Archaeology As A Career: Good Idea Or Total Disaster?

Archaeology. It’s one of those rare professions that capture the imaginations of children and adults alike. Even before such staples of Western zeitgeist as Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider, the study of ancient cultures captivated millions. A mix of treasure hunting, science, and adventure, with a dash of respectability managed to form a profession of it sometime between searching for the Seven Cities of Gold and opening the tomb of King Tutankhamun.

It remained a realm difficult to make a living in, however. Outside of the gray market for antiquities, only the largest of universities and museums could afford — or need — to staff archaeologists. And those tended to be polymaths, as most scientists are in the infancy of any given discipline. It is only a fairly recent development that archaeologists have specialized in more than a regional cultural area. Where before there were Mayanists, Egyptologists, Sinologists, Classicists, and the like, today there is practical specialization by type of tasks performed and not just background familiarity with the history of a region. Now an archaeologist could have specialized experience and expertise in such arcane skills as paleoethnobotany, dendrochronology, isotope analysis of skeletal remains, underwater excavation, or battlefield archaeology.