Cool story ; ) And you are right - could have been worse - two friends of mine lost their front teeth in unrelated accidents (not at work), but they both received a hit in their faces with heavy things - just like you did - and ended up visiting dentist for a number of times - not mentioning having to eat only semi-liquid food for about a year.
Thanks for sharing your first day! I have a few questions for you as an aspiring archaeologist. I realize your field school was a vastly different environment, but are the skills generally the same? Did you feel what you learned at field school was adequate for starting your career? What do you wish you asked your professors about starting out in the field? And Lastly where do you want to go with your career and why did you want to pursue archaeology? I appreciate any responses, Merry Christmas!
Thanks for watching! I will endeavor to answer all your questions. 1. There are definitely a lot of transferable skills you learn in field school mostly concentrated around drawing, photography and recording whereas the actual style of digging and the tools you use might vary depending on where you are. 2. Yes, it did give me quite an advantage in that I didn't start out as a complete beginner having to learn to do fieldwork and paperwork from scratch, so the learning curve wasn't quite as steep. Having actual out of the classroom is experience is essential. 3. That one is tough because my education was quite thorough, I do wish I'd had the opportunity to learn a bit more about terminology/ceramic assemblage in the UK since I work there and sometimes people start talking about things like paleochannels and ancient land horizons and I'm like 'What?' but I would have had a hard time getting that knowledge specifically from my school since I focused on the Near East and Classics in my undergrad. I would say if you know where/what period you want to work in you focus on that and try to find programs about it. The best advice about the field I've ever received is 'Make sure you're the first person on site everyday and the last one off' which might seem a bit silly but has served me quite well. 4. I'd like to work my way up the ladder and end up in a more senior position as either a Project Manager and Skeletal Remains Specialist or an Archaeological Consultant. PM's are much more office based and as I get older I don't want to be in the field permanently, I'd also like to be able to use my Master's degree as an in house expert whenever Human remains are recovered and do post-ex work with them. I decided on archaeology because I've always had quite a knack and love for history, it was my best school subject. I quite like the aspect where I get to travel to lots of interesting places and always learn new things. It's also strangely intoxicating to discover something that no one has touched/seen for hundreds or thousands of years. I hope this was helpful! Merry Christmas to you too!
