BLM Opening for Seasonal Archeology Technician Job

[airborne1092]

How cool is this, you get PAID to search, find, dig, preserve and report on historic artifacts! If nothing else, I would do a cool job like this to learn better techniques, find leads and points of contacts in the industry and learn the lay of the land.

And get paid to do it!

Do I really need to spell out all the possabilities with working this job


http://tiny.cc/l7q2q

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

metal detector enthusiasts would find the ways archaeologists work, to be seeoooo boring. If you've ever hunted to help them in their work, you'll see that ..... un-like us, they don't just dig up things. But rather, if you get a signal, they prohibit you from digging it. Instead, the must flag it with a marker, and then spend tedious amounts of time......... painstakingly digging with tweezers, paintbrushes, making note of GPS, trajectory, time of day, blah blah blah. It's absolutely boring. That's why it takes them weeks to do a single 4 x 4 x 4 ft pit

There is a specialized niche of historical archaeology, that concerns itself with strictly post-contact era. So they'd be interested in urban demolition, for instance. That would be the only type archaeology that might interest md'rs. And sometimes, they are tasked with merely "sampling" large swaths, quickly for noting and documenting. But even then, I think their profression would frown on detectors as a way to do this.

So all in all, I think a md'ing hobbyist would quickly be fired by his colleagues, if he showed any interest in hunting, for hunting sakes like we do in our hobby.

 

[airborne1092]

I think as an arch. tech., you'd be making coffee and driving lots.

With that said, it would allow you time to ask lots of questions, pull documents and maps for research, scout possible areas for you to look and talk to old timers as you're passing through, after your period of employment. In so far as actually digging (or lack thereof) I would think that would be up to the students that do the summer hire or field work programs. Again, get some face time for when you need to submit a Treasure Trove permit or when you need something ID'ed, or when you find something, to report it and be taken seriously.

 

[Philvis]

Trust me, this isn't a "dream" job by any means, haha. For an archaeologist, all this would be is steady work. A basic run down of this job is being in the middle of nowhere digging Shovel Test Pits every 20 meters or something similar to that. Most would barely make $11.50-$12 an hour doing this. If you like walking around with a shovel, bag, and screen, this is for you. Typically these type positions do Phase I Survey archaeology, which is where you do surface collecting/investigations (just plainly put, looking for anything of cultural significance on top of the land without digging), but most prevalently you do Shovel Test Pits. That is where every 20 meters or whatever the determined distance is, you dig a 12-15 inch diameter hole down until you reach undisturbed sub-soil. You note the deptch and stratigraphy and screen the soil for any cultural materials. You can do this for miles a day. The point of this phase of archaeology is to see if there are any heavy concentrations of cultural material to warrant a Phase II examination which opens up larger test units, maybe 1 x 1 meter and sometimes larger. From there you determine if an all out Phase III excavation is necessary. These are the excavations you see on TV and in articles. Rarely it gets to that level, and a majority of the time when it does, they are performed by academic institutions.

The majority of the "good" archaeological excavations are done through academic institutions. CRM(Cultural Resource Management) or Contract archaeology is basically when you go in prior to the state or federal government building something or expanding a highway, etc. and make sure there isn't anything of importance there. Rarely do you find anything of enough significance to proceed past the Phase I Survey. It is very menial work for little pay considering you will have either an undergraduate or graduate degree.

I used to be an archaeologist and have all the fancy degrees, so I tell you this with experience. I by no means want to downplay this job, but just wanted to set the record straight for what it is. You will be the guy walking around in the 100 degree heat or 30 degree cold being what is called a "shovel monkey". As airborne says though, this would be a great introduction into archaeology for someone and it may be a good way for people to value what they do. I know its popular to bash them, but its not exactly a job where you come home to your McMansion driving your Beemer and drink a gin and tonic while admiring your $200k collection of artifacts nicely displayed.

If anyone has questions/comments, I'd be more than happy to respond. Thanks for the post airborne!

Phil

 

[GopherDaGold]

Thanks but no thanks! I can't see myself bleeding, sweating, and crying so that someone else can take the credit or worse, have my work stored in a warehouse or museum basement to never again see the light of day.