Team Project: Artefact Analysis - ARC00010I

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Module summary

This module will allow you the opportunity to work together on a collection of artefacts, in physical or digital form, to produce a professional report. You will use the skills developed in your Practical Skills module, together with your knowledge of archaeological writing from this and other modules. In the past, students have undertaken a range of projects, including recording collections of African ceramics, and re-discovering antiquarian collections of Bronze-Age grave finds. Students have said that Team Project: Artefacts is ‘very enjoyable’ and ‘academically stimulating’, praising its ‘hands-on approach’. 

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Summer Term 2022-23

Module aims

Building upon the practical option that you took in the Spring term (Term 5), Team Projects allows you to practice the subject-specific skills that you learnt over that period. The module will split students into teams to analyse and evaluate a dataset or case study with the overall aim of producing a report to professional standards on the material they have examined.

 

This specific module aims to:

• To provide experience in working as a team on a shared project

• To build skills in the recording, analysis and interpretation of artefactual data

• To train, through practice, the skills necessary to the production of a professional-standard archaeological report.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of this module, students should be able to:

• Undertake the recording and reporting of an assemblage of artefacts, applying recognised techniques and approaches

• Match recording and analytical methods to research aims and objectives

• Appreciate the importance of consistency, time-keeping, and good record-keeping in practical work

• Allocate and co-ordinate tasks, and communicate efficiently as a team

• Produce a group report to a professional standard

Module content

In this module, students will work together in small teams to analyse artefactual material, and produce a shared archaeological output. The nature of the material, and of the output required will vary from year to year, but may include the analysis and reporting of an assemblage of artefacts of any date and from anywhere in the world; an analysis of virtual artefacts stored in a database (such as the PAS); or exhibition entries for particular objects or groups. You will manage the dynamics of the team yourself, but the module leader will be available for support and advice in scheduled meetings.

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Groupwork	100

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100

Module feedback

Formative: Groups keep logbooks of work carried out and discuss progress with their module leader each week.

Summative: Written feedback sheets will be released within 20 working days of the submission deadline, along with your overall mark for the module. If you have any questions about your mark and/or your written feedback, you will be able to sign up for office hours with the marker.

Indicative reading

Caple, C. 2006. Objects: reluctant witnesses to the past. London: Routledge.

Finds Research Group 1999, 2008. Datasheets Vols I and II. York: Finds Research Group.

Leahy, K. 2018. Finds Identified: Portable Antiquities Scheme. Greenlight Publishing.

Detailed reading for the module will be available via YorkShare (the University's virtual learning environment). When you have enrolled on a module, you will be able to access the full reading list.