Program Reviews

The staff are not only dedicated to doing quality work, but also to ensuring that students understand not only the how of excavation but also the why. It's an extremely supportive environment, and you're encouraged to ask questions. Days start early and end late, but you get breaks throughout the day and are well fed. You also get to work under a variety of supervisors, as you get rotated around trenches (usually weekly) so you get to experience a range of different soils, trenches, and artifacts. There's lecture and lab, even though you're living on an island, and IFR students are required to write a short paper during your time there. Weekends are free time to do as you please, and Friday's are half days so you have time to take your laundry to the mainland. Cobh is a beautiful town, and is readily accessible to Cork which has plenty to do and experience.

Academic rigor was not nearly as difficult as I faced in my 4 year university program but focused on independent research and a presentation. The staff did meet with us multiple times to ensure that we were on the right path. Majority of the staff was very knowledgeable and extremely willing to teach and connect with students. I was greatly disappointed that they did not ensure that every student got the chance to work on a burial. Part of this was due to luck and timing, but based on their emphasis of the biological aspect of archeology I expected to leave having worked on a burial. I did however get to handle human remains but very disappointed with my biological week. Food was terrible through the ifr program but the people in my group were amazing. You get a fish bowl effect as you literally spend all your time with your group for five weeks, but still fun and most everyone in the program were extremely close by the end of five weeks. I personally had a problem with one of the teachers. For whatever reason, this particular grad student who was supervising us in a cutting took a dislike to me personally and continually criticized everything I did in a non-constructive manner nor would she show any of us what to do. She even tried to have the site supervisor reassign me to post-ex (washing bones) for the week due to a non-pressing medical reason and you could tell she thoroughly disliked dealing with inexperienced students. We all questioned why she was working at a teaching field school. Other students also had problems with this particular grad student. All other supervisors and program leaders were absolutely wonderful, extremely supportive and eager to teach. I would highly recommend this program to anyone interested in Irish archaeology! Be prepared to do manual labor and realize this is not for those wanting to travel everyday. The work days are long and it is near impossible to leave Trim during the work week. Weekend are free so you can travel then. Trim is wonderful. They have delicious food in town. be prepared to learn a lot, explore trim castle, be apart of some really amazing archaeology and grow to love the sheep on site!

The Spike Island Field School is most wonderful learning experience for a person interested in the criminal justice system and archaeology. With bioarcheology being the main focus, students would learn first hand experience of removing artifacts from the context (matrix or "dirt"), without damaging anything fragile. The learning experience is great as well as meeting new people. From USA to Canada to France and of course Ireland, you manage to learn from different perspectives and gain friends a long the way. Besides You live with them on the Island for the whole month. (Weekends you are able to leave the Island to venture off and enjoy the country). The faculty is great with offering you any answers to your questions even if you are new or old to anthropology or archaeology.