Field Tech Life: Can You Make a Living?

The first job anybody who wants to become an archaeologist gets is as a field technician---a hired digger on an archaeological expedition. College student and aspiring archaeologist Michael L wrote me recently, with a few excellent questions about the way the job works:

I read all your articles in the Have Trowel, Will Travel series and found them very insightful and entertaining. Being a field technician sounds like an exciting job, but I was hoping to get some specific advice from a real professional.

The field tech life can be enjoyable, but, what I mean when I say you can't make a living out of it, is that there will come a day when the travel and the lack of stability will make you nuts, and you'll have to find something else to do, whether that means going back for the MA or PhD, or changing careers completely. But the three years I spent shovel-bumming were among the most fun of my life, meeting new people, going to new places and learning new languages.

For Michael's questions, and some answers, see The Life of a Field Technician: What You've Always Wanted to Know. More resources on the life of a beginning archaeologist can be found here:

• Have Trowel Will Travel - the Life of an Archaeologist
• Why People Quit Archaeology
• 1000 Uses for Your Trowel
• How to Sharpen Your Trowel

The photographs used in this essay are of different field experiences throughout the world. Some of them are archaeological field schools, rather than paying gigs, but ... this is what field work looks like. The photograph on this blog entry is of the McNeil Ranch, Texas, and was taken by Jeff Taff.