Archaeology in general

I suppose it was a moment of madness when I sat down and wrote the word 'archaeology' on my UCAS form. I still can't quite explain it. After all, I had never had any particular interest in archaeology, but I suppose it all came about from the fact that my soul was divided between studying arts or sciences. I wanted to study science, but I didn't want to be in a lab all the time, and I'd always been the artsy type, so I suppose archaeology seemed like the closest thing to a compromise. At least when I started University I didn't have any preconceptions about the subject whatsoever. There was a lot of chatter among my fellow students about TimeTeam and such ...

Today you get to hear about my job. I am an Archaeologist. Presently I am excavating a 3rd century AD Roman port in Varna on the Black Sea in Bulgaria and teaching a few odd history courses at the University in Sofia. It has been a long and interesting road. I guess I was just lucky to have parents who supported all of my academic decisions. I know that a lot of other kids I grew up with in my middleclass environment were pushed to pursue lucrative careers and seek employment only in high paying jobs. I remember one kid whose dad would always ask him ?How much does a music teacher make? How much does a Sociologist make?? when he would mention interests in some ...

Modern archaeologists must groan and tear their hair when they contemplate the way their profession was undertaken in the past. It was crude, clumsy, destructive, more akin to grave-robbing or coal- mining than to a delicate, precise science that precedes by millimetres and years, seeking to extract every possible piece of information from the way buildings and roads were orientated, layers of debris accumulated, the tiniest objects positioned. The unrefined techniques of early antiquarians and archaeologists destroyed knowledge about the past that is now almost certainly lost for ever. And when modern archaeologists have groaned and torn their hair, ...