AboutRalph Salier Expertise Archaeologist for the last 30 years. Norh American generalist and Hopwell culture/Red Ocher culture specifically. Lithics Expert and Ground Stone tools.
Experience
Past/Present clients Numerous museums in US and Canada. Several University Anthropology Departments.
Question QUESTION: I am still in high school. I am a junior and my interest in bones have grown over the years. I do not watch much TV but yet i do watch the TV show Bones. When i first saw it i was very interested. I talked too my teacher and i got enrolled for an Anatomy class. I again was very interested. I am smart but I'm not a genius. I like puzzles. My teacher gave me two days to put a human body together as a project and i was done in about 30-40 minutes. Could you help me in deciding if i want to become an archaeologist? I would like to know what I should do...
Thank You
ANSWER: Hi Racheal,
Well, in archaeology we don't always work with bones and in fact, this only comes up may be 10% of the time unless we are digging in a grave yard of some sort. We do find bones of animals used for food. These can be from fish, amphibians, mammals, reptiles etc... Now in the field called Physical Anthropology one deals with bones all of the time. A Physical Anthropologist studies bones to determine, gender, race, how big the person was, age, and other physical features that may help give us a picture of who an individual was (both archaeologically and modern). Bones is a Physical Anthropologist. You can find Physical Anthropologists working with Archaeologists as well as forensics in the development and discovery of crime scene data. You can also find them when looking at historical evidence of subjects who died of things like the plague, lead poisoning and other causes of death. It is through the analysis of bones for ostuaries that we can learn of the genetics of people and from this how people moved through time. How populations are related to each other etc... This is all done by Physical Anthropologists.
Forensics of course focuses on crimes but the Physical Anthropologist is a key player. They are the ones who put the puzzle together with the other evidence to determine potential causes of death, how it occured etc...
An archaeologist deals with all kinds of stuff from bones to stone to pottery and beyond. A much more complex puzzle that is never fully revealed. I like working with bone. It can tell you about the lives of the people who owned them.
I hope this helps. By the way, check out the university of tennessee. They have the body farm. Very cool.
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QUESTION: Thank you. You were alot of help. Could you please point me to the classes I might need to take.
Answer Hi Racheal,
Chemistry, Biology, Statistics, Higher math (If you can do AP or IB even better). Also being able to write well is important so English and creative writing is very helpful. History is generally of value and if you high school has classes in criminal justice (if you are interested in forensics) could give you a leg up on others. As for college, when you are a Senior, let me know and I'll help you focus on what you should take then.
