School of History, Classics & Archaeology

Archaeological Science Internships 2019

The school introduced three archaeological science internships this summer to offer hands-on experience to students.

This summer the School of History, Classics and Archaeology introduced three undergraduate archaeological science internships, working on real projects, based in one of the School's labs for two weeks and supervised by the archaeology lab technician, with extra topic-specific supervision from academic staff where relevant. They were awarded through a competitive process managed by the School's laboratories committee, and have just come to an end.  The successful interns were Xander Scott, Matilde Quilici and Alice Connelly.

Dr Robin Bendrey, Lecturer in Archaeology said, "The internships are aimed at helping students to develop experience, knowledge, skills and employability, and providing the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to a research project. The students have all been a delight to work with, done excellent work and completed their respective projects in the two weeks."

Xander Scott – Archaeology and Ancient History MA (Hons)

The aim of the project I worked on was the investigation of the effects of sodium hydroxide 'washes' on collagen/dentine yields in bone and tooth samples from St Peter's Cemetery, Blackburn, held by the University of Edinburgh. I applied for the internship after being introduced to burial and osteoarchaeology during my first year – being able to get to know about a person’s life after they have long passed fascinated me. Dead men do tell tales, even in some cases after thousands of years.

HCA Xander Scott Archaeology and Ancient History MA (Hons) student
 

Xander Scott

“The internship has been invaluable and a lot of fun. These weeks been incredibly important to my future endeavours and I look forward to finding out more about the life of the person who helped us further science and archaeology.”

Matilde Quilici – Archaeology (MA Hons)

My project focussed on assessing and recording animal bones recovered from the Central Zagros region of western Iran. The assemblage comes from a thick vertical sequence through the Chalcolithic tell site and it mainly consists of domestic livestock such as sheep and cattle. I hope the results of my project will help giving a better understanding of the site.

HCA Matilde Quilici Archaeology (MA Hons) student

Matilde Quilici

“I applied for the internship because I enjoyed the zooarchaeology course and I like archaeological science. I learned how to work with a large assemblage - a skill that will be useful in the future - and developed my archaeological skills and experience which will aid my future studies in terms of research and employability.”

Alice Connelly – Archaeology (MA Hons)

I have been working with the animal bone assemblage excavated from the Culzean Caves by the National Trust for Scotland. My task was to go through all the bags of bones from 2017 and 2018 excavations and identify, record and comment upon anything of note on the bones such as cut marks or water wearing. I have now been compiling this into a report where I shall make recommendations for further analysis.

Cave sites are tricky to work with since archaeological material is often churned by water at high tide, but, hopefully, the assemblage can give an indication for the exploitation of animals for food, utensils, and other uses by people who have lived in or around the caves.

HCA Alice Connelly Archaeology (MA Hons) student

Alice Connelly

“I applied for this internship because I wanted to be able to contribute to an archaeological project without the funds and time necessary to join an excavation. I have felt fulfilled by this internship in that regard, however it has also helped me to re-engage with my passion for archaeology.”

 

See images from the internships on our social media

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