How (not) to understand archaeology
The big question on everyone's lips - what on earth is archaeology? Is that to do with dinosaurs??
No, it's not to do with dinosaurs, of all things it's not to do with damn dinosaurs. Nor is it to do with aliens and the pyramids being built by them!
Archaeology, in the simplest of terms, is the study of the stuff left behind by our dead ancestors. This is often termed as RITUAL or not ritual. If you don't know what it is, it must be magic; if you do know what it is, well, there's your answer.
Coming into archaeology as a masters student has been a very bizarre experience. I studied Classics and Ancient History for my undergraduate degree and have developed what one would call a "literary" approach to my studies. Now, according to my tutor, this is not what I needed to be as an archaeologist, so now came the long road to understanding archaeology.
One of the first things to do when becoming an archaeologist is to start to think like one. No, this does not mean grabbing a pair of walking boots and a trowel and going to dig a hole in the garden to see what you can find. Thinking like an archaeologist means taking things from a bottom-up approach as opposed to top-down. It means understanding the agency of objects (something for a different post!) and being able to gauge the cultural context of the items.
I, myself, am a theoretical archaeologist meaning that I don't have to slave away in fields for hours on the off chance that I might find a bit of pottery and in the end being thoroughly disappointed when it turns out to be nothing more than a bit of odd-looking rock.
Theoretical archaeology combines both archaeological and anthropological studies, meaning that I land somewhere between a professional dirt grabber and professional people watcher. Theoretical archaeology is a rather new area of the subject, which has previously led me to being referred to as a trumped-up anthropologist. Now, I take no offence to being called an anthropologist but trumped-up? I am nothing to do with the 45th President of the United States, thank you very much!
Attempting to understand this weird and wonderful subject has been both a joy and a torment; Joyfully tormentful, you could say. Starting off in this subject, I was utterly terrified that I was going to come across scientific term after scientific term, yet, in the entire time that I have been doing this subject, I have had to google a mere 1,000 different terms to avoid looking a bit daft when discussing my subject and only around 10 of them have been truly scientific. The rest have been... well... archaeological?
The best tip I can give someone doing a masters degree in a subject that's not their undergraduate is: make sure that you spend the summer reading up on your new subject, please? The other option is a three-week crash course in, what I have fondly termed, "oh shit, maybe I shouldn't have waited so long to google this" land.
Signing off for now,
The Confused Archaeologist
No, it's not to do with dinosaurs, of all things it's not to do with damn dinosaurs. Nor is it to do with aliens and the pyramids being built by them!
Archaeology, in the simplest of terms, is the study of the stuff left behind by our dead ancestors. This is often termed as RITUAL or not ritual. If you don't know what it is, it must be magic; if you do know what it is, well, there's your answer.
Coming into archaeology as a masters student has been a very bizarre experience. I studied Classics and Ancient History for my undergraduate degree and have developed what one would call a "literary" approach to my studies. Now, according to my tutor, this is not what I needed to be as an archaeologist, so now came the long road to understanding archaeology.
One of the first things to do when becoming an archaeologist is to start to think like one. No, this does not mean grabbing a pair of walking boots and a trowel and going to dig a hole in the garden to see what you can find. Thinking like an archaeologist means taking things from a bottom-up approach as opposed to top-down. It means understanding the agency of objects (something for a different post!) and being able to gauge the cultural context of the items.
I, myself, am a theoretical archaeologist meaning that I don't have to slave away in fields for hours on the off chance that I might find a bit of pottery and in the end being thoroughly disappointed when it turns out to be nothing more than a bit of odd-looking rock.
Theoretical archaeology combines both archaeological and anthropological studies, meaning that I land somewhere between a professional dirt grabber and professional people watcher. Theoretical archaeology is a rather new area of the subject, which has previously led me to being referred to as a trumped-up anthropologist. Now, I take no offence to being called an anthropologist but trumped-up? I am nothing to do with the 45th President of the United States, thank you very much!
Attempting to understand this weird and wonderful subject has been both a joy and a torment; Joyfully tormentful, you could say. Starting off in this subject, I was utterly terrified that I was going to come across scientific term after scientific term, yet, in the entire time that I have been doing this subject, I have had to google a mere 1,000 different terms to avoid looking a bit daft when discussing my subject and only around 10 of them have been truly scientific. The rest have been... well... archaeological?
The best tip I can give someone doing a masters degree in a subject that's not their undergraduate is: make sure that you spend the summer reading up on your new subject, please? The other option is a three-week crash course in, what I have fondly termed, "oh shit, maybe I shouldn't have waited so long to google this" land.
Signing off for now,
The Confused Archaeologist
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