Expert: Ralph Salier - 10/19/2008

Question
What is an armature archaeology?

Answer
Hi Michel,

An amature archaeologist is a person who is interested in archaeology but has not had formal university training in the field.  Most amature archaeologists look for archaeological remains on the surface of sites with out understanding the impact of what they are doing from a professional's perspective.  Archaeological sites are very delicate and are easily damaged by an amature. A site is like a book and when a professional examines the "book" they collect enough data to be able to reconstruct the "book" in the laboratory. While an amature does not realize all of the data lost when done improperly.

So, if you are interested in archaeology, get a proper university or college education in the field so  that there is no way to damage the "book".