Archaeology

Skr4wny

I was wonder if anyone had any idea what the employment prospects for someone with a degree in Archaeology would be or would they really need to have a masters or better to get a decent job out of it?

Tiriel

did archaeology for a year in college and good few of my friends did it to degree level. Basically with arts no matter which subjects you choose to do to degree level a masters is pretty much necessary. 2 of my friends are now doin their masters in arch in UCC and love it.. others changed to do masters in their other subjects .. ie geography etc. having said that, it is a really interesting subject to study and the work is great if you don't need to be tied down in one location..

Capt'n Midnight

I wanted to be an archaeologist but my career ended in ruins..

Tiriel

ba da boom...

Skr4wny

Cheers for that Cork_Girl, I'm thinking of going back to college to do Archaeology cos I decided not to do it originally because I thought I could be a high flyer and I'm sick of the business world and am seriously considering going back to do it. I'd probably do it in UCD with Greek and Roman civilisation which I read alot on as it is and Spanish. I wouldn't mind working in all different locations as I'm fond of travelling anyway. Any idea Cork_Girl what the workload is like with it and what are the main parts of the course.

Tiriel

hmm workload? it's not too bad.. I did it in UCC and the year I did there wasn't much to it. A few practicals.. it naming tools and stuff.. and a field trip with a report.. all kind of interesting.. oh and a couple of Multiple Choice Question type exams during the year. overall.. it's not one of the worst.. English and Art History had a lot more work. Greek and Roman is a great subject and would compliment Archaeology.. not sure about Spanish though. Languages are extremely time consuming, and unless Spanish is something you are already well set in, and really want to take to Degree level, I would possibly reconsider.. that's just my opinion though

Skr4wny

Nice one Cork_Girl, you're a star!!

Seraphina

im currently in second year of a BA in UCD, and it sounds different to UCC. no practicals, in first year anyway, but 7 pieces of continuous assesment, 2 worksheets and five essays.
second year there is a field work study and again 5 essays. i personally found the exams quite tough (and i had worked quite consistently throughout the year, no slacking for me!) and time consuming. i didn't manage to finish any of the three papers, as you're required to write 5 essays in three hours.
the course involves alot of reading, just like any arts course, but the important thing is being able to think critically about the reading, regurgitating everything you read will not work in this subject. its a demading but very interesting subject imo.
my next door neighbour is a fairly prominent archaeologist and when i went in to talk to her before deciding on the course, she assured me there are plently of jobs going in the field, as its a varied discipline, field work, academic work, lab work etc.

Skr4wny

Cool, cheers for that Seraphina. Did the continuos assessment count for much of your overall mark or was most of it based on the end of yr paper?

Seraphina

continuous assesment is 25% in first year, and i think 37.5% in second year.

Adeptus Titanicus

Skr4wny wrote:

I was wonder if anyone had any idea what the employment prospects for someone with a degree in Archaeology would be or would they really need to have a masters or better to get a decent job out of it?

There's plenty of work out there for archaeologists with BAs in the commercial archaeological companies. You know, the ones doing the road/pipeline schemes (big business). Mostly it would be work as a general operative excavating, and if you're any good, supervising excavation teams. Some of these companies are better to work for than others, but the pay would be just ok.

With experience, many would go for license elegability with the Heritage Service, so they could be licensed to direct the excavations. In this case they basically are responsable for the site, how it is excavated and charged with ensuring proper reports are made. Licenced archaeologists are in demand at the moment, and the pay would be quite good. A Masters is not strictly necessary (I know several site directors with BAs), but it can help.

There are relatively few research digs going on as far as I can see, but organisations such as the Discovery Programme used to take on teams of archaeologists during the summer.

As Seraphina poited out, there is a huge range of work there, not just excavating, so if you specialised in some particular field or analysis you could make a good living for yourself. I think (imho) the masters is most useful if you wish to keep a more academic slant to your profession or you want to specialise later, but if its something you enjoy, that's much more important