I have signed up to do a couple more MOOCs, free on-line courses, and one is on marine archaeology. Swimming was always my sport, but I don’t do it any more… so if I actually wanted to do a real marine archaeology course then I’d have to get back in training! I did a MOOC from Brown University, Archaeology’s Dirty Little Secrets, which was excellent – I learned so much, and really recommend it to anyone who has an interest in finding about the past in a practical way.
One of the great things I came away from the Dirty Little secrets course, was looking at landscapes in a different way. Obviously I’m no expert, I’ve only did a tiny little bit of study, but even so, I do find I look at what’s beneath my feet and around me in a different way. I look at lumps and bumps now and try to think why they are there, what they might be telling me if only I could read them properly… and try to guess in my inexperienced way, what the landscape might be able to tell me. This was one of the first rules the course taught me, look and think before you do anything else… I suppose that’s a good rule for most things!
Lois Elsden 