Archaeological fieldwork in corona times: bachelor's student Jeroen Huizer's story
Second year BA Archaeology student Jeroen Huizer decided to participate in an excavation this summer, and he is giving us a peek in doing fieldwork under corona restrictions.
Flint and pottery
The excavation was organized by ADC ArcheoProjects and took place in Tiel. It was a project that focused on two different periods, the Roman period and the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age. Jeroen participated in the Early Bronze Age excavation, ‘there was a possibility that a farm was located at our dig site.’ Unfortunately, the farm was not (yet) found. ‘I did find lots of flint and pottery sherds.’
Jeroen has been in touch with ADC since 2019. ‘During the Faculty’s Internship Market in November I came across this company and I applied to be contacted if spaces became available in excavations. I got an invite to participate in this excavation and I could even help out some fellow students who joined the excavation as well.’
Activities and corona measures
The activities varied from sieving and cleaning artifacts to doing profiles, sections, and documentation. ‘I enjoyed sectioning the most, though I did not find a lot. Sieving does reveal a lot of artifacts, so I also did not mind doing that. These activities have helped me in developing skills such as recognizing and identifying artifacts. I also got the chance to visit the depot and get a tour, it was really cool.’
When it comes to the corona safety measures ADC took several actions; (rental) cars were used to pick everyone up, with only 2 persons per car were allowed. Hand sanitizers were placed around the site, everyone had to bring their own coffee cup and got a chair with their name on it. Of course, also the 1.5 m distance to one another had to be kept.
‘Apart from the safety measures we all still had a good time together, there were former Terra members also working on this project, which was really fun! Apart from learning that clay is not a fun soil to put your shovel in, I have learned so much, and it is great to work amongst people that share the same passion.’