Island Archaeology Field School - Jersey

2026 ISLAND ARCHAEOLOGY SUMMER SCHOOL - THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL MAP OF JERSEY

20 June - 11 July

The 2026 JICAS Island Archaeology Field School is run in partnership with the Société Jersiaise, Jersey Heritage and accommodated in the 500-year-old Elizabeth Castle. At our 2026 Island Archaeology Summer School, we offer you the chance to work with academics and practitioners from leading UK and European universities to learn by observing, questioning and doing. Within these three-week field courses, we consider key questions in Island Archaeology (such as seafaring, settlement and abandonment) comparatively on Jersey and beyond, and explore how they can be approached via different analytical methods, including landscape and network approaches. These approaches and more will coincide with the excavation work at La Hougue de Vinde as the basis of our planned field survey.

Cost: £2,500 (tuition, shared accommodation at Elizabeth Castle, dinner Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for weeks 2 and 3, self-catering facilities, transportation to and from all field work and entry, day trip to Sark and all other cultural activities).  info@jicas.ac.je

www.jerseyheritage.org/stay/the-elizabeth-castle-retreat/

La Hougue de Vinde, Noirmont, Jersey

La Hougue de Vinde is a megalithic monument described by the Jersey HER as “a circular tumulus bearing similarities to the cist-in-circle series” dated approximately to the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age (circa 2850-2250 BC).  The cist-in-circle tumulus series represents a burial tradition that is thought to have developed in Jersey. Examples are also found in Guernsey, Herm and Alderney, and attributed to the Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age.

Field School leader: Dr Matthew Pope (MCIfA. FSA.) 

Dr Matthew Pope is Associate Professor in Palaeolithic archaeology at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. He leads multiple fieldwork projects spanning the last 600,000 years of the early human occupation record in Northern Europe. Over the last 13 years he has helped to lead the reexamination of the Paleolithic record of Jersey which has included excavations at La Cotte de St Brelade and Les Varines.

Field School leader: Dr Helen Dawson (MCIfA) 

Dr Helen Dawson is adjunct professor at the Department of History and Culture at the University of Bologna, and associate research fellow at the Department of Prehistory at the Freie Universität Berlin. She has extensive fieldwork experience and a special interest in islands, which goes back to her first dig as an undergraduate in Barbados in 1997, followed by more fieldwork in the islands of the Mediterranean (Sicily, Cyprus, the Cyclades), a topic on which she has published widely. 

Field School leader: Dr Hervé Duval (ACIfA)

Dr Hervé Duval is Field Archaeologist at the Société Jersiaise and associate research fellow to the UMR 6566, CReAAH, Rennes 1 University. Based in Jersey since 2022, he is in charge of developing research programs in the Channel Islands and promoting the work of the Archaeology Section. His research is mostly focused on Protohistory and he is both interested in island archaeology and erosion monitoring.