Vicky Coates

YAC Membership Co-ordinator |

I am the YAC Membership Co-ordinator and I am responsible for processing YAC UK membership applications, as well as providing administrative support for YAC activities and YAC events. The best part about my job is going to events and interacting with young people who are interested in archaeology.

My main interest is in geography and natural hazards, particularly looking at exciting things like volcanoes and landslides. I have recently completed a Masters degree in Geophysical Hazards at University College London. There is some cross over between archaeological techniques and geographical techniques in particularly in the field of Geophysics.

As part of my Masters dissertation I studied an active landslide in North Yorkshire. I used a resistivity technique called Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) to look at the geology and the water content beneath the surface. In archaeology resistivity is used to locate pits, trenches, foundations, and compacted or disturbed surfaces beneath the ground.

I recently took part in some fieldwork on Mount Etna in Sicily, this involved precise levelling and the use of GPS devices to monitor changes in the shape of the volcano. I used an instrument known as a geodetic level and a level staff/rod which has a numbered scale which looked like a barcode. This technique is used to measure elevation changes with time, which can be recorded through repeat surveys on a monthly basis. Archaeologists use similar techniques to carry out landscape surveys and to map elevations, trench locations, features, artefacts, site boundaries and other important site features.