Expert: John J. Shea - 1/16/2006

Question
I am a high school student doing a research paper on archaeology and was wondering if I could ask you a few questions. If you could please respond within 24 hours I would greatly appreciate it.

1. What are some of the events in a normal day in the field?

2. How long is your typical day in the field?

3. Would you recommend this career to someone who is interested in history?

4. What are some of the places you have traveled to?

5. What qualities do you look for in a good archaeologist?

6. How much training and/or schooling did you have to go through to work in the field?

7. How much time do you get off to do the things that you want to do?

Thank you again for you time.

Answer
Hi Jennifer
I hope this reaches you in time.  I am basing my replies on my own field experience, mostly prehistoric excavations in Israel, Jordan, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

1. What are some of the events in a normal day in the field?
Up before dawn (400am), grab a quick breakfast and coffee, head out to excavations.
Regular breakfast around 9 or 10am.
Lunch around 12pm, followed by "siesta" for students until 430pm.  During this time, I go to the field lab and work or to the excavation trenches to take notes in peace and quiet.
5pm -back out to the trenches to work until light starts to fade or remain at base camp to do lab work (clean and label artifacts, photograph them, write notes, repair gear).
7pm -dinner with all staff and crew followed by staff meeting.


2. How long is your typical day in the field?
As you can see from above, very long.  Students get a break at mid-day, but I typically work from about 4am to about 9pm.  You can't keep this (< 7 hours sleep per night) up constantly, though, so every so often we have a "break day".

3. Would you recommend this career to someone who is interested in history?
Depends.  I like it because archaeology engages my mind and my body.  I get to work indoors with books and computers and lab tools part of the time and I also get to work outdoors with my hands.  I think the interface between history and archaeology is very interesting.  Archaeologists often deal with aspects of historic societies that were not written about, e.g., slaves, immigrants, lower economic classes.

4. What are some of the places you have traveled to?
I have conducted fieldwork in the following places -in roughly chronological order:  Egypt, USA (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Mexico), Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eritrea.  Most of my experience has been in the Near East (Israel) and East Africa.

5. What qualities do you look for in a good archaeologist?
Stoicism.  (The ability to deal with things as they are and not as one wishes them to be.)  Humor (you work in small groups for much of the time in the field, and to make this work you need a good sense of humor).  Strength (you need to be in good physical and mental health to work in some of the more remote places in which I work).

6. How much training and/or schooling did you have to go through to work in the field?
In college, I double-majored in Anthropology and Archaeology (at Boston Univ.) - 4 years.
In grad school (Harvard), I focused on archaeology, finishing my Ph.D. in seven years.  This is about average.
So, a total of 11 years training, with two years off in the middle of it all to do some professional archaeology.

7. How much time do you get off to do the things that you want to do?
I am currently employed as a professor in an anthropology department.  This gives me very flexible hours, other than the times I have to be in front of a class.  So, if I want to go bicycling or hiking in the woods in the middle of the day, no problem, so long as I make up for the time by doing writing or research at some other point in time.

I hope these answers help you.  For a more picturesque picture of what archaeologists actually do, look up the work of Robert Braidwood. He has an old book entitle, "What Archaeologists Do".  It is dated, somewhat, but full of fun stories about his adventures digging in the Middle East.

Sincerly,
John Shea