How does an archaeologist spend his or her day?
Mahamat Sale at the African Iron Age site of Aissa Dugjé, Cameroon
Photo Credit: Scott MacEachern (c) 1998It struck me that, fictional archaeologists notwithstanding, most people don't have a clue how archaeologists actually spend their days. So, a few years ago I invited some archaeologists to describe what their days were like. And you may find a few surprises.
Mahamat Sale at the African Iron Age site of Aissa Dugjé, Cameroon
Photo Credit: Scott MacEachern (c) 1998
Archaeological Lives
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I am writing this from our archaeological excavation house in central Anatolia (Turkey). This year we have wireless internet at camping so I just wanted to use it…
We are doing a survey since the beginning of September and we found many Middle Paleolithic and Neolithic/Chalcolithic sites. Volcanic region of Central Anatolia is one of the biggest obsidian source in Old World, so the finds are mostly (99.9%) obsidian.
Actually summer time is usually difficult for the archaeologists. Because I have been here, far from my house and family since more than two months. This time we have connection, but earlier years, like 8-9 years ago, we had no internet, no cell phones. It was more difficult…
We are walking on mountain all day. There are lots of rhyolithic rocks and obsidian. So my shoes are almost thorn apart. Carrying the finds (finds like bifaces and big cores are heavy!) and water and food for the day in my backpack makes walking “a little bit” more hard.
Today we did not go for survey because we had collected lots to analyze. So we stayed at house and analyzed the material. At 8AM I woke up and had a very nice breakfast (normally we wake up at 7AM). After that I started to take photos. After taking some hundreds of photos, I worked on them with PhotoShop. Now it is nearly 11 o’clock at night. And this is the first time that I have chance to take a little rest. I think I’ll go to sleep very soon, because tomorrow is a fieldwork day!
Fascinating material. Thanks!
An archaeologist spends his time mostly on the internet and in the library doing research and looking for funding for doing fieldwork in areas of interest. After doing research and finding funding field projects are put together utilizing people of talents in biological, cultural anthropology and geological criteria. Once the field assignment is completed and all the artifacts and skeletal remains including floral and fauna specimens are cataloged and recorded a painstaking process of data analysis begins to incorporate all your findings in a field report to be published in a medium of general circulation. It pays to have associations with journalists to do your PR releases and to establish contacts in your areas of interest who know the local dialects and customs and to help with transportation and temporary work in case your funding runs out and you still have to finish your assignment.