Six free workshops were held across the country over the summer of 2019 to train archaeological practitioners in the use of the Selection Toolkit and the development of project specific selection strategies.
The workshops were aimed at all archaeological practitioners that are involved in the selection process, including Project Managers, Planning Archaeologists, Museum Curators and Specialists.
Workshop Locations
12 Jun 2019 | Birmingham, Birmingham Midlands Institute |
4 Jul 2019 | Cambridge, Central Library |
24 Jul 2019 | York, The King’s Manor |
21 Aug 2019 | Taunton, Creative Innovation Centre |
4 Sep 2019 | Manchester, The Mechanics Centre |
18 Sep 2019 | London, Marx Memorial Library |
Outline
The workshops began by presenting the Selection Strategy Toolkit project rationale and the importance of preparing a suitable selection strategy at the outset of an archaeological project. The workshops then introduced the Selection Toolkit and its resources to participants. Participants then carried out a practical exercise using the toolkit to develop a selection strategy for a examplar archaeology project. This activity encouraged participants to think critically and strategically about how to create a selection strategy, the workflow they should follow, the additional guidance or documentation they may need to consult, and the people they will need to collaborate with as part of selection strategy creation process.
Following this exercise participants were asked to present the selection strategies they have developed and justify the reasoning behind their choices. Guided by the session leaders, participants were provided with the opportunity to assess strengths and weaknesses of the strategies they developed and compare their selection strategise to a real life example. The workshops concluded with participants thinking about the steps they would need to take to better integrate selections strategies within their own workflows and how they might best achieve this.
Programme
10:00 | Coffee and registration |
10:30 |
Introduction: Developing a Selection Toolkit for Archaeological Archives and background to the project (PDF file) |
11:00 |
The Selection Toolkit |
11.15 |
Selection Strategy Exercise: Planning for selection |
12:15 | Lunch (provided) |
13.00 |
Selecting the Material Archive (PDF file) |
13:20 |
Selection Strategy Exercise: Implementing selection |
14:20 | Selection Strategy Discussion |
15:00 | Coffee/Tea Break |
15:15 |
Advocacy and Next Steps Exercise (PDF file) Participants were asked to think about what steps they would need to take and what would be realistic targets to work towards to better integrate selections strategies within their own workflows. Participants were also be provided with a set of advocacy tools to help aid participants take the key learning objectives of the workshop back to their own organisations which are available from the resources page. |
16:00 | End |