Expert: John J. Shea - 1/25/2005

Question
What do you think the best and worst things about archaeology are?

What made you decide on this job, and can a person be in more than one archaeology career?

Answer
Dear Joe,
Please understand this is my personal "take" on these questions, other archaeologists may feel differently.
Best: Archaeology challenges your imagination, constantly and in ways that few other things do. You have to reconstruct so much about human behavior from so little and still stick to to "rules" of science (i.e, your hypotheses must be capable of being proven wrong with evidence).  Also, because you stay in one area while excavating, archaeology really allows you to get a feel for a place, its people, and their cultures.
Worst: Being away for long periods can be hard for people with families and difficult on relationships.  Difficult to have pets if you're away for months at a time.
What made me decide:  Hard to say, I was interested in archaeology as far back as I can remember.  I had good teachers who encouraged my interests in science and history, and patient parents who put up with my backyard excavations and experiments making stone tools and other primitive technology.
More than one career in archaeology?  I would have to say possible, but not common, at least not among academic archaeologists.  Most academic archaeologists tend to stick to a particular geographic area or research subject. (I, for example have worked mostly in the Near East, and am now focusing on Africa, but I am still researching the same general time period.)  Such multiple careers are more common when one switches from academic archaeology to cultural-resource management ("rescue archaeology") or vice versa.
Hope this helps,
John Shea