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Vi siete mai chiesti cosa fanno davvero gli altri archeologi?

By on April 15, 2013 in Day of Archaeology, DayofArch2013

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Vi siete mai chiesti cosa fanno davvero gli altri archeologi?
Il progetto “Day of Archaeology” mira ad aprire una finestra sulla vita quotidiana degli archeologi di tutto il mondo.
Chiediamo agli archeologi che lavorano, studiano o prestano volontariamente il loro contributo in qualunque parte del mondo di partecipare con noi al “Day of Archaeology” ogni anno in estate, condividendo la loro giornata tramite un testo, delle immagini o un video sul sito www.dayofarchaeology.com.
I risultati del progetto “Day of Archaeology” evidenziano la grande varietà di attività che caratterizza la nostra professione giornalmente, in tutto il mondo, e contribuiscono ad aumentare la consapevolezza dell’opinione pubblica sull’importanza che l’archeologia riveste nel mondo attuale.
Vogliamo coinvolgere chiunque abbia un interesse personale, professionale o di volontariato in archeologia, per evidenziare le ragioni per cui l’archeologia è essenziale per proteggere il passato e progettare il nostro futuro.
Il progetto è condotto in maniera volontaria e da un gruppo di archeologi che lavorano presso musei, università e come profesionisti in Inghilterra, Spagna e Nord America.
La partecipazione al progetto è completamente gratuita e richiede una conoscenza di base dei blog e di internet.
Il progetto “Day of Archaeology” poggia interamente sulla buona volontà e la passione per l’impegno pubblico!

Il primo “Day of Archaeology” si è tenuto il 29 Luglio 2011 e ha visto il contributo di oltre 400 archeologi, da chi opera sul campo agli specialisti che lavorano nei laboratori o davanti ad un computer.
Il secondo “Day of Archaeology” ha avuto luogo il 29 Luglio 2012 e vi hanno partecipato oltre 300 archeologi.
Quest’anno l’appuntamento per il “Day of Archaeology” è fissato per venerdì 26 Luglio.
Se sei interessato a partecipare, puoi registrarti o richiedere informazioni scrivendo all’indirizzo dayofarchaeology@gmail.com.
Speriamo che tu sia dei nostri!

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Day of Archaeology 2013

By on April 11, 2013 in Day of Archaeology, DayofArch2013

dayofarchCall for participants for 2013:

Have you ever wondered what other archaeologists really get up to? The Day
of Archaeology project aims to provide a window into the daily lives of
archaeologists from all over the world. The project asks archaeologists
working, studying or volunteering in the anywhere in the world to
participate with us in a “Day of Archaeology” each year in the summer by
recording their day and sharing it through text, images or video on the
website: www.dayofarchaeology.com. The resulting Day of Archaeology project
demonstrates the wide variety of work our profession undertakes day-to-day
across the globe, and helps to raise public awareness of the relevance and
importance of archaeology to the modern world. We want anyone with a
personal, professional or voluntary interest in archaeology to get involved,
and help highlight the reasons why archaeology is vital to protect the past
and inform our futures.

The project is run completely for free by a team of volunteers who are all
professional archaeologists, working at museums, universities and in
commercial archaeology in the UK, Spain and North America.

Taking part in the project is completely free and requires little knowledge
of blogging or internet technologies.
The whole Day of Archaeology project relies on goodwill and a passion for
public engagement!

The first ever Day of Archaeology in 2011 was held on the 29th July 2011 and
had over 400 contributing archaeologists, from those working in the field
through to specialists working in laboratories and behind computers. The
second Day of Archaeology took place on the 29th July 2012, and over 300
archaeologists took part.

This year, in 2013, the Day of Archaeology will be held on Friday 26th July.
If you are interested in taking part, please register your details, or ask
any questions by emailing us at dayofarchaeology@gmail.com. We hope you can
join us!

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Excavating a Beautiful 18th Century Landscape Garden

By on July 10, 2012 in Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Excavation

My day started at 5.30am to prepare for the long drive to the site,  the little inn where we have been lodged offers a large full English breakfast, which would really keep you going for most of the day, unfortunately though we are leaving too early so no breakfast, just a cup of questionable  coffee ( mostly due to the UHT milk supplied in the little plastic pre-dosed container) in my  room.  I knock on the door of my colleague to make sure he is awake and after 10 minute we leave toward our site.

We drive for 1 and a half hours on beautiful country roads , between spells of rain, sun and blast of strong winds..so me and my colleague joke about the weather changes that saying we are time travelling and we are quickly passing through each season of the year as the kilometers go by.  When we arrive on site we are greeted by our other colleague and the manager of the beautiful 18th century garden we are excavating, as we enter the garden a flock of roe deers with their babies run pass us and cheer all of us up!

The project is trying to relocate several features of the ancient garden  as the Lord that owns it  (is manor house is within the garden/ estate) wants to restore it to its former beauty.  Suddenly a heavy rain fall comes down and in few minutes rivers of water come down from everywhere, lightening and thunder seems to fall just next to us, and being in the middle of a woodlands is not really a safe place to be during thunderstorm… Thanks god the master gardener came to rescue us and with our extreme surprise and relief he takes us  to the house, he said we  have been permitted to use the “posh” toilets instead of the public one, and that he arranged for tea and coffee to be served to us to warm us up, since by then we were as wet as the pond we were excavating! In order to be allowed in the toilet the maid, with a horrified face requested us that we took off our boots and waterproof gear as we are too dirty to be allowed in even if only for the toilet!! So there we go in the toilet shoeless ( they were spotless)! Though we get rewarded by been offered proper coffee and tea in one of the tea room of the house, all accompanied by the most beautiful  and tasty biscuits ever! As we are terrorised to dirt or stain of mud the sitting we just all stand around (still shoeless) with our warm tea and lovely biscuits in the hand, and marvel at the fact that they gave  real delicate china tea cups and real silver spoons!!

The rain eventually stopped and we got back to the real world of archaeology, muddy boots and all. After few hours we pack our tools and head back toward  our little inn in what it use to be the first Saxon town ( or so the sign at the town entrance says) we time travel again for 1 and half our through the 4 seasons and eventually arrive to the inn, quick shower , something to eat in the little pub down the road and then  finally to bad to prepare for another day of archaeology and hopefully more silver spoons and lovely tea cakes!!

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My Day at Grave Creek Mound

By on July 9, 2012 in Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education, Museum Archaeology

A Day in Archaeology at Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex, for this volunteer, means doing whatever is necessary to help the staff of the complex.

This location consists of a mound built from 250 BC to 150 BC by Early Woodland Indians to honor three persons who held some position of regard in their culture, a museum which holds exhibits of the Adena culture of these Indians, and provides background of other West Virginia sites and Adena mounds.  Added to this is the history of efforts of modern man to preserve the Mound. A recent addition to the museum is the research complex which houses and archives artifacts found throughout the State of West Virginia and also archives reports and other written material relevant to prehistoric and historical archaeology for the State.

I began volunteering two years ago after having retired from a social service agency here in West Virginia.  I have been interested in archaeology since I was 13, but at that time I thought it was done only in Egypt, so I put my energies into other studies.  It was unfortunate for me that as a teenager I was not aware that two very important archaeological sites (Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania and Grave Creek Mound in West Virginia) were within a 30-mile radius of my home, and if I had been born 10 years later (and had good vocational guidance), I may have had the opportunity to work on one of the sites as part of an undergraduate or graduate program.

In my current volunteer experience I have done many things, the most important to me being work with the exhibits.  I have been doing data-entry of all the text in the core displays of the museum. The original intent of this effort was that by converting this information into digital form it would enable it to be accessible to those with vision impairment (as a social service worker, this was one population with which I became concerned).  To supplement the text, I would enter a description of the accompanying display.  I started this project nearly two years ago and I am still at it.

There are two major secondary benefits to this project.  This information documents the exhibits which will be helpful for future work with exhibits and public programs.  Also, my having to read (and re-read) every single word of each display has familiarized me with the exhibit to such an extent that I am comfortable in providing an introduction to the museum for the visitors.

Today three of us are working and it is a busy day in the summer. In my three hours here today, I am needed at the front desk, to greet visitors and help customers in the gift shop. I provide an orientation to the exhibits to 24 adults and 11 children, some coming individually and others in small groups. Some of these visitors came from Ohio, Virginia, Indiana, North Carolina,  Arkansas and Louisiana. In addition, 25 people came as part of a cub scout troop for an educational program and activities conducted by Andrea, the educator on staff.  After Andrea took the cub scouts and their adult leaders outside to do a demonstration, and then to try their hand in atlatl-throwing, the museum became quiet. I would have liked to have gone out to watch them — 8-12 year old competitive boys, doing something outside their normal activities. I enjoy watching young people learn about the Indians and archaeology, but a large group is difficult to manage — thank goodness for Andrea.

I would advise anyone who has an interest in archaeology to volunteer at a place like this.  The staff is appreciative of the help and shows it by word and deed. They include me in many of their activities and conferences, so that I get hands-on experiences and hear presentations from experts in various fields of studies.   Having the opportunity to go through the exhibits on a weekly basis provides me with vastly more knowledge of the subject matter than anyone can hope to acquire in just occassional visits to the museum.

 

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A Busy Day for an Archaeology Educator

By on July 8, 2012 in Community Archaeology, Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education, Museum Archaeology

My name is Andrea Keller, and I am an archaeologist working as “cultural program coordinator” in museum education at the Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex in West Virginia, USA.

When I was a kid, our family had a subscription to National Geographic. Every month, this magazine brought stories of fabulous people and places from faraway into our home. I decided early on that I wanted to be a jungle explorer. However, an article about Queen Nefertiti of Ancient Egypt gave my youthful interests a whole new direction.

It turns out you don’t necessarily have to travel to remote places to learn about ancient cultures and how they lived their lives. While I have had the good fortune to have worked in Switzerland, Arizona, Illinois, and several other states in eastern and midwestern USA, I am now at home in West Virginia and discovering a rich archaeological heritage here. From early ice-age hunter-gatherers to hard-working industrial era folks, people have left their marks on the land and have left clues to their daily lives for us to ponder.

Our facility is open on weekends;  it is my turn to work on Sundays but I have Fridays off. Since the official Day of Archaeology is on Friday, June 29, I will describe an actual working day, that is, Thursday, June 28.

Working with the public, no two days are ever the same, and Thursday promises to be one of our busy days. We are expecting a group that consists of children and adult leaders from two local day care centers, who have reserved time for a guided tour of the museum and mound and one of our hands-on programs. Thursday evening we will also be hosting the June installment of our monthly lecture and film series. We usually feature speakers from other organizations, or films.  This evening, I will be presenting a slide show and leading a tour of our Interpretive Garden.

 

Thursday, June 28

Our work day starts at 9 am which is when the museum opens.  Some last minute preparations are to be made for the day care group.  They will arrive at 11 am to tour the mound and museum, eat a picnic lunch, and try out some replicas of prehistoric tools in our “Prehistoric Tools” program. I take out a trash can to the picnic area, and check the Activity Room where we will be experimenting with the replica tools. I set out corn for making corn meal on our grinding stones, and make sure the other tools are ready.

It is a record-setting hot and dry June, so the next order of business is to water the Interpretive Garden.  I am hoping the garden will be looking O.K. for the program tonight.  The plants are getting stressed from the heat and lack of rain.  Our garden represents prehistoric Native American gardens in this region. It is partially based on archaeological information, and partially on historic accounts of Native American gardening techniques.  My favorite account is Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden, by a Hidatsa woman who lived in North Dakota.  It is incredibly detailed, with precise instructions on how to plan, plant, and harvest a garden.  You can find her account on-line – it’s worth a look if you have an interest in Native American gardening.

Watering the Interpretive Garden at Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex

 

At 10:30 am I am inside.  There is a little time to polish my slide show for the evening and start my write-up for the Day of Archaeology.  I get three sentences written for the latter, and my group is here. Time to hit ”save” and get the show on the road.

 

The Day Care Group

The group today is a day-care group consisting of children ages 2 – 13 years, a range of abilities that can be a challenge for a museum educator.   The Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex consists of several parts: the Grave Creek Mound and surrounding grounds which include the Interpretive Garden, the Delf Norona Museum (Delf Norona was a local historian and one of the founders of the West Virginia Archaeological Society), and the Research Facility.  The group will tour these areas with me.

There is a majority of very young children in this group, so we skip the introductory slide show, and head out to the mound.  There are over 50 stone steps to climb to get to the top, and the adults and older kids help the smaller ones along. It’s quite a climb for those little legs!  At the top, we catch our breath.  Climbing to the top of the mound is exhausting even without carrying a load of dirt, as the people who built the mound did around 250-150 BC.  We look for familiar sights such as the Ohio River, Central Elementary School, and the old West Virginia Penitentiary, and wave at the adults with the kids in the strollers who are waiting below.  We look around, and consider how much effort it must have taken to build the mound.  Someone calculated that it took around 3 million loads of dirt, carried by hand. No bulldozers, wheelbarrows, or steel shovels!  Two main tombs were discovered in the mound during excavations back in 1838 – the whole monumental effort of building the Mound was done for three people.  What made these people, and this location worthy of such an investment in time and effort?

 

Day Care Group at the Top of Grave Creek Mound

 

The Day Care Group at the Interpretive Garden

 

We head back down the mound, tie a loose shoe lace, and stop to take a look at the Interpretive Garden.

Next it’s lunch time for the kids, and me, too.

Time to check my e-mail, while I’m in the office.

After lunch, we take a peek into the research lab viewing widow. We see a display of  drilled shells, a piece of elk antler, and chipped stones that were once part of hoes – perhaps similar to tools used to build the mound.  In the back of the room, we see the curators at work and wave at them.  They smile and wave back.  Heather takes our picture – you can see it on her Day of Archaeology post.  On the way out, we pass the Marble King exhibit, which is on loan from the West Virginia State Museum.  We run marbles through the exhibit’s marble machine – fun for kids of all ages!

We continue our tour.  There are models of prehistoric homes, and a hunting scene.  One of the highlights is a model that shows the Grave Creek Mound being built.  Tiny model people are hard at work digging up soil and carrying it to the mound. There is a burial ceremony in progress on top of the mound, and daily tasks such as cooking and scraping a hide can be found by an observant eye.

We enter the Activity Room, where we will do the “Prehistoric Tools” program.  I have set up three stations with replica tools.  There are sandstone abraders that are used to sharpen bone awls, grinding stones for making corn meal, and pump drills for making holes in pieces of wood.  The pump drills are a challenge for smaller hands, but with help from the adults and older kids, everyone gets the hang of it. The kids’ eyes light up when that pump drill is finally spinning and making a hole!  The goal is to drill a hole in a flat wooden shape to make a pendant.  Strings and colorful plastic beads are available for completing a stylish necklace.  I help one small girl tie her necklace and get a great big hug in return.  All to soon it is time for the group to say good bye. A chorus of “thank you” rings out and they are heading out the door.

Corn Grinding

Pump Drill

 

 

 

 

 

 

Awl Sharpening

Time to finish getting ready for the evening.

Before heading upstairs, I check on the condition of the ladies’ rest room – looks OK.  John, our maintenance supervisor, has taken care of the trash from the picnic, which is very much appreciated!  I make more copies of our lecture/film series calendar so there are plenty available tonight.

On the way to my office, I check on the museum’s Discovery Table, where small groups of visitors can make a craft to take home without having to sign up ahead of time. A family is making jewelry using beads made by rolling pieces of copper foil, our craft of the season.  I replenish the supply of copper blanks for making the beads.

Family at Discovery Table

Showing off Copper Bead Jewelry

 

At 5:00 pm I go home for dinner, a shower, and a change of clothes.

Evening Program

I return at 6:30 pm. Time to start up the audio-visual equipment, and unlock the museum doors. It’s still oppressively hot outside, so we start with the slide show.  The subject is our Interpretive Garden, which we will tour later.  I take the opportunity to thank the many individuals who have helped with the garden: the horticulture students from our local John Marshall High School who prepared the garden back in April as well as volunteers and visitors who helped plant the garden in May.  We go outside, and walk around the garden discussing the plants.

We had an early spring warming, and the larger plants grew from dropped seeds as “volunteers”. The smaller plants were planted May 20th, some even later when the first seeds did not grow. The corn is planted in small hills according to the traditional methods of some Native American gardeners. Beans will be planted when the corn is a little taller, and the weather becomes a little more hospitable to tender young seedlings.  The garden also contains pumpkins, squash and gourds, sunflowers, and goosefoot, also known as Chenopodium, lamb’s quarters, or spinach weed.  The people who built Grave Creek Mound probably were familiar with sunflowers, gourds, squash, and Chenopodium.  Corn and beans probably did not become used widely in our region until later, but their importance on later sites justifies including them in our garden.  It must have been an interesting time as people became more settled, and learned to grow a larger variety of plants.

Examining Goosefoot Plant in Interpretive Garden

The garden looks exhausted in the summer sun.  Legend has it that corn, beans and squash are three sisters that live together in the garden. Tonight, sister squash’s leaves are drooping, and sister corn is curling up her long, pointed leaves.  Sister bean is still very young, and will need water very soon to survive. One of the men in the group volunteers to help water the garden.  His help will be greatly appreciated.

We walk back to the museum in the last of the long summer evening light.  Time to lock up and head home.

 Thank you for sharing the “Day of Archaeology” with me.  If you should find yourself in our “neck of the woods”, please stop by and visit the Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex.

You can learn more about the Complex and West Virginia Archaeology  by visiting the website of the West Virginia Division of Culture and History at www.wvculture.org.  You can also read posts by my colleagues here at Grave Creek and some of our wonderful, couldn’t-do-it-without-them volunteers and interns right here on the Day of Archaeology web site.

 

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A Town Unearthed: Folkestone Before 1500 – Community & Archaeology.

By on July 7, 2012 in Community Archaeology, Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education, Excavation, Finds, Iron Age, Prehistory, Roman, Romano-British

Hello and welcome to my post!  My name is Annie and I one of the lucky few who are undertaking a Community Archaeology Training Placement being offered by the Council for British Archaeology and I’m doing it with Canterbury Archaeological Trust.  Here’s a link to the CBA web-site where there is more information on the placements, the project is set to continue for a few more years so do keep an eye out if you are interested in signing up!

Anyway, down to business and I’ll start with a quick run down of the project.  A Town Unearthed: Folkestone before 1500 is a 3 year community project centred around uncovering Folkestone’s rich and varied history through a variety of activities including archaeological excavation, lectures, school visits, events, talks, forums, and exhibitions (to name but a few!) with volunteers taking a lead in organising, stewarding, and generally making things happen.  The project is in it’s final year and I have been tasked with being in charge of the archaeology side of things which is where our Day of Archaeology day comes in….

…Last year the archaeology side of the project centred around a Roman Villa which is tragically falling off the edge of a cliff (estimates are predicting the whole site will be gone in 50 years).  The Villa was uncovered and open to the public from the 1920s-1950s when post-war austerity forced it’s closure and it was re-buried until the 1980s when some archaeologists went in to see how much was being lost; since then more has gone over and it was decided to open it up to have another look.  Around 200 people from Folkestone had a go at excavating the site over 3 months, with plenty more dropping in to have a look, and the results were surprising. Only a portion of the Villa was re-excavated and produced some fantastic finds of the period, but more exciting perhaps was the discovery of a large Iron Age settlement beneath the floors of the Villa.  This settlement appeared to be industrial in nature, as a large number of quern stones, made from the local Green Stone found on the beach below, were discovered, and have been found in the gardens of the houses surrounding the area (many of them now making up attractive fireplaces and rockeries!); some were even incorporated into the fabric of the Roman Villa.  This year we are not returning to the Villa site but are instead test pitting in the gardens of the houses near to the site in the hope of picking up some Roman or Iron Age features to establish the extent of the site.  On our Day of Archeology day we were mid-excavation in our first ‘pit’ and I’m going to give you a insight into how I like to involve my volunteers on community projects.

So our day starts and we immediately pick up where we left off on the previous day with everyone getting stuck in with the trowels…

We find an interesting green patch of clay, which turned out to be a very unexciting modern dumping episode…

..we persevere…

…giving the trench a quick scan with the metal detector…

…and come up with a bullet! We also had two coins (possibly Roman) and a few buttons which may have been from military uniforms. Folkestone played a large part in both the First and Second World wars and to find evidence for this is very exciting for me…

..and finally starting the recording. I’m a big believer in volunteers getting involved in all aspects of archaeology, including the paperwork, so if you ever end up on one of my sites I will torture you with it..

…and there we have it, a day of community archaeology with a fantastic bunch of people who I’d like to thank for their hard work and dedication to the project. Although this particular test pit did not produce any Roman or Iron Age features we had a lot of pottery from the period so I’m satisfied. We’ll be test pitting all through the summer. I am blogging about my placement so if you’d like to have a look at what I’ve been up to, or want to keep up to date on this project then here’s the link.

Thanks for reading!

 

 

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Once an Archaeologist…? Plan B Careers in Archaeology

By on July 6, 2012 in Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Journalism, Prehistory, Publishing

Things move fast in archaeology, major discoveries are made that can transform our perceptions of the past and its relation to us, a perfect example being the Neanderthal genome in 2010. My own situation as an archaeologist has changed dramatically from 2011′s Day of Archaeology, and this is what I’ve chosen to write about for 2012: what happens when you’ve been doing archaeology for half your life, but have to step away from it full-time? I hope my experience can give people a more realistic idea of the benefits and risks of pursuing your archaeological dream…

Last year I wrote about the Quaternary Archaeology and Environments of Jersey project, which I was working with as a late Neanderthal archaeology specialist. Although the project is still going from strength to strength (and started 2012 fieldwork officially today, on a probably rather soggy Jersey), I will not be there this summer to enjoy the delights of stone tool collections, the La Cotte site and the sponsorship of the Liberation Brewery.

Geoff Smith and me working on La Cotte material for the QAEJ project in 2011. Photo by Alison Lewis.

Like many others finishing their PhD since 2008, I’ve struggled to get research funding or a paid academic position. Despite gaining a clutch of prizes during my undergraduate years including best dissertation (on the missing Mesolithic of Shropshire, with own fieldwalking, test pitting and aerial photography survey), full AHRB funding for my MA and a coveted University Research Scholarship for my PhD, I’ve realized that exceptional academic calibre isn’t enough anymore to gain a foothold for a research career.

The ‘Post-Doc’ world has become ever more challenging over the past decade, with some truly horrifying statistics. Only a third of UK science PhDs get postdoc positions, while only 4% manage to secure a permanent academic position. Arts PhDs aren’t in a better position either, and in addition lack the obvious career transition to STEM industry jobs. The reality is that there are too many PhDs being produced, including in archaeology. While I was at Sheffield, there were 50 PhDs registered. I haven’t seen anywhere near that number of research jobs or funding possibilities over the past two years since I finished my PhD; there is simply not enough opportunity out there to meet the postdoc output of even one department! I’ve been lucky enough for the past year to be supported by University of Manchester with an Honorary Research Fellowship, that allows me to remain part of a department and benefit from the network of very active and supportive researchers there. However, Honorary = unpaid, and this position of trying to publish, attend conferences, network with colleagues, and work unpaid on projects is one many of my fellow graduates are in.

At the first ESHE conference in 2011, giving a poster on my PhD research. Photo by Elinor Croxall

Universities pressure staff within departments to keep taking on new PhDs as it boosts their research rankings, yet there is virtually no open discussion of the possibility of failing to forge an academic career after your doctorate (and it generally IS regarded as a failure). Then there are the perennial issues of vast disparities in quality of PhD supervision, with no system in place for assessing performance in this area, despite the support and advice received during your PhD being vital to your success afterwards. Everyone eventually comes to realize that an impressive publication list is what will get you noticed for postdoc funding and academic job interviews, yet many PhD are discouraged from publishing during their time as students (or even from speaking at conferences) by supervisors who fear repercussions if theses are submitted “late” (after more than three years).

Despite coming very close to getting postdoctoral funding (I almost won a Marie Curie Fellowship to work at University of Bordeaux), after two years without any income beyond occasional expenses for working on field projects, I’ve had to take the difficult decision to shift my path out away from an archaeological research career. I needed to bring in some income to my household, and frankly I was getting very dispirited by repeated disappointments of funding rejections etc. In January 2012 I decided not to apply for the next round of postdoctoral fellowships (with success rates of 3-7%!), or try again for a Marie Curie that would require me to live away from my husband for two years, just after I’d got used to a home life after eight years of degrees in three different cities.

Instead I’ve upped the hours I was already working in non-archaeological jobs, and started to get a bit ‘leftfield’ in trying to keep archaeology in my life. Through my Honorary Research Fellowship at Manchester, I’ve been running Discover Archaeology workshops with young people aged 13-17 at the University, giving them an idea of why studying archaeology is relevant to them. This has been a lot of fun, and involved practical sessions on getting to grips with artefacts (animal bones, pot sherds, flints), as well as getting them to think a bit more deeply about things like the archaeology of death and how this can widen your understanding of diverse practices ongoing today. The sessions take quite a bit of preparation, and are very intensive, but are really rewarding. It’s always great seeing young people’s faces light up as they identify a beaver skull (“it’s kind of like a big rat”) or work out the relative ages of different pots. However, these workshops aren’t regular, and I receive barely more than minimum wage for running them (including preparation time). I would like to do more of this kind of work with schools, and I hope to make some connections soon with existing organizations who might like to have a Neanderthal specialist on the team (everyone knows kids love them, right?!).

Another exciting possibility for keeping the archaeology flame burning in my life has also developed since the start of 2012. I post on Twitter as @LeMoustier, and have found it a fabulous way to interact with many very cool archaeologists across the world. Additionally, I’m into birding in my spare time, and have connected with quite a lot of people in that sphere too. Following a tweet I posted on cave art, I got into conversation with @chiffchat, who turned out to be a Senior Commissioning Editor for Bloomsbury Press, and was just looking for the right person to write a book on cave art, prehistory and birds… Following a great trip to London to meet @chiffchat (aka Jim Martin), where we bonded over lunch and Neanderthals, yesterday Bloomsbury officially announced their acquisition of “Dawn Chorus in Eden: Humanity and Birds in Prehistory”, by Rebecca Wragg Sykes, coming 2014! So I will be working on this book part time over the next two years, trying to communicate my passion for prehistoric archaeology, especially the Palaeolithic, through describing how birds have been part of the human story from the beginning. It’s not a full-time archaeology job, but it allows me to keep doing something I love, and get paid for it.

Heron from a birding trip: you never know how archaeology might fit into your life!

I want to finish this Day of Archaeology post on a positive note. I’ve been doing archaeology since I was 14, on work experience digging at Fishbourne Roman Palace. It’s part of who I am in a fundamental way as it is for almost all the archaeologists I know, it’s shaped me, given me incredible experiences (and a husband!). I don’t regret doing my PhD, but those considering a career in archaeological research should not be under any illusions of employment afterwards. I didn’t have an official career Plan B, and I might have done a lot differently with hindsight if I had. But if archaeology is your passion, there’s ways and means to keep on *being* an archaeologist, although it might involve a little lateral thinking and maybe getting yourself on Twitter!

Trowel my undergrad friends gave for for graduation


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Day of Archaeology in Binghamton, New York

Day of Archaeology in Binghamton, New York

By on July 6, 2012 in Community Archaeology, Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education, Excavation, Finds, Periods, Prehistory

My name is Angel Green and I am an Anthropology major at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York.  It has been a lifelong dream of mine to work as an archaeologist in the field and this summer I fulfilled that dream.  I am one of ten students participating in the Binghamton University Archaeology Field School 2012.  This experience has not only opened my eyes to the wonderful intrigues and strenuous tedium of archaeology, but has also enlightened me on my strength as a woman in the field and has helped illuminate my future path as an archaeologist.

This year the field school is conducting excavations at a local site call John Moore Farm.  This site has yielded fascinating information about prehistoric Native American settlement patterns from approximately 1500 B.C., a time known as the Transitional Period here in the Northeastern United States.  John Moore Farm is located on the banks of the Susquehanna River and Native Americans used this site for seasonal camps.  Our focus is to recover as much information from this site as we can before the City of Binghamton constructs a pedestrian/bicycle walkway on top of the site.

A day in my life as an archaeologist at John Moore Farm begins with lots of sun screen and bug spray.  The site does not offer any shade and the banks of a river is a lovely home to many creepy crawly creatures.  It is very green and lush here in Binghamton and most of our test units are dug in the midst of a poison ivy forest.  All inconveniences aside, with trowel proudly in hand, I dug and toiled with the best of them.

We have opened 18 test units during the past six weeks here at John Moore Farm.  I have personally dug into four of them and have discovered exciting bits and pieces of history.  Currently, we have uncovered several prehistoric hearths that can be identified by a cache of fire cracked rock, charcoal and reddened soils.  Also, throughout the site we have found the tiny remnants of flintknapping.  Flintknapping is the ancient process of making stone tools and this process leaves behind distinct tiny flakes of stone material.  These materials have included chert, jasper, and rhyolite.  Steatite, commonly known as soapstone, is another material found at the site and was used by Native Americans in the region for carving vessels.  The chert is a local material, but the jasper, rhyolite and steatite are non-local and this offers interesting glimpses into the trade patterns of ancient Native Americans.  We get very excited when one of our team digs up an actual stone tool such as an arrowhead.  It is common to find the minute traces of the stone that was chipped away while making an arrowhead, but the Native Americans usually took the complete arrowheads with them when they left the camps so finding one still at the site thousands of years later is a real treat for us.  All ‘cool’ and unique artifacts found will immediately make the rounds among the students which, in turn, receive excited gasps and intrigued praise.  Archaeologists find happiness in the little things.

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Studying Hard, Hoping to Pass (Trento, Italy)

By on July 5, 2012 in Bronze Age, Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education, Iron Age, Prehistory

Trento, Italy

I’m currently preparing for a rare “concorso pubblico” (public competitive exam) in the hottest week of the summer (so far) ..with no real hopes but with good friends (so it seems less hard). In the meanwhile, I  hope to receive a call to begin working at  an excavation site because -of course- I want-like-need to work.

 

Livia Stefan, Italian National Association of Archaeologists


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Rescue Excavation at Rochlitz Castle

By on July 4, 2012 in Archaeological Prospection, Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Excavation, Historical Archaeology, Medieval, Post Medieval, Survey

June 29, 2012 – Welcome to my day.

My Name is Marcel Dallinger. I got my Magister degree in classical archaeology at Leipzig University in November 2011.

Currently I am working on an excavation in the castle of Rochlitz executed by the State Office for Archaeology Saxony.

Rochlitz itself is a medium-sized town in Saxony/ Germany.

My day starts at 6 a.m. in Sörnzig. After getting up and doing all the things that have to be done in the morning my way leads me to Rochlitz Castle which is approximately 3km away. Fortunately I own a little motorbike so the ride is rather a little trip through fields than a typical commute.

Work starts at 7am. The excavation team meets in our lunchroom. It is luckily the same room where all our equipment is stored therefore we have short distances to everything we need.

The excavation we are working on is a ‘rescue excavation’. The castle yard is about to be renewed completely. This includes new pipes for waste water, fresh water, rain water, earth-wires and all power supply lines. Finally the whole castle yard will get a new cobbled paving.

Thus our task is to excavate all parts of the castle yard which had not been excavated before- and this is approximately 70%. Most of them dates from the late Middle Ages.

The salvage of findings, their documentation and to save them from the dredger is exactly what we are doing there. But I have to say that all the other workers and especially the operator of the dredgers are very friendly and take care of us and the work we are doing. The normal dig goes on with well-known trowels. For measuring we use a tachymeter connected to AutoCad. Because of our lack of time we also do photogrammetrie. Sometimes it is better to draw archaeological records but this needs time that we don’t have. We have our morning break around 9am. After recharging our batteries we keep on revealing the secrets of history from the ground. Of course not every day we make great findings but thanks to the still opened castle museum there is a lot of public business. One day we were surprised by a visit of a television crew. But they were doing a documentary about the new exhibition in the museum so we could watch them filming and interviewing while continuing our work.

The last period of our day is from lunch break at 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. . At the end of our day we give ourselves a pat on the back for another great and interesting day working in the job with the most public Interest: archaeology.


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