Spain Forensics (Chelva)

This field school provides students with equal parts of excavation (2 weeks) and lab work (2 weeks). The program takes place in the remote community of Chelva, where students live in the local monastery just steps from the excavation area (within the local church). The program teaches students the full process of excavating complex and shared burial ground (bones of many human remains mixed together) followed by two intensive weeks of lab analysis. The program prepares students well for conducting forensics archaeology, but it is not a bioarchaeology field school in the American tradition. This program is a traditional cultural historical field school, a much more European approach to the excavation of human remains.

Recommending the program can definitely help those within the field what they are capable of and if this is something they would like to continue.

Maybe if they wanted to stay in the beautiful convent and would enjoy rural Spain. I would not recommend this based on the academics. There needs to be at least two qualified people helping students with the remains.

Independent learner[s] would enjoy this field school.

It was very interesting getting to experience working with the remains and also experiencing Spanish culture in more rural areas.

It is a unique opportunity

I think it was not emphasized enough in this program to be worth it to live in an extremely rural small village, when other osteology programs exist for less. It was also a constant struggle to keep up with what was going on as there was little to no communication, and people were constantly left out of the loop.

I met so many amazing people from all different backgrounds and learned so much throughout the time i spent here. i wanted to use this experience as a way to see if this subject matter is what i want to pursue as a career and i’m so glad i did because i really enjoy the subject matter and want to continue studying it!

I have learned a lot of important skills and also had a really lovely time here :)

I love Llorenc and Altea. I had a great time. I would come back if financial conditions weren’t a problem for me.

Awesome experience