Abstract:

Archaeological interdisciplinary investigations in Leba, Poland were held by Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of Gdansk (IAiE UG). The site is located on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea. The interdisciplinary project was created to reveal the remains of medieval church of st. Nicolas and its graveyard. Archaeology and ethnology students and faculty members, joint faculty members of Gdansk University of Technology (PG) and independent anthropologist were involved in excavation, supplemented by field ethnographic research, during the years 2016 and 2018.

During the archaeology field school several workshops for students were implemented, including: teaching the measuring system, public archaeology, teaching the human body, interpreting the site and finds in the social context. As one of the aspects of educational project using the design teaching and creative thinking actions, students were trained in interpreting archaeological finds. The main aim of these actions was to teach of understanding the past by describing objects and contending their probable use. For these particular goals, several educational methods where used. Students were trained in: describing human body elements, describing context of its deposition, describing and identifying raw material finds and its context, interviewing local people in perspective of items used in everyday life and conducting ethnographic interview among local community about the background of today's sense of site (visible ruins), which was a sacral area in the past. Other educational methods used in the field school included: place-based education, project based learning, maker education, personalized learning and drama. The first method was implemented by describing surroundings and interviewing local community. The discovered items including the fishers equipment and church interior elements where placed for students description and interpretation during the discussion. Learning the materials used to produce the items or architectural details has been applied while practical workshops. Interpretation of finds was introduced individually by students based on their particular abilities. Conducting an ethnographic interview was trained by students in pairs, to practice the interviewing before the actual field research among local community took place. As a result, students improved their skills of creative thinking about the artifacts discovered during the excavation, learned how to carry out an interview among the local community and gain information useful for the project. The goals were achieved by joint actions of faculty members of archaeology and ethnology. Students of archaeology and ethnology learned to work in an interdisciplinary surrounding, using various methods.

Keywords:

Archaeology, ethnology, education, Poland, students.