Real archaeologists..?

Question

how is it really being one.

i know the pay isnt wonderful

unless your a curator or professor

but ive read all the google information

but hows it really? whats the most

interestign thing you've found?

Answer 1

I work as a CRM archaeologist, in the private sector, like some ninety percent of archaeologists in the US.  I'm on the bottom rung, too, alas.  It's...  Huh.  It's intense.  I technically still live at my mom's house, because I travel so much there's no point in getting an apartment I'll be at maybe for a month or two each year. I usually live in hotels, and not often in the best areas.  We're usually out in the boonies.  You're thrown into a situation where you basically live, work, and socialize with a fairly small group of people for a few weeks or months, and then you leave them all to go elsewhere.  It's kinda like really short college in that way.  You are also almost never sure where you'll be in a week or a month, which can get stressful.

As for work, well, it's nothing like what you see on tv.  It's days and days of not finding much at all, toiling in the hot sun or freezing in the wind and snow or rain.  There's also a lot of paperwork.

That's the bad.  The good is that you're going to be around people with similar interests all the time.  You do get to see a lot of the country, especially if you're willing to drive around a bit on your days off.  The pay isn't great, but it's not dire either.  You work outside, you do actual physical labor (a plus for me, but not for everyone), and you meet some real characters.  You get instant cool points whenever you tell anyone what you do for a living (although you then have to explain to them that you don't find dinosaur bones).  You also sometimes get those sites that make all the tedium well worth it.  And we get to play with fun, expensive surveying equipment and do sciency stuff dealing with people.  If you like science, hard work, and people, it's awesome.

I worked on a paleo site once where we were pulling up 6,000 year old tools.  That was pretty kick-@ss.  I'm still looking for my jewel-encrusted monkey skull, or whatever the North American equivalent will be.

Ooh, bad archaeologist, I messed this one up.  Archaic site, 8,000 year old tools.  See, you don't even have to be particularly smart!  Heh.