Festival of Archaeology 2024 - Careers in Archaeology Episode 5

Have you ever wondered how archaeologists got into their career? Interested to find out how many different roles there are in commercial archaeology? Want to hear what's so special about working in archaeology?

Join us on a special mini-series to celebrate Headland Archaeology's sponsorship of the Council for British Archaeology's 2024 Festival of Archaeology.

In this series we will be talking to some of Headland Archaeology's amazing staff to find out about some of the different job roles that make up Headland Archaeology. We will be asking them how they became archaeologists, what they love about working in archaeology and discussing some of their key skills. 

Final Episode! - Episode 5 - Beth. 

In this final episode of the series we are joined by Beth Darroch-Bartley, one of the fieldwork Project Officers for Headland Archaeology.

Show Notes and Links!

This episode we mentioned the volunteer opportunities at The Lost City of Trellech and York Archaeological Trust – but these are just a few of the fieldwork opportunities available!

For fieldwork opportunities around England check out the Council for British Archaeology's fieldwork opportunities page here: https://www.archaeologyuk.org/get-involved/fieldwork-opportunities.html 

For events and volunteer opportunities from guided walks and talks to excavations in Scotland see DigIt Scotland's website events page here: https://www.digitscotland.com/events/

Terms from the pod explained!

WSI - We touched on this in the episode but the WSI is an important planning document. Archaeological works such as trial trenching or excavations in commercial archaeology are often required as part of a planning condition on the development being undertaken by our clients. Archaeological works need to be undertaken by an archaeological company to discharge the planning condition – the WSI sets out how this will be undertaken. These are submitted to the archaeological advisor for the Local Planning Authority for review and approval before each stage of archaeological work can be carried out.

Geophysics – Geophysical surveys are a way of creating a map of the possible archaeology below the ground, without digging. There are different geophysical techniques with different equipment and deciding which ones to use depend on the location, terrain and other site conditions. The results are often used as a guide for the following intrusive works.

Trenching – Trenching or trial trenching evaluations consist of a series of trenches covering the land to be evaluated for archaeological remains. They are usually evenly spaced to cover a percentage of the land but they can also target findings from the geophysical survey, or from records as well as visible landscape features.

Mitigation – Mitigation is the term we use to describe the excavation stages of an archaeological project. This can take a few forms as we talked about in the podcast, either a full detailed excavation of a particular area, or a strip, map and record or sample – a wide area of topsoil is removed to reveal the archaeological features, and they are recorded and sampled to understand their date and function. We create a detailed written, photographic and spatial record of all the remains (which is deposited with the archive to the local receiving museum). This gives us an understanding of the activities taking place and the lifestyle of the people.

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