BF Summer 1 will be available to students in both May and June 2023. Students will be introduced to excavation, post-excavation and survey methods. The course is divided between excavation within the friary/friary precinct, post-excavation, recording and survey. Each student will typically spend one week on each element. The excavation, post-excavation and survey sections will be directed and supervised by Finola O’Carroll and Laura Corrway.

The objective of this course is to train students in setting out a cutting and tying it to the site grid, the use of various tools, methods of excavation, feature recognition, recording using feature sheets, photography, planning and survey.  All students take part in post-excavation processing, including the formation of the written record. The research strategy and previous results which inform the overall excavation plan will be discussed with students, so they can set their work in the overall context of the research framework. Field trips and lectures will introduce the student to the wider landscape and historical context of the Black Friary, and the town of Trim. This course is an accredited program from Dundalk Institute of Technology (https://courses.dkit.ie/index.cfm/page/course/courseId/1321).

Field trips and in-house and guest lectures will introduce the student to the wider context of the Black Friary, and the town of Trim.

At the end of the four-week course students will:

  • Understand the theory and practice of archaeological excavation, including the single context recording system, site grid, stratigraphy, and the Harris Matrix.
  • Have excavated an archaeological feature.
  • Understand how to fill in context sheets, do scaled drawings, take properly set up photographs, take levels, co-ordinates and document these.
  • Have received an introduction to the digitisation of site plans and drawings
  • Know how to excavate, retrieve, bag and record archaeological objects (artefacts and ecofacts).
  • Have carried out basic environmental sampling.
  • Understand the process of post-excavation analysis by participating in the work.
  • Have processed archaeological finds and know the correct procedures for cleaning and labelling artefacts.

Applications close March 10, 2023. Students can apply here.