Admission requirements
Field School 1 obtained.
Description
Internship BA2 is meant to gain routines in the practical skills you trained during Field School 1. These skills may include all activities related to the archaeological process, such as:
Prospective research (coring; trial trenches);
Archaeological survey;
Geophysical fieldwork including the processing of these data;
Excavation;
Field research on rock art;
Field research on historic buildings;
Processing of archaeological field data (finds and data processing, GIS work, etc.).
Internships relating to the study of museums and museum collections are not in the scope of Internship BA2: World Archaeology. Such internships are part of Internship BA2: Heritage and Society.
If you aspire to a professional career in field archaeology, make sure that your internship(s) include a wide range of practical field archaeology skills.
You are expected to arrange your own project(s).
No matter where the internship takes place, and no matter what type of projects are involved: you should make sure that the skills practiced show sufficient diversity of type and level of skills.
You are allowed to spend your entire Internship BA2 on one project, as long as you are able to demonstrate you will learn a variety of different practical skills during this one project. Doing more than one project is highly recommended.
All Faculty field projects qualify as Internship BA2 project, but you are also allowed to participate in a project that is organised by other institutions (both academic and commercial).
An Internship BA2 project is always concluded with a report (daily reports and portfolio). Reports always include a critical review of the fieldwork. The instructions for the daily reports and portfolio can be found on Brightspace.
During Field School 1, Internship BA2 and Internship BA3, you will build up your own personal portfolio containing all your acquired (field) skills and experiences.
Where to go?
Always start by checking Brightspace: here you can find all the necessary procedures, forms and FAQs. On Brightspace a list of relevant archaeological organisations in the Netherlands is provided, as are Internship BA2 opportunities that have come to the Faculty’s attention.
The internship coordinator, dr. Arjan Louwen, advises on the general rules and regulations.
Conditions
Internship BA2 is a fieldwork or other archaeology field research-related activity. It comprises 30 field days of minimally 8 working hours. These 30 field days may be fulfilled during one or more projects. A project is not allowed to be shorter than one week.
You can schedule your internship in any period in which you do not have educational obligations, including January. Please note that exams and retakes have priority.
Only 10 ec can be obtained in total for Internship BA2. In case more than 30 days have been spent on projects, the remaining credits will be stated on the diploma as extra-curricular.
Funding
Students who started their BA studies at the Faculty of Archaeology in 2022-2023 can apply for a financial contribution for Internship BA2. Funding regulations are:
- From 2023-2024 onwards, every archaeology student can ask for restitution of actually made expenses once during their BA track to enable participation in an Internship BA2 project;
- This project may be abroad as well as in the Netherlands;
- The application for restitution cannot exceed the sum of 500 euros;
- Restitution can only be provided for costs related to travel (travel to the destination and local transport), accommodation and food;
- Restitution cannot be provided for costs for which the student has already received a reimbursement, e.g. via the internship provider;
- Restitution can only be provided for costs that can be demonstrated by actual invoices;
- Restitution can only take place after the Internship has been successfully finished (in other words, when the student has passed the course).
The full restitution procedure can be found in Brightspace.
Course set-up
The following steps are necessary:
Register in uSis/Brightspace;
Carefully read the Internship BA2 procedures in Brightspace;
Find a project in which you can participate;
Fill out the official ‘Internship BA2 agreement form’ (to be found on Brightspace) with the Internship provider (Party B on the agreement form);
Send the filled-out ‘Internship BA2 agreement form’ to the appointed region coordinator (see Brightspace; Party A on the agreement form) for approval of the internship. Arrange for the final approval of your internship by the region coordinator no later than:
-6 weeks before the start of the project (projects abroad)
-2 weeks before the start of the project (projects in the Netherlands);During the project: make daily reports, build your portfolio and ask the project leader to fill in the assessment form (to be found on Brightspace);
Upload the report within 6 weeks after the last internship day.
Course objectives
Independently procuring an internship position in a professional learning environment;
To gain routines in practical archaeological research activities, including interpretation and reporting of archaeological (field) data;
To become experienced in a wide variety of archaeological practical skills;
To know under which circumstances and with what purpose these can be applied (excavation, prospective research, processing, analysis, reporting etc.);
To deepen knowledge about sampling techniques, sample analysis and use of sample data;
Ability to work in a team;
To gain more experience in describing and using archaeological data according to the applicable guidelines;
To obtain insight into the relationship between the research questions and the chosen research method(s);
To gain insight in the organisational, legal, logistic, societal and administrative aspects of a research project;
To obtain knowledge of the historical and theoretical context of a research project;
Ability to write well-structured and relevant daily field notes;
To gain routine and to develop an independent research attitude.
Timetable
Not applicable.
Mode of instruction
Practical, hands-on, participation in an archaeology research project.
Assessment method
A sufficient level of acquired practical skills and the quality of the daily reports and portfolio. This assessment is partly made by the Internship provider (50%);
An internship report, consisting of daily reports and a portfolio (see Brightspace for guidelines). Internship reports are graded by project leaders of Faculty projects, or the internship region coordinator (50%).
A retake is only possible for the report, and only if all other requirements have been met, including handing in the report before the deadline.
The report needs to handed in through Brightspace within six weeks after the last internship day.
Reading list
To be compiled by the student, in consultation with the internship supervisor/provider (study materials depending on the internship(s)).
The reading list must comprise, but is not necessarily limited to, academic literature.
Registration
Enrolment for all components of your study programme through MyStudymap. is mandatory. This applies to both compulsory elements and elective credits. If you are not enrolled, you may not participate.
General information about registration can be found on the Course and exam enrolment page.
Exchange and Study Abroad students, please contact the exchange coordinator for information on how to apply.
All information for those who are interested in taking this course as a Contractstudent is on the Contractonderwijs Archeologie webpage (in Dutch).
Contact
For more information about this course, please contact dr. A.J. (Arjan) Louwen.
Remarks
Compulsory attendance;
This course will be taught in both Dutch and English.