Location maps! Data: photos, section drawings Data: Finds, in handy format Section drawings, extra analysis Conclusions References at end

Put your NAME and SCHOOL on your report!!!
Remember! From 2016 the completion of a report has been compulsory The final mark you receive from ILAFS will take into account your grades from all three components of the ILAFS excavation (practical fieldwork, personal learning and thinking skills, and data analysis and report writing) e.g. A (practical fieldwork) B (learning and thinking skills) C (report writing)= overall GCSE grade B These three components are equally weighted If you do not complete a report, you will receive a ‘U’ grade for this element which will drag down your other marks We prefer if reports can be ed to us as a pdf. You may post them. Many schools work with google docs, while these works fine within school with sharing permissions all set up I couldn’t access some reports last year as my google account didn’t have permissions to view their work. If you find anywhere that says HEFA, that is just the old name for ILAFS. Formatting may get corrupted and loose all the effort you put into setting it out in a readable fashion: Save as a pdf instead! Put your NAME and SCHOOL on your report!!!

Resources and advice Any questions?
If you are stuck, I’m here to help. You can contact me. Introduction and background Aims and methods Test pit data Discussion and conclusions

After lunch, you will go to the Museum
After lunch, you will go to the Museum. At 3pm, return here (you can go to the toilet on the way). New entrance starred

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