Independent Learning Archaeology Field School

Independent Learning Archaeology Field School

Written assignment

Writing a Report on a Test Pit Excavation

Your assignment, following the completion of your test-pit excavation, is to produce a written account of your excavation and its findings structured as a technical report which will tell anyone who reads it what found and how you interpreted your findings, while also presenting them with enough information to allow them to assess your conclusions for themselves. A report is an informative piece of writing with a formal structure to contextualise, describe and analyse the methods and results of a process, such as digging an archaeological test-pit.

Technical report writing is widely used in both higher education and the workplace, and one of the main aims of the Independent Learning Archaeology Field School is to help participating students develop and refine a range of skills which will be of benefit in the future. The assignment part of the Field school, therefore, involves participants in preparing a piece of written work which will be formally assessed by the University of Cambridge. At the end of this process, students should have an improved knowledge of, and skills in, the preparation and organisation of written work and its effective communication to its intended audience. Your report will also provide an opportunity to apply skills in the following areas: research, writing and IT.

General Points

•  You are writing a technical report which will be read by an someone who has never been to your site. You therefore need to include all the relevant information to give a full understanding of the site, your findings, and conclusions. This should be written in a formal, academic style to convey your ideas and information accurately.

•  You must each complete your own unique written assignment, although you can work with others who attended the ILAFS in discussing and planning your experiences, evidence, ideas and work plans.

•  The minimum amount of time you should spend on this assignment is about 4 hours. There is no maximum amount of time we recommend but the more time you put into it, the more you will get out of it.

•  Most set assignments have a word limit to ensure that students only include relevant points and develop a clear and succinct writing style. Your written assignment should be between 2,000 and 3,500 words long. Words included in the main text, tables, footnotes and headings all count towards this limit, but words in the title page, contents page, appendices and references do not. You will need to indicate the final word count on the front page of your submitted work.

•  Assignments must be handed in or emailed to the teacher who accompanied you on the Field school, who will then scan and/or email them to Access Cambridge Archaeology on before the deadline date on the ILAFS Assignment webpage (http://www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/schools/ILAFS/report/)

•  The completed assignments will be assessed by Cambridge University, and returned to you via your school, with comments and a certificate to mark your successful completion of the Independent Learning Archaeology Field school.

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1. Preparation for Writing your Assignment

1.1 Resources

The information you will need to write this report can be found in (a) the record booklet you filled in while you were digging, (b) the pottery report, (c) the map of the settlement you were in, (d) the internet/local library and (e) this document. You will have your own copy of the record booklet following the end of the Field school and the pottery report and maps can be downloaded from the ILAFS Assignment webpage (http://www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/schools/ILAFS/report/). Photographs taken on the field school are also available to download, and you may have your own to include or need to contact other group members for copies of theirs.

In order to gain the highest marks, we encourage students to search for information about the archaeological and historical background of their settlement to add to the introduction of their assignment and draw on in their analysis and conclusion of the test-pit excavation results. See section 3 on ‘Research Skills’ about how to find and reference external sources before starting your assignment.

1.2 Planning

Before embarking on your assignment, read the mark scheme criteria carefully, and note the differences between the low, middle and high range descriptors. You will only gain marks for the criteria undertaken so keep referring to the mark scheme throughout your writing-up to ensure that you have met the requirements of each of the areas assessed. It will be useful at this stage to make a note of any specific details, such as the inclusion of maps at three different scales, in order to meet the high range descriptor for J4.

Plan what you intend to write beforehand to decide what information you need to include, the content, and in what order to present it, the format. Using the suggested framework below, you may find it helpful to begin writing a set of bullet-points for each section, outlining the information and diagrams you need to include in each paragraph.

Check your submission deadline date and, using your bullet-pointed notes, plan what needs to be done when, making sure to factor in other school and personal commitments. Note that compiling maps, tables, graphs and diagrams may take longer than you expect, so make sure you leave yourself sufficient time to edit and proof-read your report before submission.

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2.  Report structuring and data presentation

2.2  Introduction and Background

An overview of the wider context of your research will familiarise a reader with the subject if it is new to them and clarify why it is both relevant and valuable to study. You should explain to the reader how the information contained in your report will make a unique contribution to the present understanding of the subject.

•  Summarise the history of archaeological research into rural settlements generally and how they are studied.

•  Provide a short summary of the history of the settlement where you were digging and of any previous archaeological finds from it.

•  Give a short summary of what the settlement pattern in the region around the settlement you were digging in is thought to have been like.

2.3 Aims and objectives

Clear statements about the issues your investigation intends to address (the project aims), and how you intend to pursue them (the project objectives), will demonstrate your understanding of the subject to the reader, give reasoning and a framework to your investigation and will enable the reader to review your data with the same questions in mind. Describe (1) the overall aims of your test pit excavation – i.e. and what it was hoped this would reveal; (2) the specific achievable step-by-step objectives of the excavation.

•  Outline the aims of undertaking to dig an archaeological test-pit - why it was carried out and what archaeological question you hope will be answered by it.

•  Do not focus on personal aims- remember this is a technical report.

•  Outline the specific achievable objectives of the investigation – what you intended to actually do.

•  Relate this to your introduction by explaining how the objectives will produce data which will aid our understanding about the individual site, the whole settlement and the bigger picture of rural settlement nationally since the end of the Roman period.

2.4 Methods

The accuracy and reliability of any data is dependent on the procedures employed to collect it. You need to describe the methods used for your data collection and justify why these were well suited to address the aims and objectives already outlined.

•  Describe the methods used in the test pit excavation, and why these were appropriate to the aims of the task. Relate this to the aims outlined in the introduction.

2.5 Location

Any investigation report needs to record where the data was sourced from. For test pit excavations, a key aim is to map where data of different dates was found, so it is important the location of your excavation is recorded accurately in your report.

•  Include a detailed description of where the excavation took place, as well as a national map, village Ordnance Survey (OS) map and individual site sketch plan, a National Grid Reference (NGR) and aerial image of the test-pit site.

2.6 Data/Results

You should present the information recorded during your investigation, including all observations and measurements, to the reader. This section should focus on presenting factual observations (for the reader and for posterity), not on interpretation.resent the data from each layer (context) separately, successively in the order in which it was excavated. Explain what the information tells us and draw attention to anything you think was particularly interesting about it.

•  Present your data is an manner that is clear and easily summarised by the reader. You may wish to make use of table and graphs for this purpose.

•  Include a combination of plans, tables, photographs and text to describe all recorded aspects of the physical appearance of each layer and the finds from it.

•  Include clear, annotated and accurately scaled plans of each context, and of all four sections of the test pit, describing and explaining any layers or features observed.

•  Suggest and justify a date for each context, and say whether you think it has been intensively occupied or not, explaining why you think this.

2.7 Discussion and Conclusion

In the final part of your report, you should discuss your data and present your ideas about what it means, using your knowledge and thinking skills to give substantiated, reasoned interpretations. Draw attention to patterns in your data such as changes over time, and pose possible explanations for these. You are aiming to provide an informed interpretation of the data and your deductions about what new insights this gives us and its significance, with reference to the research outlined in the introduction. You should be critical and self-reflective in assessing whether the stated aims have been achieved, including any limitations to the dataset or avenues for further research. This section of the report carries the most marks so spend time developing your answers.

•  Summarise generally what the finds from your test-pit have told you about what was going on in the area of your test-pit at different times in the past.

•  Review the finds from the other test-pits (using the information in the pottery report and the maps on the ACA ‘excavation results’ web page for the settlement you excavated in) and say what you think all of the information together has told us about the history of the settlement from the earliest period there is evidence for onwards. Describe which parts of the village were lived in at different times and whether the settlement stayed in the same place or moved around at different times.

•  Evaluate to what extent you achieved the aims set out in the introduction to your report. What further work could fully fulfil these aims.

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3. Research Skills

Other information sources may be consulted may be consulted to support or report the theories you develop in analysing your data. To prove that these sources are relevant and have been understood, you need to refer to them in your report and cite the information correctly.

3.1 Consulting Information Sources

In order to learn more about the history and archaeology of the settlement where you dug, and more about medieval settlement studies in general, you may begin by using an internet search engine to find primary and secondary digital resources. It is important to make sure that you are accessing reliable information, and that it is cited correctly in your report (see below). If a website has not included a list of its own references then you have no means of verifying the information you read. Here are a few suggestions of websites with national coverage, but also see the University of Cambridge ILAFS Excavation Reports webpage (http://www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/reports).

-  The British History Online website (http://www.british-history.ac.uk/) is a reliable source for local history which may have covered your settlement. A local village website may exist which may also have some village history but may not be as reliable.

-  The Heritage Gateway website (http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/gateway/) provides information about archaeological finds, sites and monuments and historic buildings which can be searched by parish or by grid reference previous.

-  The University of Cambridge ILAFS Excavation Reports webpage provides information about other Currently Occupied Rural Settlements which have been subject to test pit excavation with the University of Cambridge (http://www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/reports).

-  A University of Cambridge webpage for students completing their ILAFS reports (http://www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/schools/ILAFS/report/) includes maps of settlement form which will help identify the pattern in settlement in the area around the settlement you excavated

Your local library and school library are likely to have books on local history and geography. If it is not obvious where you should begin to look, ask the librarian for advice and to search the catalogues with you. If public libraries do not have certain books available on their shelves, you will find that most can request books to be delivered from any of the county libraries, so ensure that you expand online catalogue searches to include them.

3.2 Referencing Information Sources

Remember to make a careful note of any books or websites you read so that you, or your reader, know how to find them again. You will also find it useful to see what books or websites are referenced by those you read to learn how to reference other authors correctly and to identify other sources to find.

In order that the reader knows what external sources have been consulted, and to avoid plagiarism, they need to be listed at the end of your report but also identified in the main body of text. Plagiarism is:

‘defined as submitting as one's own work, irrespective of intent to deceive, that which derives in part or in its entirety from the work of others without due acknowledgement’ (University of Cambridge Statement on Plagiarism - http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/plagiarism/students/statement.html).