Archaeology Field Schools: How to Choose One

A field school is a supervised course where you learn archaeology by doing it. You dig excavation units, walk survey transects, dig shovel tests, draw maps, fill out recording forms and handle artifacts, with experienced staff checking your work. Most are run by a university, sometimes together with a museum, nonprofit or government agency, and most charge tuition and fees in exchange for academic credit.

For most people who want to work in archaeology, a field school is the first real step. Employers who hire field technicians commonly want to see that you have already learned the basic techniques and can work safely in the field, and a field school is the usual way to show it. If you are already thinking about the job search that comes after, see how to get your first archaeology field tech job.

What you should learn

A good field school teaches the core skills you will use on the job:

• Excavation: laying out and digging units, controlling depth, screening soil, and recognizing layers, features and artifacts.
• Survey and testing: walking transects, digging shovel tests at set intervals, and recording what you find. A large share of contract archaeology is survey and testing, so this matters.
• Recording: field notes, standard forms, photographs, scale drawings and maps, and location data.
• Handling finds: bagging, labeling and tracking artifacts so they stay connected to where they were found.
• Working on a crew: following procedures, working safely and taking direction.

What the RPA's standards expect

The Register of Professional Archaeologists (RPA) certifies field schools against published standards. Certification is voluntary, but the standards are a useful checklist for any program. Among other things, they say:

• Length: a field school should provide at least four weeks of field experience. Programs with fewer than 20 days of field experience may be certified as RPA-Introductory.
• Instruction: at least 12 hours of lecture before excavation and survey begin.
• Director: the director must meet the RPA's qualifications and be RPA-certified by the start of the program.
• Supervision: a ratio of six to ten students per supervisor is described as optimal. It is a target, not a strict rule.
• Safety: the sponsoring institution must provide for participants' safety and health, including an environment free of sexual harassment as defined by applicable law.
• Training first: teaching students must be the primary purpose of the program.
• Care of the results: there must be evidence of conservation, curation and publication of results, including a report within one calendar year after the field school ends.
• No profit motive: certified field schools may not be run for profit.

Certification lasts two years. It tells you a program met these standards when it was reviewed. It does not rate the quality of the teaching or the site, so treat it as a baseline, not a guarantee.

How to compare programs

When you narrow your list, ask each program:

1. What will I actually do? Ask whether you will dig and survey, or mostly wash and catalog artifacts. Ask whether you will learn shovel testing and survey as well as excavation.
2. How long is it? Longer programs give you more hours doing real fieldwork, and four weeks is the RPA's benchmark.
3. Who runs it? Look up the director and the field staff. Ask how long the project has been running and what happens to the finds and the records.
4. What does it cost, and what is included? Compare tuition, housing, meals, insurance, equipment, travel to the site and whether you receive academic credit.
5. How is the program run? Ask about safety plans, anti-harassment policies, medical care and conditions at the site. Camping, shared housing and remote locations are common.
6. Can I get a reference? A letter or reference from the director or a supervisor helps later when you apply for jobs.

Where to look

• The RPA's list of certified field schools. Confirm a program's certification status here before you apply.
• The Archaeological Institute of America's fieldwork listings. These list programs with dates, deadlines and whether a program is RPA certified. Listings can linger after a program has closed, so confirm details with the program itself.
• Your own university. Many anthropology and archaeology departments run or partner with field schools, and faculty can often tell you which ones are well run.

Timing and applications

Many summer programs set application deadlines months ahead, and some fill early, while others accept students on a rolling basis. Start looking in the fall or winter for the following summer, and ask each program about scholarships or funding, since some offer help or can point you to it.

Getting the most from a field school

• Keep your own field notes and a list of the techniques you practiced and the hours you worked, because you will use them on your resume.
• Ask to try different tasks, such as mapping, recording and soil description, instead of staying on one job all session.
• Ask questions. The staff expect it, and you will learn the reasons behind the procedures.
• Ask the director or a supervisor whether they are willing to be a reference before the session ends.

What comes next

After a field school, most people look for entry-level field technician work, often seasonal or on-call. You can browse archaeology field technician jobs and seasonal and short-term jobs on this site.

If you later decide to apply for the RPA's Registered Archaeologist category, its published requirements say a field school can count for up to four weeks of the supervised experience it asks for. See our guide to the Secretary of the Interior standards and the RPA.

Sources and further reading

• RPA field school standards
• RPA certified field schools
• Archaeological Institute of America fieldwork listings
• RPA frequently asked questions