Expert: Ralph Salier - 2/11/2010

Question
Hi I am an eighth grade student doing a career project, and I'm thinking of being an archaeologist.
I was wondering if you could answer these questions.
1) What benefits do archaeologists get?
2) What are the training requirements for an archaeologists?
3) And, What is a typical workday for you?
I love the idea about traveling around the world discovering things that could be thousands of years old.Please help I think I could really use this info. to my advantage.

Answer
Hi Maiah,

1) Very few if any.  Of course that depends on who you work for and the kind of job.  Most "shovel bums" may only get paid by the work day and perhaps something called perdium.  Perdium is a little extra money to pay for the hotel, food and maybe gas for the car.  If you have a masters degree from a university, you can find more permanent work that will have benefits like health, vacation and so on.  But these jobs are hard to get, there is a lot of competition.

2) At a minimum, you will need a Bachelors degree in Anthropology/Archaeology.  With this degree, you can get work as a shovel bum and travel from site to site and get paid any where from $10/hr upwards of $20/hr if you are very lucky.  Site supervisors may get a bit more but to be a site director, you will need a masters degree or even a PhD in Archaeology.

3) That depends on the season.  During the digging season, I go to the staging area for the site, I work with the site director and the site supervisors and talk about the work to be done that day.  We discuss what was found the day before and what our expectations would be for that day.  Then when the workers arrive, the site is opened up and they are given their assignments.  I go back to the laboratory and work with the lab director and the supervisors and look at the materials brought in from the day before.  I also work with the artist and some of the other scientists to discuss what they are doing and what they are finding and how it all relates to the site(s) being worked on.   This can change from day to day, depending on weather, the site conditions, the nature of the site and a lot of other factors. There are days when I  work at home on site reports, or I am reading ( which happens a lot) or  a lot of other activities.  

Most shovel bums concentrate on a particular cultural area like the Mid West of the US or the Southern West Coast or the North East.  Some, like me, I did a lot of work in England, Scotland and Wales and in Europe.  But most of my work was in the US EAST of the Mississippi.  Today, I live in South Texas and I have crews working in many parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas.  I still travel to Europe on occasion to work with two universities over there on special sites that I have been working on for more then 20 years.

It is hard, dirty and interesting BUT it is nothing like Indiana Jones or the Tomb Raider.  It is very precise, patient work that requires excellent writing skills, observational skills and most important persistence.   

Since you are an 8th grader, you have another 4 years to go.  So, in High School, study as much science and math as you can.  If you can get into the IB program (if you school has it) then do it, if not the take as many AP courses as you can.  These will help you get into the college or university of your choice, so long as you have really great grades.  Don't forget about the other stuff too, like English, since writing is so important in Archaeology, and of course History, languages and MUSIC/Art are important too.

Good Luck!!