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Once an Archaeologist…? Plan B Careers in Archaeology

By Becky Wragg Sykes 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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Folkestone Research & Archaeology Group: Finalising our First Newsletter & Exploring the Downs

By F.R.A.G. on July 6, 2012 in Archaeological Prospection, Community Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education, Publishing

We set up the Folkestone Research and Archaeology Group in January this year, having met on a recent dig in the area. Realising that there was no local group in existence, we set about creating one. Since we started, we have engaged in a number of activities and also hold monthly meetings. We decided that a regular newsletter would update any of our members who were unable to join in some of the activites and also to help promote our group to anyone who is interested.

Our editor composed our first newsletter, and on The Day of Archaeology, a few of us met up to finalise the content for distribution the next day. We also had a good chin-wag over upcoming events. The newsletter can now be viewed on our website here.

A day later, one of our members came up with the bright idea of taking a walk “up the downs” (dont you just love that term?) on Sunday. Other than being a bit of a social event, we also wanted to explore the locations of a number of barrows that we may be able to excavate at a later date. As usual, the bright sunny day (as predicted by the weather forecasters) turned out to be “unsettled”, with us having to wait for the heavy showers to abate before setting off.

Walking over the downs, we located a number of the barrows we were looking for, whilst also enjoying the views. We covered the area we wanted to explore, with intermittent sunny spells and rain showers. We then noticed some black clouds ominously advancing towards us, so took the shortest route (the road) back to the pub, with cattle racing along in the field next to us, also trying to avoid the oncoming storm. Thankfully, we made it back, just in time, before the rain and hail began their assault. Over a Guinness, our chairman had a quick chat with the pub landlord about conducting a dig in their beer garden, whilst the rest of us discussed the training dig we have starting in a member’s garden this coming weekend. It looks like we could be a busy group in the near future.

Escaping the storm clouds and the deluge to come

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Our Day of Archaeology in Montescudaio (Pisa, Italy)

By Italian National Association of Archaeologists on July 4, 2012 in DayOfArch2012, Digital Archaeology, Excavation, Finds, Medieval, Osteology, Publishing, Survey

Centro di Documentazione Intercomunale di Archeologia Medievale e Postmedievale della Bassa Val di Cecina

Medieval Benedictine monastery of St. Maria in La Badia Montescudaio (PI)

The excavations started in 2005 and were completed in 2010, now we are completing work on the opening to the public.
The team is composed of professional archaeologists and researchers from the University of Pisa. In these months we are studying the finds (pottery, metal and bones) and organizing the archaeological record for final publication and WebGIS.

Thanks to archaeological research in the municipality of Montescudaio (PI), which started back in 2004, today we achieved a complete map of the main evidences and the most important monuments of cultural interest.
Among these, since the beginning of the survey emerged the so called “Badia” (abbey), the Benedectine convent dedicated to Saint Mary born at the end of the XI century. Its significance is due both to the importance of the site through the centuries and to the strong connections between the monastery and the town community.
And it’s exactly in the area known as “Badia” that, since the summer 2005, with the cooperation between the municipal administation and the University of Pisa, the archaeological research is recovering the remains of this beautiful church ad the surrounding cloister.

Yuri Alese
Monica Baldassarri
Giuseppe Clemente
Marcella Giorgio
Francesca Lemm
Cristina Otera
Silvia Rezza
Claudia Sciuto
(Italian National Association of Archaeologists)

Bibliography:

Andreazzoli F., Baldassarri M. 2006, Il monastero di S. Maria di Montescudaio e l’insediamento medievale in Bassa Val di Cecina: nuove acquisizioni dalle recenti indagini storico-archeologiche, in Marucci C., Megale C. (a cura di), Il Medioevo nella provincia di Livorno. I risultati delle recenti indagini, Livorno, Pacini Editore, pp. 75-88.

Baldassarri M. 2008, Il monastero di S. Maria e l’insediamento medievale nel territorio di Montescudaio (Pisa), in Campana S., Felici C., Francovich R., Gabrielli F. (a cura di), Chiese e insediamenti nei secoli di formazione dei paesaggi medievali della Toscana (V-X secolo), Atti del Seminario (10-11 Novembre, S. Giovanni d’Asso), Firenze, All’Insegne del giglio, pp. 391-422.

Baldassarri M. (con testi di Andreazzoli F., Baldassarri M., Dadà M., Giorgio M., Pagni G.) 2009, Lo scavo della Badia di Santa Maria a Montescudaio, in Storia di Montescudaio, Pisa, Felici Editore, pp. 71-94.

Baldassarri M., Del Greco S., Giorgio M., Naponiello G. 2012, Il monastero di Santa Maria di Montescudaio (PI): un cenobio femminile nell’organizzazione territoriale della Bassa Val di Cecina medievale, in Atti VI Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia Medievale, Firenze, All’Insegna del Giglio, pp.

Baldassarri M., Lemmi F., Naponiello G., Otera C. 2012, Dallo studio del territorio ad un webGIS 2.0 per la Bassa Val di Cecina, in Pre-Atti Opening the Past. Archaeological Open Data, http://mappaproject.arch.unipi.it/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Poster-III_lemmi.pdf.

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Thinking About Open Access Archaeological Publishing

By cejo on July 2, 2012 in DayOfArch2012, Digital Archaeology, Publishing

I spent much of the Day of Archaeology in closed windowless rooms discussing more or less weighty matters with other librarians. Mercifully we manage to make some progress on some pressing issues.

In between such things I have been thinking about the effect that open access publishing has on disciplines like archaeology and ancient near Eastern Studies and Classics and Mediterranean Archaeology. The master List of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies I’ve been compiling since 2009 on The Ancient World Online now includes includes 1188 titles, and has increased by 238 titles in the past year. That’s a big corpus. All three of the institutions I’ve been affiliated with over the past three decades have made major commitments to open access publishing: the Oriental Institute, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.

Are scholars reading and citing open access journals? Are scholars seeking out open access publication venues? Are scholars taking advantage of the emerging idea of data journals? Is it significant that more than 4500 souls have subscribed to the Ancient World Online daily email update? Is it significant that most open access publications never makes it into library discovery tools? What will be the effect of this summer’s enormously successful Linked Ancient World Data Institute be by the time the second one rolls around in a year? Are people using the Ancient World Linked Data JavaScript Library?

It’s now two hot days later and these and other questions are still knocking around my mind.

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Antequen #dayofarch Postquen de un Arkeometalero

By Evaristo Gestoso Rodriguez on July 1, 2012 in DayOfArch2012, Digital Archaeology, Publishing

Antequen

El día de la arqueología #dayofarch ha sido el menos arqueológico de los de esta semana ya que no sólo de estratos vive el hombre lo que no quita que este día haya podído interactuar con una multitud de arqueólogos vía la estupenda herramienta que es el pajarrako_azul (Twitter).

Santa Helena, Patrona de los arqueólogos

En el antequen del día de la arqueología comentabamos, en el twiterio, ante la aleatoriedad de la fecha que lo suyo hubiera sido haber escogido el Patrón o la Patrona de los arqueólogos “santificados” por distintas Iglesias, pero claro es un evento aconfesional y me huele a mi que en el mismo hay bastante gente Animista. El hecho es que surge un primer nombre y fecha que no es fruto de la aleatoriedad, Santa Helena (Flavia Julia Augusta Helena)/18 de Agosto. Patrona de los arqueólogos, matrimonios dificiles, divorciados, “conversos” y LooL emperatrices. Bueno pues esta Santa Señora, que no lo dudo, es algo así como una de las primeras arqueológas con Método moderno. El caso es que al ser la madre de Constantino financio con el erario del pueblo de Roma (subvención pública) la busqueda de la verdadera Cruz de Cristo, Vera Cruz, así que se encamino hacía la periferia del Imperio ha hacer consulta de campo, la verdad es que no había pasado muchos años desde la muerte de Jesús, la iluminación le viene en el 326 dc a orillas del Bosforo. De sus peripecias arqueológicas nos han quedado los relatos de Crisóstomo, Ambrosio, Paulino de Nola y Sulpicio Severo. Según estos no le debio ir muy bien a la hora de practicar la “entrevista arqueológíca” a los cristianos, no le supierón dar orientación ninguna. Así que comienza a indagar en los estamentos Judios, dando por fin con un tal Judas, LooL, que le mete el camelo de que una facción de Judios, de aquellos que salían en la Vida de Bryan, habían escondido y enterrado (fraude arqueológico) en un pozo la tan anhelada por ella verdadera cruz. La localización exacta estaba en el Monte del Calvario, como no podía ser de otra forma, lo malo es que encima había un templo dedicado a Venus, ni corta ni perezosa lo manda derribar para dar con el pozo.

Iglesia de la Vera Cruz (Segovia)

Tras un tiempo realizando sondeos y excavaciones abiertas para satisfacción y jubilo de Helena encuentran las tres cruces, pero date ahora hay que deducir cual es la que pertenecia a Jesucristo, por morfometría, la más grande, la más pequeña, la mediana, pues no por intercesión divina, un miembro del equipo, el obispo Demetrio, tuvo la genial idea de colocar una enferma moribunda cristiana sobre las tres cruces por si alguna de ellas se manifestaba como la Vera Cruz. Probarón en una, fail, probaron en la segunda, fail, ya probarón en la última y Milagro. La moribunda cristiana se recupero de todos sus males. Para celebrar tan glorioso día mando eregir un Templo que no fue Museo por que se encargo de hacer astillas de la cruz en tres partes y mandar una a Constantinopla, otra quedó en Jerusalén y una tercera a Roma donde hoy es venerada en la iglesia de la Santa Cruz de Jerusalén. (saqueo de bienes culturales). En el santoral existen dos santos más considerados como patrones de la arqueología, pero mola la Helena con H.

#dayofarch

Lo de arkeo_heavymetal viene dado porque en los años que estudiaba y practicaba estas cosas de desenterrar huesos y alguna que otra piedra surgio la critica “Radical”, a las maneras de representación de las realidades pasadas de la arqueología procesualista, pues ya que había tantas formas de comprender/representar que no explicar las sociedades pasadas, unido a la concrección de un “Yo” débil en cada arqueólogo pues mi cosmovisión y acercamiento a la historia de esos pueblos sin historia debería ser heavy metalera, y vaya si lo era. Al día de hoy, #dayofarch, despues de tener abandonada la arqueología durante un cierto tiempo en diferentes etapas intento hacer una tesis doctoral sobre Datos abiertos, reutilización de los mismos y creación de bases de conocimiento a través de los estándares de la Web Semántica es una consecuencia lógica después de haber estado urgando durante un cierto tiempo en la interoperabilidad sintáctica a través de los estándares de los servicios web geográficos, la verdad es que llevo muchos años jugando con los mapitas, la arkegeomática me mola más que una gominola, ahora solo falta darle una capita de interoperabilidad semántica que de hecho ya la tiene en recursos como geonames.

Más en el ámbito de lo concreto me he unido a un grupo entusiasta para llevar a cabo un proyecto de Arqueología Comunitaria/Pública para divulgar e involucrar a la gente del “territorio” en el conocimiento de su pasado histórico en la Edad del Hierro II, en estos momentos estoy construyendo la Web del proyecto con el mayor número de herramientas colaborativas posibles, de mapeado, de generación de bibliografías, etc. que aunque medio terminada pondremos online en Agosto que es cuando haremos el trabajo de campo para desbrozar un poco los Castros y hacer una documentación de los mismos para crear recursos de Realidad Aumentada utilizando KML, o sea, sin comerse el coco, O_o

Postquen

Aunque en periodo vacacional, casi realmente estoy en un estado de Permanent Vacation, hoy me he atado la pata a la silla para escrbir este post. Interesante iniciativa que tiene visos a consolidarse en un futuro próximo. Consultando a la MySQL de twitter 615 miembros han interactuado cuando al mediodia del día de ayer eran 316, algunos resultados visualizados de un twittero.

Felicitar a los ideadores y administradores de este magnificos evento colaborativo. Como en la vida, habrá días buenos y malos pero el de hoy ha sido un fantástico día de los arkeolocos. Gracias/Thanks

Andy Dufton

The Admin

Bueno geotiqueto el post y envio un SALUDo a todo aquel que llegue a leer esto, una putadita que el núcleo de WP no deje meter <iframes> para roncalear un poco.

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Lots of Little Jobs and One Big Job

By Doug on June 30, 2012 in Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Digital Archaeology, Publishing

My day of archaeology, like the title says, consistence of lots of little jobs and one big job. The one big job actually has nothing to do with archaeology but pays the bills. I spent the vast majority of my Day of Archaeology working at Gengage. Gengage is the Scottish Healthcare Genetics Public Engagement Network. If it sounds like it has nothing to do with archaeology that is because it does not have anything to do with archaeology. I am currently a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh after finishing my Masters, after working in CRM in the US. While I got some funding to cover my tuition I still have to pay rent and buy food. So 9 to 4 was spent at the Gengage office making ends meet.

However, just because you have a job that has nothing to do with archaeology does not mean you can not make it relevant to archaeology. I spent that 9 to 4 editing videos a skill that has helped me in archaeology and will probably continue to. I used the video editing skills I picked from Gengage to edit the videos of the Barriers to Participation in Archaeology Online workshop. You can see the different videos here, here, here, here, and here. Just because your current job has nothing to do with archaeology does not mean you can’t make it relevant.

The rest of my day was broken up into a bunch of smaller jobs for the variety projects I am involved in:

Spent an hour on the phone to one of my more archaeology related jobs, Profiling the Profession project with Landward Research. If you do not not know what Profiling the Profession is then check out the Landward website all of the profiling the profession reports are there. We discussed the new project, which is about to get started, and what need to be done over the next few weeks. I won’t bore you with the details.
I spent a half hour working on the Open Access Archaeology blog. Basically, I looked at recent open access archaeology publications and made a blog post for each one, about three in total. I also connected the posts with Twitter. All of the posts are in a queue so that if I miss a day a post still goes out. This day I blogged about a new open access issue of Expedition and a new landscape article about the Inca providential capitals, the posts will be out in a few days.
I also blogged a little bit about soil identification for archaeologists on my personal archaeology blog. That took up another half hour.
I then spent about an hour looking through job adverts on Archaeologyfieldwork.com. Not because I need a job but because it is part of the research I conduct on jobs and pay conditions in archaeology. This mainly involved transferring data from job postings into an excel sheet, FUN TIMES (sarcasm).
Finally, I spent about two hours working on my PhD research. This involves working with agent based modelling to create a site predictive model. Right now I am cleaning up one of my models on hydrology, the purpose of which is to get an accurate idea of where water would be in my arid environment. Like all computer modelling I spent about 1hr and 55 mins. trying to figure out why my agents were not doing what they were supposed to and five minutes hating myself because of the stupid coding mistake that was screwing everything up. Here is a pic, not much to look at.

It looks like I got a lot done but actually it was not too much. However, that is how I work. I like to break down my work into bit sized tasks that I complete over several days or weeks.

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Four Days in the Life of a Postdoctoral Researcher

By Ulla Rajala on June 30, 2012 in Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Digital Archaeology, Education, Historical Archaeology, Journalism, Prehistory, Publishing

Tuesday, June 26

I have recently proposed an online course for the Institute of Continuing Education at the University of Cambridge. My day started with a meeting at Madingley Hall to discuss this idea with the manager of the courses. The online provision is a novelty at Cambridge and the manager has been surprised how many of the customers are apparently totally new to the ICE and create a truly global audience. Thus, my idea needs a rethink in order to fulfil their remit to be able to run the course at least three times and reach a wider audience with a less area-specific title. The course seems to stay in development. Luckily, the manager has to put on his second hat as the manager of the International Summer School so I will have until late August or September to brainstorm.

After the meeting I headed to the University Library to check the dates suggested for the calibrated chronology of the late central Italian prehistory. The book in question seemed to be in the open collection so I decided to go the Department of Archaeology first. I had a series of illustrations to do for an article; thus, I needed to scan some slides with a slide scanner and to check old GIS coverages in order to edit the figures needed for the wetlands volume Water : Movement – The importance of rivers, lakes and wetlands in prehistoric societies edited by Andrea Vianello. It turned out that the slide scanner had not been connected to the network since the last network update and I had to get the departmental computing officer David Redhouse, the network administrator required to add an USB appliance, to come and get the scanner online. In addition, for some reason scanning slides is always prone to random difficulties. This time one slide turned all black and one bright red; if only one had foreseen how redundant the old photographic forms were to come and how quickly slide scanners became obsolete. I shiver with the thought of upgrading from the current modes of storing them.

I scanned the slides for the illustrations and saved them in order to edit them later and proceeded into creating a series of new ArcMap coverages in order to have the correct features in my figures. Since I can edit all new CorelDraw files further at home later during the week, I just created the content I needed and imported it to the CorelDraw for later editing and use. The day finished with fetching the book I had looked for in the online catalogue earlier from the stack in the UL and updating the dates taken from my PhD.

University Library at Cambridge

Wednesday, June 27

This morning saw me giving a lecture in the Exploring Art course (Makers and Materials II) in the Embrace Arts. This course is part of the Art History lecture series in the Richard Attenborough Centre at the University of Leicester. These courses are organized by the Institute for Lifelong Learning at Leicester. The course director was sitting in this time in order to assess me and start the process of including me officially in the tutor panel. Considering that W. G. Hoskins taught at the Vaughan College and for the Workers’ Educational Association, I am not in bad company.

My lecture is about to start

The lecture on Phaidias at Olympia, a topical subject due to the arrival of Olympic flame relay to Leicester on Monday, went well and the learners seemed interested and enthusiastic.

In the afternoon I started to edit the illustrations but managed to make very slow process, since I had to crosscheck different place names mentioned in the text and their locations.

Thursday, June 28

In the morning I uploaded my archaeological blog ‘Landscape Perceptions’, where I did blog about this Archaeology Day last week. This week’s topic was ‘Summer Season of Archaeological News’ in which I discussed some Roman glass beads from Japan. I try to be topical; thus, I have reviewed both Pub Archaeology and Mary Beard’s excellent ‘Meet the Romans’, while discussing important archaeological topics. As a busy working mother, I am lucky to be able to keep a weekly blog!

On this particular day I had to make some preparations for my coming short work trip to Rome. I have to keep my Italian mobile number alive by crediting it at least once a year. This I could have sorted otherwise – online or bothering colleagues – but for drawing a few diagnostic pieces of pottery for an article I am preparing and meeting the new inspector for Crustumerium where I excavated between 2004 and 2008 you have to travel to Italy. In order to make swifter moves from the airport to the centre, from the centre to the Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, where I store some utensils, and from Rome to Civita Castellana, I have hired a car. I try to make this trip on a shoestring so avoiding the extra insurances in the car rental place is paramount. Thus, I had to buy a car hire excess insurance online that was much cheaper than any tie-ins.

Secondly, I needed a new cabin trolley. My husband will be leaving almost immediately for Turkey for work on my arrival so he could not lend his but I had to go to the city centre to buy a new one. I managed to spend almost two hours while comparing models, weights and volumes in different department stores and to lose my toddler son in the process. It is good to know that the security in the shops can be used to spot runaway children with extra energy…

I also had to send a recent article, out about a month ago, to the inspectors in different Superintendencies whose areas I was discussing in my article ‘Political landscapes and local identities in Archaic central Italy – Interpreting the material from Nepi (VT, Lazio) and Cisterna Grande (Crustumerium, RM, Lazio)’. In addition, there were e-mails from the first hostel I am staying in Rome and a follow-up message from the lecturer responsible for the Landscape History courses in the Institute of Continuing Education at Cambridge to deal with. I also finally received a photo register file from my assistant.

Friday, June 29

As I suspected, my Friday looks like it will be less than exciting. I have to do a job application, continue editing and compiling illustrations for the article I now have the material for and look at briefly some other texts in order to make progress on them. I will look at the summary of the activities before turning off my laptop in the early evening.

Editing illustrations

* * *

Not unsurprisingly the time flew and I barely got the illustrations ready – all 15 of them. I also wrote the list of captions and inserted the references into the text. There is one illustration I am not happy with but I have to do it later; its colour scheme does not take the change to the greyscale well. I may also have to include a 16^th figure in order to show more of the real landscape in a photo. The other texts have to wait until next week. One is always optimistic what one manages to do in one day…

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My Job? Which One?

By Sinead Marshall on June 30, 2012 in Bronze Age, Community Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education, Finds, Medieval, Museum Archaeology, Publishing, Survey

Archaeological work comes in so many varieties it can be hard to pin down. Some people think I dig up shiny objects to send to a museum, only for them to languish on a dusty shelf forevermore. Or assume I work with little brushes in balmy, sandy environments despite spending most of my working life in Ireland. It is ridiculously green for a reason.

It’s a varied job but the questions archaeologists get asked by their friends, families and strangers on the street seem to be similar across the world.

‘Have you found any gold?’ being an Irish favourite. Or there’s ‘How do you know where to dig?’ I like this one so much I ended up doing a whole panel on it for a recent archaeological exhibition in the museum I work in.

Is an unemployed archaeologist still an archaeologist?

I say ‘work’ but none of my current jobs actually have a wage attached. Irish archaeology is feeling the recession – with archaeological employment figures apparently hovering around the national general unemployment rate. So I created my own lovely ‘jobs’ that keep me in archaeology for now.

My ‘jobs’:

Research Project Director

Being unemployed meant having enough time to do a good bit of structured research. I went back to a site that has always intrigued me and set up a research project based around it – ThORRP. Our community based project is partly funded by The Heritage Council and is managed and staffed by volunteers.

Old Ross is a medieval borough with potential for new discoveries . We’ll be using research, field survey, geophysics and LiDAR to build a comprehensive picture of the site. Surviving medieval documents compliment a rural setting possibly preserving unidentified elements of the medieval landscape – from windmills to a vineyard! The results will go into a new project website, be published in local newspapers and academic journals and we’re even giving a talk at the local Ploughing Championships.

2. Museum Assistant

New social welfare work schemes designed to help those out of work to keep busy have received a mixed reaction. However I prefer to be active and interested. Before we knew the funding proposal for ThORRP was successful I thought of what job I’d like and approached the nearest County Museum in Carlow to create a work scheme position for me. They weren’t hiring so it was the only way to get this experience – they eventually gave me a place and I absolutely love it. Working with graphic designers, writing exhibition panel text and artefact labels, coming up with floor layouts for cases and the artefacts within them was so engaging. This seems to be the job for me.

3. Archaeological Walking Tour Developer and Guide

Recently I was approached to be a part of the inaugural Kilkenny Walking Festival. I live in a beautiful medieval city – coincidentally a couple of streets away from my first dig as a student in 1994. The festival organisers, the council and a rural development charity, wanted to include archaeological tours in their festival and asked me to come up with something. Hence the Kilkenny city pointing out archaeological excavation sites type tour was born – Archaeology Beneath Your Feet. I did five of these tours in April and have just been asked to do some over the summer too. Who knows where they may lead?

So what’s a typical day like?

Working a 9.30am – 5.30pm, 5 day week in the museum weekdays now start at 7.30. A 40 minute drive from Kilkenny to Carlow or a combination of bike and train gets me to work on time. Tasks range from cataloguing and researching artefacts to attending in an exhibition space, chatting to visitors. Today no tours were booked in and I only needed to attend to cover breaks for other volunteers so I made good progress in the office.

I edited the last couple of words in an accompanying guide for volunteers on our new archaeological exhibition, ‘Journeys in Time’. I had the pleasure of working on the exhibition from its early design stages to the finished product.

A great Bronze Age artefact was handed in by a member of the public the other day so I researched and wrote up some information on it. Being the only person with an archaeological background means I get to work with some of the oldest objects in the collection.

Just before lunch I had a chat with the Curator about an upcoming Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland (IAI) Professional Development course at Tara then quickly sent off an email to book a place on it. Training budget you say? Excellent.

At lunch time I did a bit more research on the walking tour material and some work on ThORRP – adding the latest research into our files and updating the Method Statement for field-walking we’re doing in September. Having spent years as a digger a whole one hour lunch break in a clean environment is still a luxury. I’m adjusting well though.

After break I registered some new items into the museum’s book catalogue… mmm how to get funding for heritage projects, must read that one! Check arrangements for a meeting about funding for museum studies courses. Health and Safety meeting next week, noted in the diary.

Friday feeling kicking in, read some emails, no reply to the CPD course booking yet. I head home hoping there are still places left on the course and wondering what to write for Day of Archaeology 2012. The future is looking brighter.

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Such a boring life… or not, just normal

By Jaime Almansa Sánchez on June 29, 2012 in Commercial Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Publishing

When I wrote last year’s post I had the feeling that my life was not as exciting as others. This year I kind of confirm it, but at least, once again, I think I’ve been doing different, normal stuff. So, what was my day today?

I still keep my company open, but one month ago I had to leave the office to adjust expenses. Today is the day I finished moving! I now have internet again and air conditioning (at home, my new office for the moment). For that, I was the whole morning with the technician talking about all the shit in the world… even the world of archaeology.

Furniture from former JAS Arqueología’s office stored in my village…

I also had to attend a couple of clients from the editorial and run to my parents’ home to prepare lunch and take care of my grandad. Meanwhile, my partners from AMTTA (contribution soon online too) were presenting out latest project; ‘Combates por la Historia’ (Combats for History), to show and socialize hidden and destroyed heritage in Madrid through different routes, the first one, Campus de Batalla (Battle Campus) about the Civil War front in Ciudad Universitaria, Madrid.

Anyway, the afternoon was a bit more archaeological… After lunch I continued editing the next book from my editorial, the second by Riccardo Frigoli. A great essay on archaeology, interpretation and communication. But it was not for long, as I had to attend the second event with AMTTA, the general annual meeting of Madrid Ciudadanía y Patrimonio, an association we joined to continue fighting for heritage. And after that a round table about Heritage and the Crisis.

During the round table

The round table was quite interesting, as we mostly talked about two important issues:

-The crisis: Not only economic, but moral. How besides the economic difficulties, heritage was always in the middle of a general disinterest that was harmful for heritage.

-The new law projected in Madrid for Historical Heritage: Suddenly, maybe due to the possibility of hosting Eurovegas, the regional government has written a draft for a new law that is negligent and goes against any principle we might share as professionals.
[If fluent in Spanish, see the text and our comments here]

Now I came back home, I had some chinese for dinner and am writing this. The day is over and this time I’m not traveling anywhere soon, so every day this week will be pretty similar, pretty boring.

btw I’m Jaime Almansa-Sánchez

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The Humming From Behind the Webpage

By Judith Winters on June 29, 2012 in Day of Archaeology, DayofArch2011, DayOfArch2012, Digital Archaeology, Journalism, Publishing

The racing tune of Largo al factotum by Rossini was on the radio as I came into work and has stayed in my head all day. It’s great uplifting piece of music to be rounding off the week and an apt backdrop to a busy Day of Archaeology 2012 (as well as one of my favourite Tom and Jerry cartoons!). Have a listen while you read the next few posts!

Largo al factorum (YouTube video)

I am only in work today for the morning so this post is shorter (and ultimately later as I am now posting this from home) than if Day of Archaeology 2012 fell on one of my full working days like last year. My post has always been at 80% full time which helps to fit in with family life (husband, 2 year old and a 7 year old) and all the other things I try to fit into my evenings and weekends in my ‘free’ time.

My half days are ‘bitty’ days. Too short to get my teeth into something big but great for clearing up all those little ones that arise during the course of the week. So far this morning I’ve dealt with email correspondence on matters such as arranging a review copy of a book to be sent to the journal (we rarely review books but this one has a particular digital slant to it and so makes the grade), sorting out dates for the next CBA Publications committee meeting, dealing with the queries raised by Val Kinsler, the journal’s long-standing copy-editor, on an article for the next issue, as well as setting up the access file for the forthcoming volume and making small changes to the search and subscription database to reflect the new content. I also received a phonecall from a referee regarding a recently submitted text.

Summary page of ‘Visualising the Guild Chapel’, Internet Archaeology 32 (forthcoming)

I have a quick meeting with Stuart from ADS downstairs over our IfA Workplace Learning Bursary application in between spending what’s left of the morning polishing a pretty much completed article (above) ready for release, and make a start on the copy-edited draft from Val, specifically collating queries to send back to the authors. Both articles are in fact designated for Open Access as the authors either successfully applied to their departmental research fund, or wisely built in publication funding in their original project bid. All too frequently it is still the case that the outputs of research (and their associated costs) are not given much thought at the start of a project/bid. But if things like publication costs are not factored in at the start, it is almost impossible to recover them later. This to me seems to be the biggest hurdle in the move to Open Access in archaeology whatever additional waivers there must always be for those without access to such funds. But Open Access is something Internet Archaeology is committed to achieving. I attended a really useful and interesting day in London at the start of June on Open Access organised by the Repositories Support Project and have been buoyed by the recent announcements and activities (e.g. the Minister of State for Universities and Science David Willetts’ recent speech, and the newly released Finch report), all which point to the inevitability of Open Access. What else can I say – watch this space!

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