How is archeology these days?

[Buck]

I don't know who here is an archeologist but if any of you are could you tell me about it. I have wanted to be one since I was 6 years old. (And not because of Indiana Jones!)

Thanks,
Buck

[explorer]

I´m a student and I should finish during next year. I hope I can answer you:

First thing, archeology is quite different in different countries. It depends on many things such as philosophy, political situations, law and so on. For example in my country (Czech Republic, central Europe) is archeology historical science and main result is to understand and reconstruct the past. Archeology in USA and GB is more social science, where is important to understand living of a man in ancient society. In France is it about understanding ancient society in general. But the approach is different even from university to university, so my description is very simplified.

About the work, there are two main kinds of research.

Systematically research, usually payed by university or museum. First you find a place, where is possible something to find. Place like this you can recognize thanks to ruins on surface, strange shape of terrain, strange shape or color of green (usually you have to take pictures from airplane), or you can find some description in historical documents. There are many ways. Than you go on place you have found and you can start with digging. This kind of research (excavation) is slow and precise, because you have a lot of time.

Second kind, more common, is rescue research. You dig on the place where somebody want to build something. You work as it is possible and you are payed by builder/investor.

Own research depends on location, where you want to dig. In movies you can often see archaeologists working with brushes, but in field you mostly use pickaxe or shovel. First you usually have to remove layer of grass, bushes and so on. Than you work more careful. You have to look at the earth and recognize singles layers of earth, because layers can tell you many things about history of place you examine. For example you have found Celtic necklace under layer of red burned earth mixed with ash. So you can have theory this was Celtic (Gallic) city destroyed by Romans. Than you take a sample of ash in laboratory, where they can tell you this ash is about two thousands years old. Now can you help for example historical documents, where you can find for example some description of a battle which can happened in this place in this time. If you than find Roman coin you can date in this time, it is proof for the battle and you can reconstruct, what happened here. Of course, it is only an example, in reality it is´nt so easy. During the work you have to do a lot of documentation too. You have to measure and to draw everything, take a few photos and in the end public all you results.

So this is how it works. Legendary treasures and are not only in movies, but usually you can see it only in museums. We can only hope a few of us will be lucky. As well as most of well-preserved monuments was found in the past already, but there are still places to explore. I hope you know now what you want.

[explorer]

During the summer I was working with friends in Aquileia in north part of Italy. This was very important city in roman period and today it is one of the most important excavations in the "antic world". I will post some pictures here soon, but today is too late for me, sorry.

[Buck]

thanks it sounds realy neat! I heard it is very teadius (Sorry if my spelling isn't great.) is that true? And how long do you have to be in collage? (4 years 8 years etc...) And do you need to know more than one language? Do archeologist tend to do both excavations and lab work or just one? (like the field archeologist dig it up then send it.)(sorry for so many questions.)

Thanks

[explorer]

That´s ok, don´t be shy and ask me.

First sorry, I can´t, find word "teadius" in dictionary, so please try to describe what you mean.

About college, I can describe you only situation here in Czech Republic. I don´t know other systems so well and it can be different (for example in Italy is it quite different...)
In our country you have to study minimally 3 years (theoretically you can finish the school in 2 years, but it is quite difficult-this possibility use mostly people who have studied something similar before or who have been kicked out of school and now they are trying the same school again). After 3 (or 2) years you will be "Bachelor of Arts" (Bc.). Now you can continue in studies next 2 years to be "Magister" (Mgr.-I can´t find English equivalent) and after next 4 years you can be "Doctor of archeology" (PhD.). With higher degree you can get better work, but in the case somewhere is job only for Bachelor and they have no money to pay next Doctor, you can have problem "you have too high degree for this work". This happened mostly when you are trying to find job out of archeology.

languagesages, I think you will need more than one. It mostly depend on place, where you want to work and what exactly you want to do. If you want to study and work only in USA, English maybe can be enough, I don´t know, but if you want to work for example in Mexico, you should speak Spanish. In Czech Rep. you need to know more languagues: 1) to cooperate with foreign people, usually no one else can speak Czech 2) when you work abroad, you need to understand not only to your co-workers, but to other people, signs, descriptions etc. 3) especially older scientific literature was written in foreign languages (esp. German).
(So I for example speak Czech, English, German, I understand little Latin. I understand some Slavic languages too (such Slovakian, Polish, very little Slovenian), but this is because this languages are quite similar, or little Italian because I have been in Italy lately quite often. More languages means more possibilities so I hope I would learn Italian or Spanish or French soon. It´s good for traveling too )

About lab work, this work is mostly highly specialized, so we know more or less how does it work, but we don´t work in labs. And it is same with historical documents, because it´s mostly very difficult to understand ancient languagues, we usually let this work for specialists. So as you said, we dig it and then we send to specialists, but they send us their results and we can do the final work.

I hope this will help you. And where are you from (if it´s not secret)? And what period or civilization you´re interested in?

[Buck]

Sorry my spellings so bad

The word I meant to put was tedious like maybe you have to write a word 1,000 times, that would be tedious work. (Hope that helps.)

I'm from over here in the USA
and I like Ancient history in Europe and north Africa.

[explorer]

Ok, I understand now. I don´t think it´s tedious. On dig site you may have many different functions during one day as well as you can work with shovel all day. It depends on concrete situation. Archeology is hard work and you don´t earn much money, but it´s still exciting. It´s true it´s not same on all places. For example I dig medieval graveyard now and I don´t like this place. This location is on the court of old factory, surrounded by industrial junk, and we work all days in cold mud. On the other hand there was no shade in the summer...

Anyway I´m really happy there is somebody interested in this things. I´m interested in same place like you. I always want to work in Egypt, but time goes and I discover there are so many interested places, not only Egypt. Second thing is it´s really hard to be accepted in Egyptology school and this college is opened only once a 6 years. I still want to try it sometime in the future, but now I do what I do and I´m satisfied with that. I´m interested in ancient Crete too and bronze age in our country have many connections with that, so now I want to specialize myself in this. Maybe I´ll be lucky and I´ll work in the future with some expedition on Crete, joiner of Egypt and Europe. But first I have to finish first part of school (to be Bc.).

If you want to know anything else, just ask me

[Buck]

thanks! I'll think of more questions later. good luck on that degree. And if you go on any digs do tell it would be neat to hear about it.

Thanks
-Buck

[explorer]

My photos are in gallery "Adventures of Explorer" here: indylounge.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gallery&action=display&thread=4488

[zmarty]

hey explorer. thanks for posting some info. i plan to later do some work with archeology when i get out of high school. i want to be a linguist also (cause it would probably help with traveling, de coding, etc..). as i travel i also plan to do some missionary work. and thanks again for giving me a little peice of mind about what you do.

[explorer]

You're welcome. About traveling, I mostly use English everywhere, but it's always better to know local language. And even a few words or apology you don't speak their language can make wonders! And what kind of archeology do you want to do, do you have some idea? And where do you want to do missionary work?

[goodeknight]

Hi Buck,

I did a Master's degree in anthropology and sociology at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. My plan was to go into archaeology, but I wound up a television reporter (been to South Africa, Ethiopia, Zambia, Alaska, and Haiti for work, plus all over the continental US). While living in Egypt, I spent part of a summer on a dig in the Valley of the Kings.

Regarding your questions, as Indy himself says, 'Seventy percent of archaeology is done in the library, research, reading.' Something like that. That should probably be amended to "Seventy percent of your time will be spent in the classroom."

There are very few archaeologists who do field work full time. Field work is the exciting part. Teaching at a university pays the bills, both your own bills and the bills for the expeditions. So, most profs teach during the school year and then hit the field in the summers, often taking students along to do the grunt work. That's your best real intro to the field. If you're really interested, find a school that has work going on in the field, and make sure they will have opportunities for students to spend their summers out there working.

As for your languages question, yes, you will almost certainly need to know multiple languages. First, the local language for the place where you're working. So if you go into Egyptology, you'd want to speak Arabic. But you would also need to know various forms of the ancient Egyptian language: Hieroglyphic, Demotic, Coptic, Hieratic, maybe a little Greek, too. Lots of ancient languages to choose from depending on where you want to work: Latin, ancient Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew, cuneiform (script), etc.

I'll also add that most scholars also know a good bit of French and/or German. Why? So they can read books by fellow archaeologists who happen to be from France or Germany.

And regarding the number of years for school, to be a full blown archaeologist, you're looking at at least eight years. Four years for your bachelors, plus another four for a PhD (doctorate).

OPTIONS: There are many people who make up an expedition. You can get four-year or two-year degrees, or sometimes just gain enough field experience to make yourself very useful and marketable. You can study fields such as preservation, restoration, architecture, photography, or surveying. That'll get you in the field more often. You won't make as much, and you probably won't be in charge, but your work will be varied.

That brings me to my last point. Yes, there is a lot of tedious work involved. It may take months or years to clear a room and properly photograph and catalog a find. Some professors spend their entire career working on a single small temple. At AUC, one professor's main topic was meat production in the New Kingdom. Another spent years studying the dental records of one line of pharaohs. Not exactly the stuff of Indiana Jones.

Oh, one more last point -- many universities have study abroad programs. Usually you spend half or all of your junior year studying overseas. As you apply to colleges, check to see if they have a study abroad program. They should have a list of universities where you can study and have your credits transfer so they go toward your degree.

Regards,
Dan