Expert: Ralph Salier - 1/14/2010

Question
QUESTION: What public universities in the U.S. are the best to study archaeology at?

ANSWER: Hi Paige,

That is a hard question to answer.  Most universities will specialize in a specific cultural area like Mayan, Egyptian, Asian etc... So, if you tell me what cultural areas you are interested in, I will give you a list of those that specialize in that area.

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QUESTION: I'm especially interested in European prehistory.

ANSWER: Hi Paige,

Classical? as in Roman or Greek or Viking?  Or are you more interested in Germanic or Gaulic peoples or perhaps British/Galic or Saxon?  

As you can see, even this small area has specializations.  Also when you say prehistory - how far back?  Writing came to Britian with the Romans.  How far back are you going?  Neaderthal?

Where are you in school now?  Still in high school?

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QUESTION: I would say Gaulic during the Iron Age. I'm interested in the Celts of France and Ireland, mainly. Also the Picts of Scotland, but I know there is not much information on them. Sorry for being so unspecific. Yes, I am in high school.  

Answer
Hi Paige,

I will assume that you are a Junior and you are beginning to look for schools, since by now as a senior, you would have had to get most of your applications in by now.  I am also assuming that you are looking for scholarship money since your education will not be inexpensive.  Here are some scholarship websites you need to look at:

www.fastweb.com
www.scholarships.com

These are about the best out there.  


So, the  time period you are interested in is from about 1000 BCE to about 500 AD. or perhaps a bit wider then that.  As a Junior (or Senior for that matter) you can participate in excavations in the UK under the auspices of the Field Studies Council.  They have field centers all over the UK and many do a wide variety of archaeology (including 18th and 19th century industrial).  I have participated in some of these digs including an Iron Age Hill Fort at the Dale Fort Field Center in Dale Wales on the Pembrokeshire coast.  I have worked on a Roman bath house in Bath  England, a site on the Themes in London - late Medieval and on Hadrian's Wall at Vindolanda.  I've also worked on an Iron Age site on Lake Geneva in Switzerland.  This was a "floating" village which actually was set on pilings driven into the soft mud of the lake.  

Some of this work was done while I was at the University of London.  Some was done under the auspices of the University of Manchester both in the UK.  

Here in the states,  the only university that I am aware  that even has a program in this is Seaton Hall and I'm not sure if the archaeologist who was involved in these European digs is still there.  University of Rhode Island may also have a program that looks at European prehistory.  

Columbia, U of Penn, U VA, U of Chicago all have good programs in the classical area (Greek and Roman) and this would cover the Iron Age as well but you would need to specialize and get most of your training in either the UK or France/Germany.  So, study French and German.

Here is an important quote from Mary Leaky:

"Become an archaeologist, it is a passion, but you must also be pragmatic.  Have something else in your "back pocket" that you can pull out should you find it difficult to work as an archaeologist for what ever reason.  Study Economics, Plumbing, Electrical work, Teaching, something that you can fall back on."  

I  took this advice and it has proven to be quite valuable.

Let me know if there are more questions that I can answer for you.

Ralph