Ask an Archaeologist #9

?      Is archaeology hard?

Some of the field work can be physically hard.  Digging can be fairly strenuous.  The physical effort involved in screening varies with the type of screen used.  Other activities such as troweling, screening, drawing, and recording are not physically demanding.  Volunteers often get to select their activity and pace of work.

There are many archaeological activities that are conducted indoors and are not physically strenuous.  These include archival research, artifact washing, cataloging, and report writing.

All archaeological activities require some level of knowledge but this is not unusually difficult to develop.  Professional archaeologists have educational backgrounds ranging from college to post graduate.  Many volunteers learn on the job under the supervision of professional archaeologists.   Both groups refer to extensive libraries of on-line and hard copy research materials.

Answer provided by Elsie

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