Portus Field School

The Portus multi-disciplinary field school provides a novel educational experience open to all students at the University, by offering hands-on, team-focused training in a variety of techniques used in modern archaeological fieldwork. Students are exposed to techniques belonging to different scientific disciplines (including computing, geology, geophysics, biology), and research methods of social and human sciences (including history, classics, history of art), and are encouraged to grow as interdisciplinary scholars and mediators – crucial skills in the modern world. The training is problem-based, using multidisciplinary approaches in contemporary archaeological research. By providing a framework within which students can relate their core disciplines to archaeological field practice, as well as the experience of working side-by-side with students with different expertise, the field school enables all those involved to gain a deeper insight into their own and related disciplines, and experience a practical fieldwork environment.

Archaeological recording training during the field school in 2009.
Photo: Hembo Pagi

Students are given field tuition as they are rotated through different tasks. Field school staff and visitors provide lectures throughout the field school. These provide participants of all levels with an understanding of the wider context in which the work at the site is situated. These lectures are supplemented by optional study visits to sites and museums in the wider area, including Rome and Ostia. Before and after the field season students are given the opportunity to collaborate and learn about Portus and archaeology in general via a set of online resources and a forum. All students also benefit from virtual access to Portus fieldwork supported by the Student Centredness project led by Dr Rex Taylor. This means that students who are otherwise unable to participate in fieldwork can gain access to the Portus fieldwork environment.

Specific learning on the Portus multidisciplinary field school is determined by the background of the student and the mechanism supporting their attendance. Currently University of Southampton students taking the Curriculum Innovation Programme “Portus” module, undergraduate archaeology, MSc Archaeological Computing (including survey and landscape), Digital Humanities students, and other Southampton PGI and PGR programmes are eligible. We will also welcome applications from overseas and UK institutions.

Contact person: Dr Dragana Mladenovic (D.Mladenovic@soton.ac.uk), The Field School Director

You can read posts about the field school via the field school tag.

The 2013 Field Season will take place between Sunday 23^rd June and Sunday 14^th July.
Application is now open.