Archaeological Digs

[snarlingcoyote]

I'm getting to do my 3rd dig this spring. Yee-haw! I'm paying $150 to be a shovelbum for 6 Saturdays.

Anyone else have the strange predilection to go on digs?

I love me my dig time! (In another universe, I think I might have wound up as an archaeologist or CRM type. I unknowingly picked a really good CRM school for college, then got a scholarship to another school that had no anthro department to speak of. Met my future DH on a blind date and that was all she wrote. If I'd gone to choice #1, would I have a masters' in CRM? I'll always wonder. . .)

 

[tiggerfan1]

Wow, lucky you! I'm really into history (especially ancient history) and I've always wanted to go on a dig. Do you have to go through a school to be able to do that? Are there other programs you can go through?


Have fun on the dig! Is the dig site in the U.S. or in another country?

 

[teacups]

Explain to us how this works if you dont mind.
How do you find out about these?
Where are they (usually).
This is such an interesting thing!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I'm getting to do my 3rd dig this spring. Yee-haw! I'm paying $150 to be a shovelbum for 6 Saturdays.

Anyone else have the strange predilection to go on digs?

I love me my dig time! (In another universe, I think I might have wound up as an archaeologist or CRM type. I unknowingly picked a really good CRM school for college, then got a scholarship to another school that had no anthro department to speak of. Met my future DH on a blind date and that was all she wrote. If I'd gone to choice #1, would I have a masters' in CRM? I'll always wonder. . .)

My first thought was, wow, $25/day is not a lot of pay for digging. Then I realized that was how much you are paying for the privilege of digging. Well, to each his own. If you like doing flower beds, give me a ring. I'll give you an incredible bargain.

 

[cteddiesgirl]

I've never been. I thought briefly about going into archaeology when I was in college. But since I have bad allergies and can't really bend over for too long, I decided against it.

I do love anything to do with history, though.

 

[lisadr]

Wanted to do a research vacation. Was going to do the Badlands Dino Dig-but alas I never did. Have a great time!

 

[snarlingcoyote]

This is the second year our local university has offered a dig as part of the spring continuing education classes. I got in on last year's dig too. There's 15 places in the class and they fill up pretty fast.

If you google "passports in time" you'll find all the NPS digs - which are free and open to the public - as well. There are a bunch of retirees who travel the country in their RVs doing those digs. (I hope to be one someday!) That was my first dig.

Last year we did STPs (Shovel Test Pits) or "test" holes at culturally really important spot here. We're going back this year - it's in this guy's front yard, and he's a sweetheart, even fixes us coffee! I have my own "kit" now that consists of a sharpened marshalltown pointy trowel, flat trowel, a couple of line levels, some string, a magnifying glass, a couple of brushes, dustpan, a and a metric measuring tape. I need to add a couple of cheap plastic cups (to dunk dirty things in so we can kinda "see" what we've found. We dig in mud and clay at this site.) and maybe borrow DH's laser line level.

You have to be in good physical shape for this, I'll admit. And you will be stinky and muddy and filthy and (some days, at this site) wet. And tired.

But I really love it. Fascinating stuff. I'm hoping we get to go over to another lot where the expert on this town thinks maybe the church was. (Although what any of us would do if we found any graves I don't know. The expert on this town is a direct descendant of the folks who settled this place, so I think we're okay culturally if we hit dead people, but still! ) And maybe get to do a real pit, not just more STP's.

I start in mid February and will report on findings if anyone is interested!

 

[agnes!]

This is the second year our local university has offered a dig as part of the spring continuing education classes. I got in on last year's dig too. There's 15 places in the class and they fill up pretty fast. ....

...I start in mid February and will report on findings if anyone is interested!

I'm very much interested. My first major in college was archaeology.

agnes!

 

[monkey68]

When I went to Israel on a birthright trip, we got to do an archaeological dig in a cave. It was so much fun. It was a real cave that they were excavating, and we found mostly glass and ceramic, but we also found some bones. I remember we were all a mess after that day because after we dug around in a cave, we crawled through an already excavated cave on our hands and knees, and then rode on some camels. We were all stinky and sweaty, but it was one of the best days of the trip.