I got the job! I'm going to spend March and April digging holes on the Monticello plantation! Woo, World Heritage site!

Archaeology may sound exciting (and look exciting when done by the likes of Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser), but for the most part, a job is just a job. There's the usual collection of inconveniences and discomforts, and hopefully a decent paycheck at the end of it. But every now and then, a job opportunity comes around that looks like it could ( Read more... )

And not just because I am ready for it to be warm now. I've been asked what my plans are, and I realised I didn't really have any. So now I am making some, based on my wishlist of things I want to do ( Read more... )

Highlight of my day? I got to visit the Ohio State Archives on company time! And play with their free Ancestry software! OK, so we were there to look at really old maps of Ohio, which were cool as well, but useless. The company thought it might be a good idea to look at the old maps and see if we could find where there might be house ( Read more... )

I've been put in charge of my own team. No warning. Nothing. I just get an email from the main office detailing the crew schedule for the next couple of sessions, and on the list my crew consists of my name and three new people. This means I am the only one who knows what's going on. This means I am in charge. Weird. I met a couple of them ( Read more... )

1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com/Read more... )

I think I'm probably a morbid and creepy person, but I've been priviledged to work hands-on with some very exciting stuff, and one of those things was human bones. How many people can say they have a favourite bone? Well, I do. I think the clavicle has such a beautiful, graceful shape to it. Maybe I should go back and get an osteology degree ( Read more... )

Just got back from a huge crew dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Yay for filet on the company card! There were about 30 of there tonight. I learned that yet another one of my crew is friends with Spaceman, and still another knows one of the girls I worked with at Bamburgh. It would be so weird to see a model of the connections between all field ( Read more... )

This mystery novel on archaeological method is the sequel to Death by Theory. I have to say this book did not impress me any more than did its predecessor. While there are some interesting characterisations, and it lays out practical archaeology fairly clearly, the mystery aspects were poorly constructed ( Read more... )

I feel that I have now had the total Louisiana experience. I've done Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and today I slogged 150 meters through a knee-deep swamp in the middle of a forest. It will be days before my boots are completely dry again. And I can't even drown my sorrows in a frozen mango margarita because I gave up liquor for Lent! I am ready ( Read more... )