How to become a practicing archaeologist?

Question

Is it necessary to earn a PhD in order to work on archaeological projects that personally interest you? i.e. not just being sent out by a gov't agency or museum to excavate what they want you to?

Answer 1

I think you may be saying that you want to work on archeological projects that you organize on your own, rather than working for a museum or government agency. To answer that question, essentially archeologists need at minimum two things to do a project, 1) funding and 2) access to a given site. Usually funding comes from a university, museum, government or private organization and to get this money you must write grant proposals. They're not going to give you money and permission to go ahead unless they approve of your project. Now assuming you were going to do a project completely funded by your own money if you were very rich, you would still need permission to excavate a site and you are unlikely to get this from a government unless you are an archeologist holding a PhD. You can't just buy land and dig it up and keep what you find. There is a lot of debate over who should be able to keep certain archeological items (for example, should they belong to the descendants of the group or the national government in question?) and whether or not anyone should have a right to dig them up at all, but certainly just some person with an interest in archeology and no degree is not going to get the rights to keep that stuff.

If you have a B.A. in archeology or you are an undergraduate there are digs you can go on as a student/intern, but you will definitely have to do what the people on the dig want you to do, it won't be your own dig.

Answer 2

You only need a Bachelor's degree to work on archaeological projects.  Get a BA and do some field school which will give you hands on experience.  There are grants and funding abound for work in archeology.  You do not need to have a PhD (though MA and PhD never hurt) to do work YOU want to do.  Often you can find an archaeologist working on projects you like, they are the ones who will secure funding and you can attach yourself to them.  After working on their project (which should interest you) you can likely use the data to write a thesis and dissertation for your MA and PhD if you want to continue on to this level.

Short Answer:  You do not need an advanced degree to work in archeology or to work on projects you like and find interesting but working on these projects usually leads to a Master and possibly a PhD.

Answer 3

What do you want to do?  Most archaeologists in the US work in the private sector, for CRM firms.  Besides some difficulty in getting into certain areas, you can find all sorts of digs across the US, both historic and prehistoric, and you just need a bachelor's and field school to get on them.  Check out shovelbums.org and archaeologyfieldwork.com to see what's out there.

Working outside the US is more difficult, because there are plenty of people who want to do it.  The easiest way is to go to grad school there or to a US grad school studying wherever there is.  You may also luck out and find a field school conducted in that area.  You can also do it if you know people and are willing to work for free.  I knew an oldtimer in CRM who loved to tell stories of working in... Guam?  Honduras?  Somewhere.  He had a friend who did work down there, and he worked for a year before they started paying him, but he did it.