30th March 2011, 12:58 PM
There are a multitude of skills required in archaeology and a multitude of tasks to be performed. In some ways archaeologists are Jacks of all trades, in other ways we are extremely specialised.
But Dino is right.....universities rarely prepare you for the dirty world of digging on a site. Most aspects of most archaeological undergrad and postgrad courses are specifically designed to prepare the student for the accademic world of book research, lecturing, reading and writing articles for publication.
Most archaeology degrees do encourage students to go on a couple of training/research digs, but these usually only provide a taster of what goes on on a site and rarely prepare the student for the digging circuit.
From my experience the courses also dont prepare the student for the commercial world at all. How many students after completing their course, certificate in hand, are aware of the regional resource assessments? MAP2? Research agendas, or even what a WSI is or how to do a DBA?
Its best to think of the training digs as a quick look at site life, and the degree as background knowledge and training in how to do research and the basic skills required to write reports. But the real training starts in the commercial world.
Its not patronising, its fact. (although Dino I suspect is stirring:face-stir
Many students and new diggers of course realise this and grab every opportunity to learn new stuff...some do just moan, I know, I've been there.
The key is you should never stop learning....noone (not even Dino) knows everything about archaeology, those most likely to succeed in this bizzare industry are those most keen to learn and constantly improve.
However I have noticed that some people seem to be 'natural' archaeologists and others just never get it.
As for the future of the industry.......who knows! We are reliant on the whims of the present governments plans to change the planning regulations.
But Dino is right.....universities rarely prepare you for the dirty world of digging on a site. Most aspects of most archaeological undergrad and postgrad courses are specifically designed to prepare the student for the accademic world of book research, lecturing, reading and writing articles for publication.
Most archaeology degrees do encourage students to go on a couple of training/research digs, but these usually only provide a taster of what goes on on a site and rarely prepare the student for the digging circuit.
From my experience the courses also dont prepare the student for the commercial world at all. How many students after completing their course, certificate in hand, are aware of the regional resource assessments? MAP2? Research agendas, or even what a WSI is or how to do a DBA?
Its best to think of the training digs as a quick look at site life, and the degree as background knowledge and training in how to do research and the basic skills required to write reports. But the real training starts in the commercial world.
Its not patronising, its fact. (although Dino I suspect is stirring:face-stir
Many students and new diggers of course realise this and grab every opportunity to learn new stuff...some do just moan, I know, I've been there.
The key is you should never stop learning....noone (not even Dino) knows everything about archaeology, those most likely to succeed in this bizzare industry are those most keen to learn and constantly improve.
However I have noticed that some people seem to be 'natural' archaeologists and others just never get it.
As for the future of the industry.......who knows! We are reliant on the whims of the present governments plans to change the planning regulations.