When you learn that archeologist is among the highest-paying social science jobs, you might think you could earn a lucrative living as a real-life version of the fictional archeologist Indiana Jones. Long before you enroll in a college degree program in archeology, you should be aware that the job duties of a real archeologist have little to do with what you see in this overdramatized film franchise. Real archeologists engage in fieldwork, but it is much different from what you see on the big screen. In fact, archeologists in real life spend much more of their time planning the recovery of artifacts and studying and reporting on those artifacts than they do out in the field.
What Fieldwork Is Like for Real-Life Archeologists
Like Indiana Jones, real-life archeologists take part in fieldwork on a regular basis throughout their careers. However, that fieldwork is nowhere near the types of dangerous adventures Indiana Jones has with each installment in his film series. Most artifacts aren’t stashed away in temples full of deadly booby traps, although there may well be other dangers involved. Dodging massive boulders and engaging in high-energy chases to track down, or escape from, rival treasure hunters aren’t really part of the job description.
The experience of being out in the field is, however, one of the most exciting aspects of the job. Not only does fieldwork take an archeologist to remote and exotic locales, but it also presents the opportunity to make discoveries that can change the fields of anthropology and archeology forever. In the course of their fieldwork, an archeologist could unearth a long-lost artifact that sheds new light on how a past civilization used technology, how families and communities were structured and what the prevailing cultural norms and beliefs were.
The fieldwork performed in archeology isn’t always glamorous, sometimes requiring you to spend months living in harsh conditions out in nature. However, archeologists have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the modern culture of the geographical region of the site which they are excavating.
Thanks to the demands of fieldwork, archeologists need a good deal of physical stamina to carry their field equipment to, from, and through an excavation site, which can mean walking several miles, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The Systematic Study and Social Science of Archeology
If your expectations of what it is like to be an archeologist come from watching Indiana Jones’s cinematic experiences, there’s a good chance you are overlooking a huge part of what it’s like to work in this field. Unlike Indiana Jones, real archeologists don’t spend most of their time running around on daring adventures. Most archeologists spend between four and eight weeks on location each year conducting fieldwork, according to the BLS. That means that actually going out into the field constitutes just a small fraction of their professional life.
What do archeologists do when they’re not in the field? They begin planning for their hands-on research in the field long before they start digging up a site. They have to identify a likely site for discoveries based on existing knowledge and research findings. Through the use of technological equipment, archeologists can survey a site. Archeologists must decide which methods of excavation they need to be prepared to execute to explore the site and work on acquiring and training to use that equipment. Then there are the logistics of planning the research endeavor, including when to undertake the trip, which may depend on factors like climate and weather patterns.
Once an archeologist returns home from fieldwork, they need to examine the artifacts their research yielded and report on their findings. They use different types of dating techniques, such as carbon dating and radiometric dating technologies, to determine the age of the artifacts they have found. To aid in further study – their own and that of other researchers in the field – they record detailed information about the properties and characteristics of the artifact and the precise geographical location where it was found. Archeologists may compare artifacts found in one location to those in another to determine if they came from the same civilization or if they serve as evidence of changes in a society over time. Preserving and restoring the artifacts they find and conserving and protecting the excavation site for further research are also important parts of a career as an archeologist, according to O*NET.
Aside from fieldwork, archeologists and anthropologists spend much of their time working in laboratories or offices, according to the BLS.
Related Resources:
What Is the Difference in Becoming an Anthropologist and an Archeologist?
What Are the Differences Between Biological, Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology?
What Are the Best Personality Qualities to Have to Become an Archeologist?
How Do the Two Fields of Anthropology and Archeology Work Together?
For Further Reading: