Placement report for EASE placement in Germany - 2004
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During the placement in Germany, I learnt many new archaeological skills.
Over the 6 weeks I worked on four different sites within the city: the Kloster,
Alte Markt, Universitat Platz and the City Wall. Due to taking part on many
different sites I found that I was always undertaking mostly new and different
tasks. Before attending the placement in Germany I only had experience in
trowling, levelling and planning using a planning frame. On the site of the
City Wall I got a chance to gain more experience in levelling. As this site
was being closed at the end of the first week, we were then moved to an excavation
outside the Kloster. Here we trowled over and then excavated a pit. There
was a copious amount of pottery, animal bone and glass to be found in this
pit. As there was not much to be found on the previous excavation that I attended,
I found that working at the Kloster taught me how to tell what was pottery,
glass and bone. Whilst at theKloster I also learnt about stratigraphy and
topology as well as learning how to reveal the stratigraphy of a pit
At the beginning of the second week myself and another one of the people on
the placement, Sarah, were moved to the Alte Markt site. They were excavating
18th century cellar walls and 13th/1 4th/1 5th century rubbish pits. Here
I had the opportunity to do some offset planning and pot washing. As I had
previously only used a planning frame to plan, I found it very interesting
learning to plan a different way. We also discovered that once the plan is
finished, in Germany they then colour it in. So 1 also got a chance to do
a technique that the Germans use. I did some more levelling on this site too,
but was also taught how to do the maths to work out how high above sea level
a feature was. Back on the excavation at the Kloster they had unearthed a
skeleton so Sarah and I returned to help excavate it. On the final week I
also went and took part on the Universitat Platz excavation where they were
excavating a bastion.
As well as taking part on the excavations during the week, we also took part in many other activities. We were taken on a tour to the top of the Dom (the cathedral in Magdeburg) by one of the archaeologists. One day we were also taken to an excavation next to the autobahn and given a tour around by the archaeologists that were working on the site. On the way to this site we had stopped at a museum which displayed numerous archaeological finds. As well as going on tours to places of historical interest we also went out as a group to numerous events that were taking place in the city. These included a hot air balloon festival and a classical music concert. We also got on well with the many German people that we met. From them we learnt a lot about the country and the language. We found this to be extremely useful when going into shops, and by the end of the trip had learnt enough of the language to get by.
I feel that by attending the placement in Germany it has benefited me in
many different ways. Before going to Germany I had very little archaeological
experience and only had a limited amount of archaeological knowledge. By attending
the placement I think that I now know more about both theoretical and practical
archaeology. Whilst there I learnt about stratigraphy and topology and was
taught how to distinguish different finds and features. I also learnt how
to do offset planning and pot washing as well as gaining some more experience
in levelling. My previous dig was in a rural setting and was for research
purposes, so I found it to be a very different and interesting experience
being in an urban environment and doing rescue archaeology. Taking part on
the different excavations in Germany has increased my fieldwork experience
to 8 weeks which hope will benefit me in the future when applying for employment.
When arriving in Germany I had very little knowledge of the language, but
by integrating with the German people I found that I was managing to pick
up the language. I learnt many new words and phrases which were very beneficial
when going into shops.
I also think that I have matured because of the trip. This is because before
going to Germany I hadn't been anywhere that far from home or for such a long
period of time. As it was a different country I had to learn how to cope with
the culture and language change as well as the responsibility of being independent.
I therefore believe that the placement in Germany greatly benefited me in
both my personal development and my career prospects.
Angela Lapworth