Archaeologist : Archaeologists - A Closer Look At Who They Are and What They Do
By: D. Admin Thursday May 17 2012
Map: Home | Archaeologist - Date Submitted: 2010-10-30 15:00:13 - Views: 642 - Word Count: 737
An Archaeologist is someone who is in charge of delving into the research of a group of people or a society, mainly through physical evidence instead of written materials.
They mostly conduct their research on site, unearthing ancient cities or grave sites and they spend their time looking for important artifacts that can help them with their research.
What are Artifacts?
Simply put, they are evidences that people unconsciously leave behind in the places in which they lived. Sometimes, artifacts or features can be in the form of pottery, bottles, carvings on stones, walls, traces of hearth, food storage that is dug in the ground and tools that their subjects may have used at one point or another.
Usually, an archaeologist finds all these things by digging. After uncovering a certain artefact, he then takes a picture of its position in the dig site, picks it up and cleans it off. The find then goes into a plastic bag for temporary storage and it is labeled accordingly.
The archaeologist then catalogs his find before he puts it away and looks for more artefacts in the dig site. After exploration, he then brings his finds into a laboratory to perform several tests. One of the most common tests done is carbon dating.
Through carbon dating, he finds out the approximate age of the artefacts, connects it to the era where it once belonged to and he tries to figure out the significance of each tool to the people of the society that once used it. This part is really important because through this process, he starts to somehow understand the way of life of the people he is researching.
After all the excavating, researching and testing, the final process that has to be done is documentation. Through proper documentation, he finally presents all his hard work and findings to peers in the field, educators, students and to other people who may need the data he gathered for educational and academic purposes.
Those are the basic tasks of an archaeologist. Now just like any career person, he too needs some tools that can help him accomplish his tasks or jobs, such as:
1. Digging tools – these include shovels, trowels and a pick. Sometimes if the excavation is large scale, or if a dig proved to be too hard to be done manually, the archaeologist in charge of the project may find the need to use machineries like a backhoe driver or a loader to break the ground a little bit.
2. Brushing tools – an archaeologist uses brushes to remove the dirt off their finds. Note that sometimes one brush alone will not do the job. Depending on how tough or delicate an artifact is, different brushes will have to be used on them.
3. Maps, GPS systems and graphs – all these will be needed so that archaeologists can map the exact location of their dig site.
4. Strings and poles – for marking and enclosing their specific site.
5. Tweezers – this well help they pick up small artefacts like pieces of cloth and hair.
6. Level – to determine how far archaeologists have dug so far.
7. Plastic or zip lock bags – mainly to store and keep their archaeological finds and artefacts.
8. Writing tools – necessary for notation of data where a specific artifact was found, the name of the site and its specific number.
9. Camera – something that allows them to take snapshots of both the artifacts they find and the site itself.
10. And lastly, protective clothing like hats and gloves – these pieces of clothing help an archaeologist survive the weather on site.
Archaeologists spend a lot of time in the library, also, to give them some background on the societies they research through archaeological methods. Archaeological research does not just have to be about prehistorically societies, but can be about societies and cultures existing after the invention of writing.
The career of an archaeologist is an interesting one, that can lead someone pursuing this career to many exotic and interesting places. It usually requires post-graduate work to get a Master's and sometimes, even a Ph.D. Generally, an archaeologist can expect to make $30,000/year with a Bachelor's and up to $80,000 year or even higher with more education.
If you would like to find out more about becoming an Archaeologists then visit also our Career Forum
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