Floor Huisman: Trevs Trust Travel Bursaries x2

Both of my Trevelyan Trust Travel Bursary applications were made in the context of my PhD research in the Department of Archaeology at Durham University. The aim of my PhD project is to contextualise later prehistoric (c. 4000 BC-40 AD) wetland sites and communities in the East Anglian Fens (UK). I am examining how wetland(er)s fit in the wider socio-cultural and physical landscape by considering past human-environment interaction through a comparison of foodways in different environments. Taking the data of several important later prehistoric sites in and around the East Anglian Fenlands as a starting point, I intend to study if, how and why wetland settlement and communities differed from their dryland contemporaries, how they related and to what extent they interacted. 

Fenland fieldwork: the Must Farm excavation, Cambridge (2015)

The first time I applied for a Trevelyan Trust Travel Bursary, I asked for money to spend three weeks in Cambridge, where I joined the Cambridge Archaeological Unit for their excavation of the now famous Late Bronze Age settlement of Must Farm, which is one of the key case studies in my PhD research. Here the Cambridge Archaeological Unit (CAU) has discovered a very well preserved Bronze Age settlement, with nearly intact timber structures, eight log boats and many fish traps and weirs in a nearby palaeochannel. The site offers a unique insight into how the dynamic wetland environment affected people’s lifestyles and possibly their culture, identity and ideology.

The first-hand experience of working on Must Farm greatly increased my understanding of the site and its context and provided me with a greater understanding of the Bronze Age Fenland landscape and the evidence categories which I am currently studying. Moreover, I gained some very valuable fieldwork skills in a commercial archaeological context. My fieldwork also provided me with new insights and a deeper understanding of my study area, and valuable archaeological fieldwork and more general transferable skills, which are key in any career after my degree. I would not have been able to live in Cambridge for three weeks had it not been for the Trevelyan Trust Travel Bursary, so I am most grateful to the alumni who support this initiative.

European Association of Archaeology Annual Meeting, Vilnius (2016)

The second time I applied for a Trevelyan Trust Travel Bursary to attend a major archaeological conference in Vilnius. The Annual meeting of the European Archaeology Association (EAA) is the is the most important archaeological conference in Europe, and one of the two most important archaeological conferences in the world. I presented two papers in two different sessions. Attending and presenting at the EAA meeting benefitted me and my research in several ways.

In my first paper on contextualising palaeoecology and environmental change I addressed several key themes in my research, including the interaction between people and the environment and wetland archaeology’s contribution to the larger discipline of archaeology. The second session I attended and presented in was focused on wetland settlements across Europe. Here, wetland archaeologists from all over Europe presented their wetland sites and latest research. I learnt about wetland settlements in eastern Europe, the Baltic states, Russia and even Greece, which allowed me to contextualise my research more widely than before.

Preparing for, writing and presenting my papers helped me focus my research, organise my thoughts and further develop some of my main research interests, which furthered my overall research. Moreover, presenting my research to a large, international archaeology audience provided me with an opportunity to share my ideas with and get feedback from some of the leading scholars in my field. This, as well as attending other presentations in the same sessions and talking to scholars with similar research interests provided me with new ideas and insights which helped me to further develop my own research. I made some very useful contacts with colleagues in Denmark, Germany, Austria and Macedonia, all of whom are working on similar issues.

In summary, presenting at and attending the EAA Annual Meeting in Vilnius allowed me to share and discuss my research with an international audience. I was able to introduce and establish myself as an early career researcher in wetland archaeology and made important contacts amongst colleagues outside the UK. Thus, as part of my professional development, as a means of publicising my research, and as a way of connecting with researchers working on similar themes, my attendance at the EAA in Vilnius was essential. However, I would not have been able to travel to and stay in Vilnius without the Trevelyan Trust Travel Bursary that I received, so I am very grateful to all those who support this initiative.