What Does the Enrollment Cliff Mean for Archaeology?
What does the enrollment cliff have to do with cultural resource management archaeology?
cultural resources jobs
What undergraduate archaeology students can expect in college
Transitioning from cultural resource management (CRM) archaeology to academia has not been as easy for me as I’d already spent a decade doing CRM before getting hired by a university. This means I’d already gotten used to the rough and tumble world of contract archaeology—going to the field at the […]
How fieldwork decides who gets to be a CRM archaeologist and who doesn’t 1
During my time in cultural resource management archaeology, I have noticed how field experience, or lack thereof, creates a separation between those archaeologists who go out in the field (A.K.A “dirt archaeologists”) and those who spend most of their time in the office. Most of the office archaeologists used to […]
Who qualifies as an archaeologist?
How many times have you heard this: “The Register of Professional Archaeologists (RPA) doesn’t mean anything; $100 a year! Why should I join?” The lack of widespread professional certifications, aside from a college degree, is cited as a weakness of doing professional archaeology in the United States. It seems like […]
Archaeologists Can Fight Back
As cultural resource management archaeologists, we live in a bubble. We are college educated. Our work is rooted in science and we believe in objective proof. This contrasts with a large segment of the rest of the citizenry. Most Americans do not have a college degree. They do not make […]
Degree Inflation in Cultural Resource Management: Some Solutions
Everybody seems to be telling college students an anthropology or archaeology degree is a bad idea. They all focus on the fact that you won’t make much money. Since when did a worthwhile job depend on how much money you can make? Fortunately, there are thousands of students like me […]
Tis the season for finding a job in Archaeology 1
As I write, the birds are singing outside. The sun is shining. My garden is beginning to sprout (I live in Tucson. Spring comes in February here). My thoughts are turning towards getting back out in the field and soiling my trowel on another little piece of our heritage. Then […]
The Future of Cultural Resource Management Archaeology, Part II
(This is the second in a 3-part series on a workshop focused on the future of cultural resource management archaeology that was given as part of the University of Arizona’s School of Anthropology Centennial celebration. You can check out Part I here.) “The Golden Age of cultural resource management archaeology […]
Is it an archaeologist’s job to educate racist construction crews?
This week, a discussion was sparked on the Facebook Archaeo Field Techs’ Group (FYI: If you’re an archaeologist or an aspiring one and you have a FB account, you need to join this group. It’s an excellent way to stay current on happenings in the industry). The conversation focused on […]
How to identify historic properties using Google Earth 1
Don’t you just love it when you get a PDF of a project area floating in the middle of some unidentified terrain? Just a polygon overlain upon some barren desert, forest quadrat, or urban freeway with very little context? And, you’re, somehow, expected to plan your cultural resource management archaeology […]