When people think about Careers in archaeology, they think about working in a dirty field all day, digging up broken bits of pottery for a living. While this will probably account for a small part of your archaeological life, there are in-fact lots of Careers you can do that relate to archaeology. Anyone interested in New careers might not have considered working in anything archaeology related, even if they have an interest in history, as the common misconception is it’s all about living in tents and digging all day. You can do this if you wish, but there are also other Career ideas open. Here are just a selection of the Career ideas you may want to consider to get into archaeology.
There are some fairly New careers open in archaeology, and one such career is a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Analyst. A GIS Analyst will make use of software to produce maps and graphs that represent data from findings. They are regularly used in archaeology to chart where finds have been made, to help try and calculate where the next possible digging sites could be located. To become a GIS Analyst you must be educated to degree level. You aren’t required to have any experience with archaeology in order to become an archaeological GIS Analyst, just an interest in the subject would be beneficial.
Another job which can be branched into as a result of working in archaeology could be a museum curator. A museum curator has an extensive variety of responsibilities, including choosing what items would be best on display in the museum, and buying or borrowing the items. The curator may also keep the museums paperwork and catalogues up to date, and will control the budget of the museum in a lot of cases. They should also be responsible for the setting up of displays and exhibitions within the museum, and also organising fundraising and publicity events. This is an incredibly varied and professional role, and as such you will be required to be educated to degree level. In order to be able to specialize in archaeology in the museum your degree will be required to reflect this.
Degrees are not the only ways into Careers within archaeology – you can start your way from the bottom up. This will probably involve a lot of freelance, possibly even voluntary work on digs and sites whenever you can get it. This way up through archaeology can be very hard, but some archaeologists claim this is when they have the most fun. Temporary work is common, and much of it will be out in the field. As you get more experience you may be able to acquire a more secure position working for either a government trust or university, and then work your way up to severaldifferent roles such as Field Supervisor, Project Archaeologist or Project Manager. These jobs have varying degrees of responsibility, and can be incredibly competitive roles to enter. Having a degree will help you acquire a more responsible role, but experience in the field, as well as analysing and processing data from discoveries is just as significant. These are just a small selection of the different Careers available in archaeology.