• Program

Welcome to the Field School in North Atlantic Archaeology, which will take place in Vatnsfjordur, northwest Iceland, from July 2-27. I hope very much that you will enjoy the course, and that you will enjoy your stay in northwest Iceland this summer.

Thanks to the financial support of the Icelandic government, the University Centre of the Westfjords, and the Medieval Westfjords Society, there is no charge for tuition, board or lodging while you are on the field school. However, you are responsible for arranging and paying for your travel to Iceland, and your accommodation in Reykjavik before and after the field school. In addition, you will need to cover your own meals during the excursions and the cost of any evening entertainments.

Please find attached the student manual for the field school, which contains information about Iceland, the excavation at Vatnsfjordur, your accommodation in Reykjanes, and the field school curriculum. It also contains important information about what you should bring with you, how you should arrange your travel itinerary, and what you can do to prepare for the course. The manual should answer most of your questions, but if you have any additional inquiries, please feel free to contact me.

Note that page 15 of the manual consists of a confidential health and safety form, which you should print, fill out, sign, and send to the Institute of Archaeology, Iceland, by June 15. The Institute's mailing address is on page 14.

The attached manual includes a list of recommended readings that will help you prepare for the field school. Because I realise that some of these might be difficult for you to find, I will send a few of them to you in pdf format in a couple of weeks time.

For those of you coming from overseas, it is is important that you book your flight to Iceland and your accommodation in Reykjavik as soon as possible. You should arrange your travels so that you get to Reykjavik in time to meet the minibus going to Reykjanes at 10:30 am on Sunday July 1. I would recommend that you arrive in Reykjavik no later than June 30. You may in fact find cheaper flights on weekdays, and you may therefore wish to arrive a day or two earlier, but you should weigh this choice against the cost of accommodation in Reykjavik. You are responsible for arranging and paying for your own accommodation in Reykjavik, but if you need help, please contact our administrator, Olof Thorsteinsdottir, at olof@instarch.is. This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it The cheapest accommodation in central Reykjavik, close to the Institute of Archaeology, is at the Salvation Army Guesthouse, on Kirkjustraeti 2 (http://www.guesthouse.is). Olof has already reserved a block of rooms for field school students at the Salvation Army Guesthouse, so if you email them to make your booking, please copy her into your correspondence with them.

After the field school, we will be driving back to Reykjavik on Saturday July 28. We will arrive in Reykjavik in the evening, so I would recommend that you book your return flight to leave Iceland no sooner than Sunday July 29. Of course, those of you who are new to Iceland may wish to extend your stay in order to do some site-seeing in Reykjavik and the surrounding area, or even to do some travelling around Iceland. It is a beautiful country, and you will be getting know only one corner of it during the month of July.