Modular Courses 2012

2-Week, 4-Week and 6-Week courses that come with Academic Credit

Academic Director: Dr Carleton Jones, NUI Galway

Local Academic Director: Theresa McDonald, MA. Doctoral Scholar, NUI Galway

Director of Fieldwork: Dr Rory Sherlock

Courses and dates

Six-Week Courses qualify for 9 Semester hours of Academic Credit (or 18 ECTS)

Module 1 and Module 2: 14 May - 22 June and 2 July - 10 August respectively

Four-Week Courses qualify for 6 Semester hours of Academic Credit (or 12 ECTS)

Module 3 and Module 4: 14 May - 8 June and 2 - 27 July 2012 respectively

Two-Week Courses qualify for 3 Semester hours of Academic Credit (or 6 ECTS)

Module 5 and Module 6: 11 - 22 June and 30 July - 10 August 2012 respectively

Modules 1 and 2 comprise the following

SU409 Introduction to Archaeology of Ireland
(3 semester hours / 6 ECTS)

SU410 Archaeological Field Studies
(3 semester hours / 6 ECTS)

SU413 Data Analysis
(3 semester hours / 6 ECTS)

Module Content

SU 409 Introduction to Archaeology of Ireland
On site work during the first element of the course introduces the student to the basic techniques of archaeological excavation, including laying out trenches, removing overburden, and excavating archaeological deposits with a variety of hand tools. Lectures introduce the Irish archaeological chronology whilst a series of workshops develop the students understanding of the principals of excavation.

SU 410 Archaeological Field Studies
On site work during the second element introduces the student to the methods of on site recording of archaeological features and deposits, including section drawing, elevation drawing, horizontal planning, establishing a site grid, surveying, using an auto level and the EDM, and site photography. Lectures complete the Irish archaeological chronology whilst workshops focus on post excavation skills such as managing site archives, writing stratigraphic reports preparing AutoCAD drawings and using Photoshop and Illustrator to manipulate images.

SU 413 Data Analysis
On site work during the final element sees the completion of the excavation and its restoration. Data analysis will introduce the student to a broad range of subjects involving archaeological sites and their setting in the landscape, such as upland surveys, identifying new sites, recording standing monuments and analysing inter-site relationships and morphological settings. Applications used in compiling this data will include GPS, ArcGIS and AutoCAD 2012. A series of lectures review the development of the discipline of Archaeology in Ireland and the ethical challenges facing the archaeological profession in the early 3rd Millennium whilst workshops will focus on preparing the work so far undertaken for final publication.