What nobody tells you about archaeology

Dear tumblr people. Archaeology sounds like it’s the most exiting job on the planet. And while I think that’s true for me personally, let us not think Indiana Jones and promises during job interviews or what your professors will try to convince you of. If you want to keep living in dreams, don’t read further (I’m sorry)

You’ll get a new sense of hygiene. Eating with dirty hands? Sure. Clean nails? On what planet even? What you mean my car is dirty? Grocery shopping covering in mud? It’s just soil. Nothing disgusting about it. Sand throughout your house? Just part of the life as an archaeologist

The stereotype says that people ask about dinosaurs, but all they truly want to hear from you is the words “gold” and “treasure”. And you can answer jokingly about two times and than you will be absolutely done with the dumbness of the public

There are a lot of women in archaeology and we do the same manual labor a man does. But construction site workers and the public sometimes too will question your abilities. A woman in a digger is like a theatre show. Women wearing working gear clothes is weird. People will be (overly) worried. Sometimes to the point the public is relieved when you say you’re an archaeologist. Not that they would know if it’s better or not. But is sounds better than sewer pipe cleaner or construction worker or demolition worker. Like hey. We do medieval sewage systems. Respect other peoples jobs please.

I graduated under the promising words that archaeology is a science and you make the world better with your research results and you need to do a good job because you can only do it once or it will be gone forever. No. Archaeology is subject to politics and economics more than the academic world. You are part of a company that has to make money in the end of the day. Everything can be turned into the most ideal outcome for your client or your boss as well. Things can and will be faked. And laws and heritage services are just plain shit

You work terrible hours of manual labor for a very low paycheck. Most work at private companies, they have competition, they have to go cheaper than the other one. And you will suffer for it. Either personally or by the materials you work with i.e. everything is broken and will never be replaced

You will always be subject of impossible expectations. Be it by your boss, the client, the landowner or the heritage department. They are all people with no idea how or why we do what we do. And it sucks. It’s like talking to a brick wall. They will not bend, they can only crack (their ego’s).

NANOTYRANNUS JUMPSCARE

I will die on this hill

Looking at you Troodon.

And Dakotaraptor. And Dracorex. and Stygimoloch. And Seismosaurus.

I learned about the BEST thing in my paleo discussion section today. My college experience has peaked.

This meme has kept popping up in my head since I first saw it BUT I just had to edit it because the dates were slightly off. Unless the original fin to leg person knows something I don’t

my paleo prof:

Really old drawing of a halszkaraptor from my sketchbook that I never posted but it’s the only worthwhile image I’ve ever drawn <3

Original meme under cut ↓ ↓ ↓

Debunking archaeology stereotypes #4

Myth: we know everything about everything that’s old.

Reality: although we can seem like it, we are not walking libraries. Field archaeologists have two kinds of “specialties”. The thing we did our masters on, or just a thing that’s super close to us, and then there are the things that can be expected to be found on site.

As a Western European archaeologist, we can expect to find podzol in a sandy soil, and around a medieval settlement will usually be a ditch. And we might sound super smart explaining that to others, history is not random and people were not dumb.

When it comes to artifacts, that’s when the fun starts. We usually specialize in some kind of artifact within a special time frame. I know loads about Germanic jewelry, but nothing about Germanic pottery, let alone late medieval pottery.

One of the reasons I chose to educate myself in these is because they come from where I come from. It’s about relevancy to you. And to be rude, job possibilities as well. And to be honest, even for me, after having studied 600+ Germanic bird brooches, they will start looking alike. It’s too much to handle. Let alone know everything about every possible artifact in the world ever.

Also: But where does this come from? My best and only guess? Indiana Jones. Even the antiquarians would stick to one kind of culture/era/site, but between the 1930’s and the 1980’s, being an antiquarian wasn’t really a thing anymore. Also, too much wars and shortages to spend it on Egyptian death masks.

So when the wildly popular Indiana Jones movies came out and people once again met up with the past, it was the only mainstream example to took up to. And because the movies and the following adventure movie genre all went along with the same premise… well, that’s what you get.

The Lancetfish is a species that looks like it comes straight out of a realistic fantasy world building project.