How interesting is real archaeology?

Question

How often are you exploring ruins, caves, temples, pyramids ect.?

How often are you doing boring work like on your knees digging in the dirt?

Answer 1

it's not like Indiana Jones. Now, in the old days, it was...people would charge into ruins, blunder about, grab precious artifacts and leave. During the course of this kind of treasure grab, much of the site would be destroyed of course. Nowadays archeologists have to be extremely careful. They have to lay out a grid, take photos, record exactly where artifacts were retrieved, etc. Oftentimes they are using tiny brushes to examine ancient pieces of pottery. It looks like trash but those shards can indicate what time period the site is, what culture made them, etc. So I don't think it's as exciting as it's portrayed but I still think I would have liked that line of work.

Answer 2

If you think the boring work is on your knees then Archaeology isn't for you.

Majority of the work is digging, its not the fantasy that the movies portray. Its very rewarding to find something in many cases just being part of a dig is exciting.

Answer 3

The dig is the holiday part.

Try learning to read a 3,000 year old language from broken pieces of 3,000 year old parchment that looks like a stick of charcoal log.

I am not an archaeologist. My cousin is.

I would never have the patience, or the interest.

He loves it.

Answer 4

It's the analysis that's fun.

Answer 5

My dig last summer was done in the high 90s with no shade. The effects of the bad water meant the half mile run to the toilet was 'interesting." That was the fun part.

For each hour in the field plan on more then an hour in the lab. Plan on lots of writing.

The pit walls will never be straight. Stuff you need will always be back at the truck; if not, then at the lab. The backfill pile will always be where you need to dig next and there's never enough dirt in the backfill pile.

Most of what you'll dig up will be bits of rock (debitage) and broken stuff.

The more experienced you are, the more forms you'll have to fill out.

It's great