For most teenagers, summer means lazing by the pool or catching up with friends. For Cecilia Brine, a student at Santa Monica High School, it meant something rather more extraordinary: four weeks on her hands and knees at the ancient Roman city of Pollentia, unearthing artefacts that had lain buried on the Spanish island of Mallorca for close to two thousand years. Working alongside professional archaeologists and a small international team of fellow students, the 16-year-old helped bring to light human burials, Roman coins, the remains of old taverns and what may be the city's oldest known building. Organised through ArchaeoSpain, the field school is one of only a handful in the world designed specifically for high school students, blending hands-on excavation with lessons in Spanish history and culture. It was, by all accounts, an education far removed from anything a classroom could offer.
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