#owl replies

the majority of archaeologists work commercially. commercial archaeology depends mostly on development and construction projects: developers must have the place they which to develop surveyed by archaeologists: if there’s something there then the company usually pays for a dig and depending on the significance of the site, either everything is recorded and then the development happens, or the development must find somewhere else to build. this is kind of handy because people are always building new houses and things, so there will always be some sort of work for archaeologists. if you work commercially you tend to work under a company who will be responsible for the excavation of a site. within a firm are different jobs going from basic field work to site manager or post excavation or find work or perhaps being a specialist for the firm in a specific area. its worth keeping in mind that the pay is fairly low, and that the work might not always be as satisfying as a research dig due to deadlines and the commercial aspect of it - there’s only so much money available. that being said, most people work commercially and its a good way to develop skills, gain experience, meet new people and go new places, and get paid to do what you love.

a lot of people continue with their education and choose to stay in the education sector, achieving masters or phd’s and becoming a lecturer. its also common that lecturers have worked commercially at some point and perhaps mix lecturing with free lance work (one of my lecturers specialises in archaeobotany which doesnt tend be a permanent position within commercial firms, so they sub-contract to specialists like him) or do research projects.

another lane to go down could be museum work (if excavation isn’t for you but you like handling finds then this could be awesome for you!) museums work differently in scotland is different from england (if you want to read more look up ‘treasure trove’) but when museum’s get collections, it is their ethical duty to look after these artifacts for future generations. the things you see on display in a museum is usually a small percentage of the collection its from. a lot of work in museums is done behind the scenes: acquiring new collections for display or preservation; going through years of old collections that need properly documenting or digitising the data. in order to go into this specific line of work, its worth while also looking at different courses specific to museum work and gaining that qualification. i havent had the chance myself to look into the different courses available but i’m sure you could google it easy enough.

job security within this field (archaeology) is hard, and a lot of people jump from job to job. another thing to keep in mind is that the pay tends to be low, especially in commerical archaeology as firms try to undercut prices so that people will use them instead of a rival. in the uk, in the next few years there’s going to be an increased need for commercial archaeologists with that new trainline coming in, so according to my lecturers it’s probably the best time to go into this field as archaeology firms are going to be understaffed to deal with this scale of project and will be recruiting. i want to reiterate though that working within this kind of field is not profitable and you’re not going to earn lots of money from it. it’s the kind of job you do because you love it.

tltr; the main jobs you could do with a degree in archaeology (in my opinion) is commercial archaeology, lecturing in universities, research (writing articles for journals etc), museum work, working for companies like historic scotland or english heritage etc