Example archaeology dissertation topic 9:

Community-based archaeological digs: Is archaeology the province of the wider community, or a peculiar specialism?

The October 2012 archaeological dig at Great Chilton, Durham has unearthed interesting finds including a quern and evidence of several roundhouses, suggesting that the site could date back to 500BC. It is an example of a community-dig in which archaeological experts and students have been joined by local community volunteers. Whilst noting that such community involvement may help to fund research and raise the profile of archaeology, this dissertation questions whether it is either appropriate or desirable (given the nature of potential artefacts) for non-professional archaeologists (or those from associated disciplines) to take part in the actually digging and recovery processes involved in archaeological digs and asks whether the trade-off between funding and widening-participation with potential site contamination is a price that the discipline should be expected to pay.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Atalay, S. (2010). ”We don’t talk about Çatalhöyük, we live it’: Sustainable archaeological practice through community-based participatory research’, World Archaeology, Vol. 42(3), pp. 418-429.
• Priestley, C. (2012). ‘Dig in Chilton discovers Iron Age farmstead’, The Northern Echo, 20th October 2012.
• Silliman, S.W. (ed.) (2008). Collaborating at the trowel’s edge: Teaching and learning in indigenous archaeology. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.