{"id":2234,"date":"2021-09-20T21:29:05","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T21:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archaeologyscotland.org.uk\/heritage-resources-portal\/?p=2234"},"modified":"2021-09-20T21:29:05","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T21:29:05","slug":"archaeology-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archaeologyscotland.org.uk\/heritage-resources-portal\/2021\/09\/20\/archaeology-careers\/","title":{"rendered":"Discussing Archaeology Careers on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Teacher Alexander Conlon shares his experiences as an Archaeology graduate and a member of the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project team. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been going up to Ardnamurchan since the Summer of 2013, when I signed up for fieldwork as part of my degree. I was fortunate that one of my lecturers \u2013 Dr Hannah Cobb (now Professor) \u2013 was a co-director of the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project which she had run in conjunction with Dr Oliver Harris of the University of Leicester and Phil Richardson of Archaeology Scotland since 2007. The aim of the dig is primarily as a field school for undergraduates, but also to try and uncover the different phases of human settlement in one small valley \u2013 Swordle \u2013 right back to prehistory<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduating, I had no idea what exactly I wanted to do as a career. I investigated the potential of going into commercial archaeology, but was unsuccessful. I considered the army, but realised it probably wasn\u2019t for me. After working in a bar, I eventually I settled on teaching, and completed by PGCE back in my home town of Bradford, West Yorkshire. I\u2019m entering my fifth year of teaching at a school within the academy trust that I studied at a as a teenager, and after being appointed as Head of Year three years ago, the students under my wing are now entering Year 11 \u2013 the final year of secondary education in England and the year when they undertake their GCSE exams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout these years, I\u2019d kept in contact with the archaeology and continued to volunteer every summer after that due to the amazing people, landscapes, and history which you are afforded in the Highlands. A later season in 2019 clashed with going back to school, and COVID-19 squandered any chance of returning in 2020. I was finally able to go back in Summer 2021, and might have mentioned it quite a lot in the run up to the students in my year group. This brilliant band of 120 teenagers \u2013 now well versed in the ways of virtual education thanks to the pandemic \u2013 suggested that it would be good for them to see what exactly it is that an archaeologist does. I had, after all, gone on quite a fair bit about in the previous three years. One of the key \u2018drivers\u2019 at the academy where I work is \u2018employability\u2019, with a really strong focus on careers education. As someone who primary teaches History and RE, but also dabbles in Geography, I really wanted to showcase to the students another potential future path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, armed with my phone and my year group Twitter account, I endeavoured to take as many informational videos as possible whilst in Ardnamurchan in 2021 as a record for the project, but also to show the students back in Yorkshire the various different elements that make up a career in archaeology. I recorded videos on test pits, the use of Pythagoras\u2019 Theorum, artefact analysis, archaeobotany and more. It was also fantastic to work closer than ever before with the local volunteers who were there to help as part of Archaeology Scotland\u2019s Adopt-A-Monument \u2018the Real Wild West\u2019 project. As someone really interested in local history and genealogy, it was great to talk and hear about stories from Ardnamurchan\u2019s past, whilst also using archaeological techniques to go even further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One particular highlight was helping to complete a building survey of the Fascadale Ice House. I was able to use my iPad\u2019s LiDAR function to create a 3D point cloud model of the interior of the ice house, along with a model of the coble fishing boat which volunteers had repatriated back to Scotland from Hartlepool. <\/p>\n\n\n\n