Looking at Careers -- Historical Archaeology
(reprinted courtest of the Society for Historical Archaeology-click on the above link to be forwarded to their website) If someone asked you to draw an archaeologist, what kind of picture would you produce? Would it resemble Indiana Jones at a temple, complete with whip and machete in far-off India or in a cavern crawling with poisonous snakes? Or would it look more like a studious Howard Carter, peering through an opening at the gold and treasures of King Tut' tomb. Although some modern-day historical archaeologists have adventures like Indy's or find treasures like King Tut's tomb, most have more in common with detective Sherlock Holmes, because they are trying, to solve the mysteries of the past. That is why a historical archaeologist will sweat for days under the hot sun to carefully extract tiny bits of pottery from the ground or spend hours in the laboratory, trying to fit together pieces of an 18th-century wine bottle. By examining seed and pollen grains through the ...