Slitherine

Hey there.

Thought I would take a fairly long shot here and ask if there are any archaeologists from the UK (or people who know the field)on the forums? I am currenty a 1st year archaeology student at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

It is my intention to follow an Honours and Masters at a University in the UK (Cambridge is an idea as both my parents did their PHd degrees there). How is the archaeology job market there? Specifically in Wales (Went there once while we lived in Cambridge and fell in love with it)?

Not that I am too optimistic about replies but I thought it was worth a shot

Cheers

D

lonehorseman wrote:Hey there.

Thought I would take a fairly long shot here and ask if there are any archaeologists from the UK (or people who know the field)on the forums? I am currenty a 1st year archaeology student at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

It is my intention to follow an Honours and Masters at a University in the UK (Cambridge is an idea as both my parents did their PHd degrees there). How is the archaeology job market there? Specifically in Wales (Went there once while we lived in Cambridge and fell in love with it)?

Not that I am too optimistic about replies but I thought it was worth a shot

Cheers

D

http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba.html

http://www.nparchaeology.co.uk/staff/index.html

Not being one but having friends who are, the jobs market is a bit restricted.

My friends work for a private company that goes in before a site is built on to record any archaeology before it is destroyed, its some law that if anything is found the builders have to pay for the digging.

Check the links ask the University the % of people working in the field.

Sorry can't help more

Main jobs are via the Universities

Thanks a ton!

D

D, one of the people at my club is an Archaeologist and he works as a Youth Additiction councillor because he can't find work in the field (and he studied with Goldsworthy). My two nephews both have Archaeology degrees. One has found work in Ireland but that came to a stop last year and the other has had to emigrate to the US to find work (his wife has had to return to the US to find work) having been working in Scotland. I am not aware of any major public funded work having started last year or this in the UK.

Might be different in 2-3 years time but I suspect things will take 5-10 years to recover.

Restoration archaelogy offers continuing job opportunities. Existing artifacts, and significant antiques, are preserved and maintained by an interesting and dedicated small group of people who are formally trained and often salaried, although opportunies exist for independent as well as employee positions.

On the one hand, there is less adventure than the field expeditions, on the other hand there is air conditioning, showers, and fewer bugs and reptiles.

Just a thought, as you are already doing fine detail work, and have started the core curriculum.

PS - speaking from a perspective of American arts and antiques - not sure what Albion may offer.

5-10 years works for me...i still got 2 years of BA then 1 of Honours and at least 3 for a Masters I just wanted to see how the job scope it back UK side. We have like less than 400 archaeologists here but the history here does nothing for me ( funnily most of our archaeologists are american or other foreigners, my lecturer is from California).

Thanks though

Well restoration is one thing I am looking into, that is covered next year, but briefly, to further that one has to study outside RSA.

Thanks for all the help

I finished my archaeology BA at University of Wales Lampeter two years ago and as far as I'm aware only one person who I studied with has actually been able to secure a job in archaeology. With the current recession in Britain and the reduction in the house building oppertunites for rescue archaeology are pretty slim and some archaeology groups are laying off staff rather than recruiting more. If you're interested in Wales then the group you probably want to look at is Cadw, which is the Welsh heritage body. Word of warning, most government run agencies and public services in Wales require that there employees speak at least passable Welsh, in the south they sometimes ignore this requirment, but in the north (where Welsh speakers are much more common) it's strictly enforced, not sure if it applies to Cadw, but it's something to bear in mind.

Antoshisamazing wrote:most government run agencies and public services in Wales require that there employees speak at least passable Welsh, in the south they sometimes ignore this requirment, but in the north (where Welsh speakers are much more common) it's strictly enforced, not sure if it applies to Cadw, but it's something to bear in mind.

Strange since people from the South have a more "Welsh" accent.

philqw78 wrote:Strange since people from the South have a more "Welsh" accent.

True. One of my patients is from North Wales and he really does sound "foreign" - and not "Welsh". (And no, he isn't an immigrant). If anything, he sounds a bit Scottish.

As I understand it the North Welsh pronounciation of Welsh is significantly different from South Welsh.

For example, the name Ieuan is pronounced Yiyan in S Wales and Yayan in N Wales. (IIRC).

----------

As an aside, we went to Canada last year, where all the road signs are dual language (English and French). This was very reminiscent of home (English and Welsh) with the one important difference that in Canada I could understand both versions, whereas in Wales....

----------

As another aside, I live in Usk, which was a legionary fortress for a couple of decades before the legion moved its base to Caerleon. A few years ago we had to have our house underpinned because it was falling into a Roman bath.

This occurred because the planned position of the houses was changed after the rescue dig had been done, which left it on top of the dig pit (the original plan being to only dig where the houses would not actually stand) - but the builders did not bother to redo the filler with more suitable material.

As I understand it the North Welsh pronounciation of Welsh is significantly different from South Welsh

I was talking with some friends about this a while ago; as a general rule, they told me, if two Wlesh people from opposite ends of the country get together they can just about understand each other, but it can be difficult going sometimes. They also told me that most Welsh language broadcasting in Wales comes from Cardiff and so uses the southern dialect, despite the fact that most speakers, especially first-langauage ones, live in the north, apparently England isn't the only place to suffer from a lack accents

Good thing I am learning welsh then

There is some work around but not a lot. Commercial work has slowed and when work does come up it can often be a case of who you know as units will have lists of reliable staff. I worked in archaeology for 10 years and then returned to IT. Partly in response to lack of work and progression, partly because my back and knees were knackered!

If you are good and know your stuff and persist you will get work but it can be hard getting started.

Good luck, anyway!

Andy

CountBelisarius wrote:I worked in archaeology for 10 years and then returned to IT. Partly in response to lack of work and progression, partly because my back and knees were knackered!

An important issue. I got tenosynovitis of my dominant wrist from trowelling at age 17 and it has never really been quite right since. (38 years ).

rbodleyscott wrote:

CountBelisarius wrote:I worked in archaeology for 10 years and then returned to IT. Partly in response to lack of work and progression, partly because my back and knees were knackered!

And important issue. I got tenosynovitis of my dominant wrist from trowelling at age 17 and it has never really been quite right since. (38 years ).

Hmmm..I've never heard it called 'trowelling' before...

rbodleyscott wrote:And important issue. I got tenosynovitis of my dominant wrist from trowelling at age 17 and it has never really been quite right since. (38 years).

I always thought you were a bit of a troweller Richard.

Hmmm the trowelling issue does worry me. Have only done one dig so far, most of the work I have done has been either surveeys for mines or sorting of soil and microfauna. Thanks for the heads up

I never knew what RBS stood for until now - rist badly sprained (well it is the best I can do!)