After all this shot-gun salvage excavation I was really in need of a real, good and honest field school. I realised I had no experience digging via stratigraphic context. In consulting, it's always the spit. I searched online, around the world. It was tough. You needed at least $10,000 to go anywhere. I looked up Gobekli-Tepe in Turkey, I figured, at least I have the language, but I was denied as admission was only open to German and Turkish University students from particular universities. Can digs be coveted so? Shouldn't there be access to everybody based on academic or personal merit at least? I was told places were reserved for student practicals. I was rather shocked, it's such an important site, and it was used so students could cut their teeth on a bit of excavation? We had to learn some digging techniques in an ill-made tiny faux pit built at the back of our University.
I learned as a side, that there are 'big digs' and 'little digs'. Big digs like Gobekli-Tepe are nigh impossible to get onto for an undergrad just starting out. You need some serious experience behind you. Denied Gobekli Tepe, I searched out a geophysics field school in Egypt and I was accepted! But then had no funds. Like I said at least $10,000 to get over there as visiting students need to pay more for some reason. I then emailed Stephen Bourke the principal director at Pella, Jordan who runs a field school there through Sydney University and the Near Eastern Archaeology Foundation (NEAF). I got in, but turns out it's scheduled for 2013. I made myself a NEAF member and flew over to Sydney just to watch one of his talks on the last 30 years of excavation at Pella. It was fascinating! I couldn't wait to get to the field school. Pella is a big dig, and so one has to apply two years prior to the actual program. So now its the waiting game and the money game. I should have enough saved by then, again, I think I'm going to need at least $10,000. I really needed to attend a field school this summer though, I was pretty tired of consulting archaeology and wanted to learn excavation via context and finally grasp the more technical aspects of excavation.
Port Arthur Field School
I had applied to the Port Arthur Archaeology Program held in Tasmania a while back and received an acceptance letter. Finally, I had gotten onto a field school. And what a field school it was. It was so different from any other dig experience I've had. It was organised. We were welcomed and given things. Neat things like a field manual explaining the Port Arthur 'style' of excavation. Every dig is different, and this includes everything from excavation techniques to context sheets. The Port Arthur crew was upfront and informed us as to how things ran at the site from the get go. There was no room for confusion. They were friendly and open and forgiving of the silly little mistakes we made. They took time off from their busy schedules to explain archaeological concepts to us in detail. They actually cared, for instance, if we were having a good time or not. We were taught how to draw artefacts, dig via context, draw mud maps, and we were given some money and free tours of the site to boot. It was a holiday. Of course, at times it was still a hard slog, especially the sorting and cataloguing of artefacts in the lab, but all in all a very good field school. I met a lot of great people, gave talks to the public about the site and even got filmed digging for some French documentary and 'The Collectors'. They also ran a kids dig, and we gained experience showing little kids how to dig. A lot of great future archaeologists to come I dare say! The field school showed me just how great archaeology can be. I hope the field school at Pella in Jordan turns out to be as great a hit.
Archaeology = Fieldwork
Archaeology is all about fieldwork. Good excavation techniques only come with experience. That experience is hard to find if your university does not hold any field schools. You end up being thrown into the corporate machine of shot-gun salvage archaeology where the stakes are high and speed is paramount. Intellectual curiosity does not pay in that world. After three years of an undergraduate degree, most students have little to no knowledge of excavation techniques until they volunteer at these consultancies. That's if they know someone to let them on to one. Questions such as which trowel to use, which clothing to invest in (good wet weather gear, work shirts and a Gortex© jacket to keep out the cold and rain are invaluable) which tools to acquire (a hard short British trowel, or a slightly rounded flexible American one? - both are useful), which firms to get a job with or look out for are things we should have been taught throughout the degree. Especially excavation techniques, as that was almost non-existent.
Perhaps it depends on what university you go to, but archaeology is a practical discipline, and as it stands the theoretical side of it gets 95% of the focus. The archaeology found in textbooks is gained through field schools that are usually on during summer programs. They are competitive, expensive and sometimes it takes years to actually get on to one. How is a student supposed to gain this experience with an income just above the poverty line? How are they supposed to save $10-15,000 for one field school? I'd dig in my backyard for experience, but it's illegal.
More of Sureyya’s Journey
- Part 8: Sureyya the Shovel Bum
- Part 8b: Sieving Your Heart Out
- You are here --> Part 8c: Big Digs and Little Digs
- Part 8d: What Kind of Archaeologist Do You Want to Be?
