Job Descriptions - Definitions - Career Fields: Archaeologist
 

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Archaeologist   

This is not a career for someone who is easily bored with cold facts and tedious chores, it is a challenge for a person who is curious, has a deep interest in the past and wishes to discover how people of all different races and nations used to live and think. An archaeologist needs patience; dedication; imagination; a logical mind; honesty; the ability to report findings factually and good language and writing skills. As much of the work is done in laboratories, you would need to be familiar with laboratory procedures and able to record, in minute detail, your findings.
You would have to study relics (man-made objects) from the past technological, social, spiritual and other cultural activities in order to determine how long-dead people lived and developed through the ages. There are unwritten prehistories of countries and peoples. In order to understand the relics, you would need a regular use of other disciplines such as zoology, palaeontology, botany, geology, sedimentology, chemistry and physics. Your tasks would include excavation, recording and processing and a great deal of painstaking research.

In the 1970's, two sensational discoveries were made; in Kenya bones and a human skull were found below a layer of earth dating back 2.8 million years ago; a cave in Southern Africa, on the border of Swaziland and Natal showed signs of being inhabited by men of modern type - possibly as long ago as 100,000 BC. Biology textbooks of the 70's stated that the only humans in existence 100,000 years ago were beetlebrowed, bandy-legged Neanderthalers but the remains which had been found were those of a Homo sapiens who was not supposed to have appeared until about 35,000 BC - some 65,000 years later.

The Border Cave dwellers apparently had discovered mining and had manufactured sophisticated tools including agate knives with edges still sharp enough to slice paper! It was presumed by scientists that the tribe had held religious convictions and believed in the afterlife because a child's body had been given a ceremonial burial. This implied that members of the tribe had a language and had been able to reason abstractly - immortality cannot be conveyed with simple guttural sounds. Carefully notched bones suggested that they had even learnt to count.

Did you know that scientists believe that the Sahara Desert was once a lush, green land peopled with many races and filled with animals that are now only found in museums, jungles or reserves? Imagine if you could discover another treasure like that found by Howard Carter who unearthed the tomb of King Tutankhamun. Superstitious people blame the deaths of many explorers on the curse of the dead pharaoh.

There are three aspects to the work of an archaeologist, namely:

* Field work: Early man left signs of their existence which still exist today. The methods used to prove this fact involve excavations of archaeological sites, caves and shelters, as well as the occasional chance discoveries of new and exciting facts. A knowledge of photography is also important as you would have to record your findings on film..

* Laboratory work: Artifacts of any nature are studied and scientifically analysed to establish as much information as possible about the people who made them and the reasons why they made them as well as how they used them. If you should find something really old which looks like a modern aeroplane or can opener, you would have to wonder whether we are the primitives!

* Publication: When you were totally sure of the facts of your findings, you would have to be prepared to risk the censure and criticism of your peers by publishing your interpretation of these facts in scientific journals or books. You might have to give lectures on your findings to special interest groups or to the public and be prepared to argue your opinions. Some well known people have lost their reputations and been laughed out of the profession because they either did not do their homework properly or falsified their findings.

Archaeological technicians assist the archaeologist with the processing of excavated materials and with the preparation of photographs, maps and diagrams for publication and you would have to be able to work in harmony with these people.


Career Fields


Earth Sciences
 



 
 

Courtesy: CareerExpo

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