Experimental Archaeology

Out of the five weeks of the Gotland Archaeological Field School, only five days remain. It is strange and wonderful to think that I have been living and working here on this gorgeous island of Gotland for a nearly a month, but at the same time, I am glad it is winding down. I've been travelling in Europe for more than seven weeks, and was travelling in the States before that, too. I've had a very busy summer - I've learned a lot, had some great experiences, and it has all been worth it so far - but very busy. I'm ready to head home for a short break before diving to the last year of my undergraduate career and finish my two degrees.



A Viking bead made of amber, found in our dig last week!

In the mean time, one of my main goals in attending this field school was to determine whether archaeology is a discipline I wish to pursue for graduate studies and a following career, or to get an idea of what other options there are if archaeology's not for me. For the last year or so, I've been trying to decide whether to pursue graduate studies in Medieval Studies, Archaeology, or something even more specific, such as Anglo-Saxon and Viking Studies. But I didn't want to end up locked into a program only to realize that it isn't really what I want to spend the rest of my life doing. Thus, I decided to dive into this field school.

After the first few weeks, I quickly realized that although I enjoy the field work involved in archaeological excavations and searching for remnants of civilizations long gone, I get much more excited about the idea of studying the artifacts uncovered - even to the extent of trying to figure out how such artifacts were originally produced, how they were used, and the ever-important question of why. While discussing this with a few fellow students, one asked if I had heard of Experimental Archaeology. I had not.

Experimental Archaeology is relatively new as its own discipline, and is the combination of archaeology with experimenting with methods of construction, metal-smithing, craftsmanship, etc. to replicate period buildings and artifacts using only tools and materials that would have been available at the time in question. This is like a dream come true for me. I knew that I loved to work with my hands, both to study artifacts and to create new ones, and that I also love the more academic side of the historical and theoretical study; I just never imagined there was an actual academic discipline that combined the two.

Some handmade beauties I've bought in Sweden

So how does that work for grad school? There are only a few universities that offer programs in Experimental Archaeology, and after some research, I really like the looks of the program at the University of Sheffield in England. I've never before found a Master's degree program in which every single course looks fascinating and exciting to me.

Does that mean I'm applying to Sheffield? Well, no.  I'm not sure that a Master's in Experimental Archaeology would be such an immense help in getting an experimental archaeology-related job, but I'm sure the degree would be great if I wanted to teach such a discipline (which I don't). There are a lot of historical sites and open-air museums practicing such experimental-historical methods around, and I'd be very, very surprised if I'll need a masters degree to get a job at one. It means that if I do decide to go for a Master's degree, I'll definitely apply to that one first. For now, I'm just happy to have finally found a degree program I can get excited about, and if it works out that I will actually study Experimental Archaeology in the future, then that's awesome. If I get a good job at a historical site or reenactment place that I can get excited about and share my passion for the past with others (while carrying out my own research and writing on the side), then that's just as awesome. :)

A Day in the Life of an Archaeological Field School Student

Trench 3 after we finished de-turfing on the first work day.

I'm now three weeks into my archaeological field school on the island of Gotland, in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Sweden. This is a five week course, so there's just under a week of digging left and then a week of lab work and research before the course concludes on August 9. I did have a bit of archaeological experience prior to this trip, but it consisted of two weeks of volunteer work at the Bethsaida Excavations in Israel (while on a study abroad trip to the Middle East in 2011). This experience has been very different so far. So to give a little picture of what the dig has been like, I'll relate the story of a typical day at the Gotland Archaeological Field School.

7:30 a.m. - Convince myself to get out of bed and get ready for the day... usually a slow process.

7:55ish - Head to the dining hall to eat a hearty Swedish breakfast (yogurt, granola, linden berries, hardboiled eggs, fresh fruit, and bread) and pack a lunch to take with me to the excavation site.

8:30 a.m. - Board the bus to drive from the Gotlands Folkhögskola in Hemse to the excavation site at Paviken, on Gotland's Western Coast. (This is a great time to catch up on sleep, write in my journal, or read a book.)

9:10 a.m. - Arrive at Paviken and hike through a nature reserve to our dig site, a Viking Age harbor and manufacturing site that was inhabited from roughly the 7th- early 11th centuries. The site was excavated in the 1970's but the site director died before he could finish his records, and before he came to any conclusions about the site. Naturally, this makes our job more difficult, as we're working with Pars's incomplete and confusing records, while trying to make sense of what we find, too.

10:30 a.m. - Fika. Otherwise known as a coffee break, this is a very important part of every Swede's day. Included in the mandatory tradition is a very tasty cinnamon bun called a bulle. I do not protest.

12:00 p.m. - Lunch. 'Nuff said.

2:30 p.m. - Fika. Yep, Swedes are serious about this coffee break thing.

4:30 p.m. - Ride the bus back to Hemse and collapse onto my bed until dinner.

5:30 p.m. - Food. Delicious Swedish food.

6:00 p.m. - Free time, which for me means working out, showering, then engaging in some combination of something like goofing off online, writing, drawing, Skyping, or working on my research project for the field school (ceramic!). There's even another fika in the evening, which usually includes cookies - if none of the other groups staying here at the Folkhögskola have stolen ours, that is.

11:00-12:00ish - Sleep.

So that's a typical day. The archaeology part can be fascinating, tedious, exciting, boring, and frustrating, but over all it is pretty rewarding. I'll post later with more details on what the digging part is actually like, as well as some more history on the site, Paviken, and Gotland in general. It's really an awesome place for archaeology.