Location:

Loch Garman, Ireland

Program Type:

Study Abroad

Degree Level:

Undergraduate

Term:

Summer

Program Overview

Program Description:

The Irish Archaeology Field School (IAFS) in partnership with Maynooth University Ireland, provides a unique program teaching students how to excavate and assess human remains in the surroundings of the Irish National Heritage Park located in Wexford on Ireland’s south-east coast. The “Dead Men Do Tell Tales” course is designed for students from a variety of academic backgrounds with an interest in osteoarchaeology and physical/forensic anthropology. The course draws heavily on bioarchaeology so that students gain practical burial excavation experience (in a controlled staged environment) and have the opportunity to analyse archaeological skeletal remains during laboratory sessions.

Topics covered during lab sessions include: human and comparative osteology; determining sex, approximate age-at-death, living stature, identifying palaeopathological conditions and understanding how these techniques are used in archaeological and forensic contexts.

The course integrates field excavation and practical laboratory sessions with cultural heritage excursions to provide students with a unique academic enrichment and cultural heritage experience of Ireland.

Instruction is delivered by expert archaeologists and anthropologists from the Irish Archaeology Field School (IAFS).

Setting Description:

The Irish National Heritage Park (INHP), Ferrycarrig, County Wexford, Ireland, is an open-air museum which recreates the key stages in Ireland’s past. The park is a 35 acre (14 hectares) outdoor museum depicting 9000 years of re-created Irish History situated within natural forestry and wet woodlands. Covering prehistoric through Norman periods, and featuring various buildings and structures typical of each period, the park is a cornerstone of ‘Ireland’s Ancient East’ and provides a stunning backdrop to the archaeological dig. You will be working adjacent to the Ferrycarrig Ringwork, home to a leading international archaeological research project. The Ferrycarrig Ringwork is crucial to the earliest stages of the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland, being built in the winter of 1169. The impressive structure would have comprised of a castle set within a large man-made bank/palisade and external ditch, sited on a natural promontory overlooking the River Slaney and Wexford town.

Cost:

1,260.00 EUR. The program price includes the following • Full-board accommodation in County Wexford • Full tuition including all instruction, workshops and excavation/post-excavation supervision • At least one field trip to explore Ireland and material related to the course • Airport shuttles (at fixed times) • Maynooth University transcripts and credit for course AN354 'International Forensic Anthropology'

Additional Program Information

Requirements:

We ask all students to hold a GPA of 2.5 or above to participate, and TOEFL 545 (paper based) or IELTS 6.0 (or equivalent) if English is not your first language.

Scholarships:

No