The next dig after that involved more sieving. Now sieving, although an important job, has got to be one of the most mind numbingly boring tasks on any dig. Especially when you are keen on getting excavation experience and you're wading through clay for weeks on end. Like I said, it's a hard heavy slog of a job and is not for the faint-hearted. For one dig, also for a consulting company, sieving was all I did. For two weeks. It was enough to drive me batty. It involved lifting heavy buckets filled with dirt on to an upstanding sieve, where we would then haul buckets of water into it to wash away the dirt. Wet sieving the hard way. My shoulders, back and arms screamed each day, but I kept a stiff upper lip and kept on. It was after all, very good pay and a company that didn't exploit poor students (that much).
It was during these sieving sessions that you bond most with fellow labourers and I heard stories of consulting companies driving students to the brink with labour for as little as $20 per day. The companies were preying on the shovel bum's need to gain experience, but giving them very little experience and getting a whole lot of labour out of them for little to no pay. Indigenous representatives and qualified archaeologists (with honours degrees) were gaining $400-$600 a day, the company millions in development contracts, and apparently money was too scarce for students. A pool of vulnerable students to draw from for pretty much free labour, it's rather like a dream to some of the consulting companies out there.
The Reality: Get Your Degree
I've as yet have only been associated with two companies who have paid adequately for the labour provided by students. These companies have also provided training beyond the scope of sieving and I appreciate both of them greatly. The others were pretty nasty.
Another problem is, however, staying on with any given firm. And the lack of communication. After a dig you worked your shovel bum off in, nobody gives you a call to say...'well done' or 'you need improvement in this area.' With this vital information, how are you going to improve? I spoke to a few students who were merely frustrated at not being told if they were doing well or not. They had no mentor-ship, or bench mark. You can get this if you are nearing the end of your studies or going on to honours, or you know the firm director/site supervisor personally. All in all it's a rather tough industry to crack. The key is your honours degree. Once you have that, doors will open and you will be given trials. But then again it depends on the company you're with.
I've known a few students who have completed their honours and have gotten into a company and have been mistreated or have been stuck sieving for a year and have quit archaeology altogether. There are also ethical companies and not-so ethical ones. I have seen many an outraged Indigenous representative on site, who is angry about how their heritage has been managed. Some companies are out-right rude and discriminatory, others exploitative. Suffice to say my eyes have opened as to the industry operating here in Australia. It's a very tight-knit small community, and it pays to do your research and seek employment in only the companies whose ethics and practices you can abide by. I'm sure this kind of thing goes on in every heritage group across the globe. It would've been nice to have been warned. I think I've circumnavigated quite well, though, and learned much.
What the Universities Say
A few professors at my university look down on consulting firms and refer to their methods as 'shot gun' and lacking the ethics of university-funded excavations as it is market-driven and adding to the archaeological record was side-lined for profit margins. Having said this, they did admit that the university did not offer adequate field schools to save students from having to go through consulting firms. Students do at least pick up some basic skill sets that will give them a much better idea about archaeology and what it takes - physically at least. And they will hopefully get in with a company that takes care of them.
One of the better things I learned was how to make a trench all nice and tidy. It's one of those skills that every archaeologist judges every other archaeologist on. How well you can dig a trench? Is it a perfect square? Or are all the edges nicely shaved off, with none of the walls collapsing in? Is the stratigraphy clearly visible? Is it the correct height throughout? Let's measure it with a dumpy level and see.. it's actually pretty difficult to shovel dirt out of the ground and keep the depth uniform across the base of the trench and believe it or not, you can make a square hole in the ground look very sharp indeed with careful manoeuvring of trowel and shovel. And of course, digging a perfect trench in record speed and documenting everything accurately will get you appreciative/impressed nods of approval.
More of Sureyya’s Journey
- Part 8: Sureyya the Shovel Bum
- You are here --> Part 8b: Sieving Your Heart Out
- Part 8c: Big Digs and Little Digs
- Part 8d: What Kind of Archaeologist Do You Want to Be?
