A Day In the Life
When I began my undegraduate degree in Archaeology I seemed to be surounded by people who had loved archaeology from birth. They'd gone on digs and had read all the books. They bandied around famous archaeologist's names like they were common knowledge and, I am convinced, that at least 80% of my classmates already owned trowels. I on the other hand, had arrived in York to study Archaeology on a whim. I had taken a year out after my A-levels and had spent far too many months attempting to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Or, failing that, just what I wanted to do next. So I scoured University course books, looking for something! anything! interesting.
I found Archaeology.
It appealed to me from the get-go. I had images of wearing a stetson and discovering ancient cursed tombs, of leaping across a masive abyss with past treasures in my bag while dangerous men shot at me. It is important to note that at this point I knew very little about archaeology and watched a lot of films. Archaeology in reality is very different from this, unsuprisingly, but also (in its own way) no less exciting.
Put it this way. I once spent three weeks digging up a Roman house just outside York. On one day we had boiling sunshine, rain, hail and snow- a classic British summer. Yet, those three weks were some of the best in my life. I found masses of pottery and animal bone, my friend found a coin and collectively we managed to outline the remenants of a whole Roman wall which was awesome!
But it was more than that. We were touching fragments of a past civilisation. That small fragment of pottery I found? It had last been touched by someone in Roman times. It was a direct connection to a person in the past. A link that, no matter how many books you read or films you watch, can be experienced no other way. To me, that is amazing!
It's over three years later now and I have completed my Archaeolgy degree and moved on to a masters degree in Cultural Heritage Management which I love. It is the perfect blend of Archaeology, History and Creativity and I wouldn't have found it without Archaeology. I no longer go on digs, I found myself instead gravitating towards presenting the past and trying to uncover what the past was actually like. I think the past is a little like a giant puzzle with no instructions!