Typical Day For An Archaeologist?

Question

Archaeologists only - please help! What's a typical day like in the office? What's a typical day like at a dig site? How often do you travel? Do you like your job? Thanks!

Answer 1

Just watch Indiana Jones

Answer 2

I like it so much I don't do it right now LOL....some weeks during field season are so tiring, all day out in the field, and we start early! Then comes report writing and artifact cataloging and you could be in the office for months. I rarely traveled because I have a kid and couldn't, but most other people did quite a bit. A typical day is early arrival, maybe as early as 6am, lunch break halfway through the day. We didn't always dig, there are pedestrian surveys, building assessments to do too. Thry looking up Society for American Archaeology, they have lots of info.

Answer 3

http://www.usd.edu/anth/midarch/archdo.h...

Answer 4

I'll preface this by saying the following:  I'm an Egyptian archaeologist.  I'm still in graduate school, but I'm no longer in coursework (I'm working towards my dissertation at this point) and I'm a Research Assistant for an ongoing archaeological project, so I should be a fairly decent example, though it should be noted, most of what I'm writing applies to work in Egypt and Sudan, not necessarily to work elsewhere in the world:

A day in the office (this is pretty typical worldwide):

- Lots of library research on artifacts, parallels to things our team has found, how other scholars have interpreted such artifacts, etc.

- Lots of writing, especially the following:

   - emails to colleagues, fellow team members to discuss various aspects of the project and their responsibilities/interpretations, etc.

  - writing of preliminary and final reports on excavations

  - writing articles, monographs, etc., especially for archaeologists in the academic sector.  Having numerous original publications in your name is essential to job security for most professors and often for archaeologists employed by museums as well

  - writing grant proposals to get funding so we can continue our work

  - preparing paperwork to continue work including permits, travel arrangements, etc.

- Preparing for publication of excavations, this includes:

   - overseeing analysis of artifacts

  - arranging for specialized laboratory tests of artifacts or conducting them yourselves

  - photographing and/or drawing objects for publication, putting them in a format suitable for publication

At a dig site (and this is from a perspective of having to travel far away from "home" to dig, especially in Egypt and Sudan and other parts of the Middle East):

- wake up call, usually at sun up

- drag self out to site, either on foot or by vehicle, depending on what the living arrangements are

- set up surveying instruments so that findspots can be recorded and accurate maps can be made

- if working with locally hired workmen, there's usually a roll-call of some sort and individual supervisors meet with their team and go to work

- checking the site or excavation unit to see what (if anything) might have been moved, taken, covered over, or otherwise disturbed overnight by weather, animals, or people

- if working with hired workers, typically the archaeologist is more of a supervisor for a lot of the actual digging - the workmen move dirt, screen it, etc., and the archaeologist watches (carefully) to be sure that things are mixed together, that the workers aren't going through things they shouldn't be or damaging things by being too rough, etc..  Usually, when it's obvious that there's something sensitive, the archaeologist jumps in to more closely direct the work and/or do the more delicate excavation themselves.  Also, if there isn't really a lot being found, usually the archaeologist helps out with the heavier physical labor.  If there are no hired workers, then the archaeologist is doing all the physical labor him or himself

- whether there are additional hired workmen or not, the archaeologist is responsible for taking careful notes on what they are excavating, what the soil looks like, its color, whether there are features, noting and tagging artifacts/changes in soil/architecture, etc., mapping finds, drawing plans of their excavation unit, asking for photographs to be taken (or taking them themselves).

- depending on who is running the dig and the environmental conditions, usually the dig runs until late afternoon, sometimes until sundown.  There is usually a mid-morning break for breakfast, a lunch break, and then people head back to the living quarters (rented house, tents, whatever)

- the afternoon and early evening is often spent in a combination of household chores (doing your laundry, writing letters, fighting with teammates over access to hot water and soap, etc.) and "archaeological chores" - updating  notebooks, registering finds, doing photography, washing artifacts, helping with mapping, drawing objects,  doing preliminary analysis of artifacts, data entry, etc.

- dinner is often communal and a lot of times this serves as an informal team-meeting sort of environment for people to catch up, announcements to be made, etc.

- I've always worked a 6-day week in the field and that seems to be pretty typical for a lot of overseas digs where time and money are short and a lot needs to be done.

Travel:

- for actual excavation, I typically go out once a year for 2-3 months, preferably in the winter.  Other people go more often, but a yearly season is pretty typical, especially for people who actually lead digs or are heavily involved as support staff for an ongoing project as opposed to just being members of the dig.  And, for academics, especially professors, typically the university doesn't want you gone (and therefore not teaching courses) for more than a few months out of every year.  For students still taking coursework, it can often be a little challenging to balance class schedules and excavation schedules, especially if you want to work somewhere (like Egypt and Sudan) where most people avoid digging in the summer season.

- Travel around the US and outside the US for conferences, to look at objects in museums or other universities, etc. is also pretty typical

- Traveling to give public lectures and drum up support for a project is also fairly common.

I love my job, otherwise I wouldn't do it.  There isn't a lot of money in it, there is a lot of competition for long-term/permanent jobs in the field, and it takes a lot of time, energy, and dedication to get a graduate degree.  It also takes a lot of physical and mental effort to work in the field in a lot of situations.  If I didn't enjoy it (and I think this is true of just about every archaeologist I know) I would be crazy to do this for a living.  It's strenuous, dirty, often uncomfortable work.  Living situations can be primitive at best, plus you need to be able to think on your feet.  In the field, it can in some cases be sort of like living in a "primitive" campground in the US for months - tent or very "open" house, no flush toilet, no running water, no or very limited electricity, but still going to "work" for 8 hours (or more) every day.  The political situation in the places where I work isn't always stable.  I risk a lovely list of tropical diseases just by going to dig, even with vaccinations.  Yeah, if I didn't love this, I would be sort of crazy to do it.  I probably am anyway.

Answer 5

A typical day in the office when I was working for the Smithsonian:

Get out artifacts I was researching.  

Classify them/group them if needed.

Look through all the books we had on hand to find similar artifacts.  

It was enjoyable to an extent mostly b/c of the people I was working with; but it did get monotonous.

We had a team of people assembling pottery; they had 18' long tables with trays filled 2-3" deep with shards.  If they found 2 pieces to put together, it was a good day.

Answer 6

Shovlin has given you a really good answer on the day to day experience of an archeologist.  When I was in field school we typically started early in the morning, created a datum point for the site, surveyed the area with a stadial rod and compass, roped off a square for digging, dug a few inches, took notes on the soil layers, removed dirt and placed it in a screen, if anything was found we then recorded at what stratum it was found at and what it was, pictures were taken or sketches were made and so on.  The next day it was off to the lab to clean our finding, get measurements and put into plastic baggies with labels on them with all the pertinent information.  It was a lot of fun and back breaking work.