How would a person become an archaeologist?

Question

I would want to become an archaeologist. I am only in High school but i want to look ahead. What would be a good school for this and how would i become one?

Answer 1

Study archaeology in college would be step one (well, after finishing high school).

You might look at the websites for state colleges in your state, and see if they have archaeology programs, and read up on what they require.

When you get to college, you'll get an advisor in your chosen area, and they'll help you figure out what you need to take to do what you want.

You could also look for job postings for archaeology-related jobs and see what they ask for in applicants.

In college you have to take about two year's worth of General Education courses (classes in a wide variety of fields), as well as classes for your major; so you have lots of time to do all of what you need to do.

I would expect you'll be looking at grad school, too. But that's likely to include field work.

Go to some university web sites, and read up on what everyone is up to.

Answer 2

I suggest you take a look at these web pages to learn about college level archaeological studies and career opportunities:

http://www.saa.org/Careers/job-listing.h...

http://www.museum.state.il.us/ismdepts/a...

http://archaeology.about.com/od/question...

http://archaeologic.com/jobs_in_archaeol...

Unlike most of the links above, I would strongly recommend getting yourself some experience as a volunteer or signing up for a field school (as a pre-college or a continuing education student) to 'get your hands dirty' before committing to this career choice.  The archaeology you read about in text books and see on TV has very little to do with what beginning archaeologists do, and many people's interest in the field wane as they get more involved in it professionally.  

You may want to try to identify a college near your home which has an archaeology program and offers a field school (usually under the Anthropology Department) and see if they accept high school age students with a strong interest into their field school.  

Good luck!

Answer 3

The most basic way is to major in anthropology or history in college. Archeology is a specialization in the field of anthropology unless you have an interest in HISTORICAL archeology, which is usually a specialization in a college history program.

Within anthropology, getting experience in the field is ery helpful in understanding what archeology is really like. Most counties in every state has an archeology society and these societies serve as a volunteer network to help identify sites within the county that have been used by prehistoric populations. Most counties require that large scale construction on undeveloped land include a survey of the land to see if there is evidence of prehistoric sites, and this gives these county archeological societies much work.

Small scale archeological digs occur every summer in every state. These are generally run by the county societies as well as local college anthropology departments. All digs love to have volunteers and this will REALLY let you know what being an archeologist is really like. Be ready to work hard and get really dirty. Its also very meticulous work, with alot less of the spectacular finds that you see on TV and a lot more discovery of what native americans threw away in their trash.

Historical archeology is more specialized and programs for this type of training are harder to find. These archeologists spend time working on the types of digs in areas of historical interest, like Egypt, Mexico, and Asia. These archeologists spend their efforts helping to gather information about ciivilizations in the historical period that we have limited knowledge about and include much more of a combination of clasic academic (classroom) learning and fieldwork.

Hope this was helpful.

aj