Location: Stenness, Orkney Islands, United Kingdom

Season Dates: July 20, 2013 - August 17, 2013
Application Deadline:

Website: http://www.willamette.edu/dept/oie/postsessions/scotland.html

Program Type
Field school

Affiliation: Willamette University

Project Director: Scott Pike, Willamette University and Nick Card, Orkney College, University of the Highlands and Islands

Project Description

Join the Willamette University Archaeology Field School (ARCH 355) for a unique opportunity to excavate in one of the world’s premier archaeology project in The Heart of Neolithic Orkney (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Through Willamette’s exclusive relationship with the University of the Highlands and Islands, students will work with the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology and Orkney College as they unearth a unique and immense Neolithic ritual complex on the Ness of Brodgar. This award winning and internationally recognized excavation is redefining our understanding of the Neolithic world. The field school provides intensive, on-site training in archaeological methods and techniques and emphasizes a holistic approach to archaeological inquiry. In addition to daily instruction on excavation theory, technique and recovery, course lectures and fieldwork will emphasize a variety of topics including topographical and geophysical survey techniques, stratigraphy, ceramic typology, geomorphology, paleobotany, and the archaeology of the Orkney Islands. Visits to regional archaeological sites and museums give students a broad cultural and historical background in the archaeology of the region.

DUE TO CENCELLATIONS, 2 POSITIONS ARE OPEN.  PLEASE CONTACT SPIKE@WILLAMETTE.EDU FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Period(s) of Occupation: Neolithic

Project Size: 1-24 participants

Minimum Length of Stay for Volunteers: Students are expected to participate for the full duration of the field school

Minimum Age: 18

Experience Required: No experience or prerequisites required

Room and Board Arrangements

Field school students are housed at the Homnavoe Hostel in the picturesque town of Stromness (http://www.hamnavoehostel.co.uk/).  Field school students are the only tenants at the hostel for the duraction of the seasonl.  Transportation to and from the site will be provided.  Students are responsible for their own food.  There is a grocer within a minutes walk from the hostel.

Academic Credit
Name of institution offering credit: Willamette University
Number of credits offered: 1 Willamette Credit (equal to 3 semester credits at most schools)
Tuition: $4,700 (for non-Willamette students)

Contact Information
Scott Pike
Willamette University, EES Department
Salem, OR 97301
USA
spike@willamette.edu
Phone: 503-370-6587

Recommended Bibliography

Below are several recently published articles and websites on the Ness of Brodgar. 

A PBS Newshour story that ran on February 20, 2013: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/jan-june13/scotland_02-20.html#disq...

An October 6, 2012 Guardian/Observer article "Neolithic discovery: why Orkney is the centre of ancient Britain" at http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/oct/06/orkney-temple-centre-ancient-britain.

British Archaeology Magazine, Isuse 128, January/February 2013, "Orkney's great mystery dig."  The student on the cover of the British Archaeology magazine article was a field school participant last year.

Archaeology Magazine, January/February 2013, "Neolithic Europe's Remote Heart: One thousand years of spirituality, innovation, and social development emerge from a ceremonial center on the Scottish archipelago of Orkney."

A 12-minute video of images from the site is now available for viewing at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtijUd8aU2k&feature=youtu.be.

An excavation blog that is updated daily throughout the excavation season at http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/