How to find the past: Archaeological digs looking for students and volunteers to dig

Archaeology digs are conducted by universities, museums, cultural resource firms, and historical societies year-round all over the planet. Some digs take volunteers, some are limited to professionals or student archaeologists, and some are combinations. Some archaeology digs are long term, lasting for months, some are as short as a few days or weeks. This page lists archaeology digs by location in the world, and describes the type of site being excavated, the dates of the dig, and the kind of research being completed. Whether you want to join an archaeology dig, take a class, or just find out what's being dug this year, this is the page for you. Field schools with dates older than the current year may indicate an ongoing project with currently TBA dates.

Link to archaeology digs for 2012

I recommend going to a dig if you have an interest in archaeology

Thanks, This is very interesting. My belief is that we can learn many lessons from the past. This is very important if we have collapse of society and public resourses. The past has been a road map to where we are at now and if the world society de-evolves these lessons might be needed to survive and prosper once again.

reply to post by Hanslune


Happy holidays there Hans,
Thanks for posting , that's something I'd like to do sometime., when I can get away from my 24-7-365 day job.

reply to post by Hanslune


Actually, I promised my husband some Adventures in 2012, and was looking for a dig to get involved with for a few days or a week. I can do shovelbum work, but I can also do preparator work (if shown how... I work with fossils and imagine that some of the techniques for dealing with fragile material and for cleaning are similar.

Dearly want to do some Central America stuff ...but good old USA stuff would be fun, too.

Hi Hanslune..I wish my health was better id love to go on a dig just to gain experience in archeology plus i think it would be allot of fun ..Thanks for the thread it was very interesting ..Peace,sugarcookie1

reply to post by Byrd


I'm with Byrd I have been so fascinated by this stuff for so long. It's time I just do it. The economy in america has left me hopeless. I'm game and if there's any sort of compensation for straight out labor. That's all the better.
Still young enough for an adventure too. Is there anything in any of the americas that will pay a dig bum as Byrd has called it ?


I got so excited I mispelled Byrds name.

reply to post by Hanslune


Thanks for posting that up, I got to do a little dig work when I was as child. I don't remember if it was 1989 or 1990 but it was a site within a mile of the San Juan Capistrano mission. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my childhood I got to keep a broken piece of pottery and a cow bone that had been used in a soup. Remember if any one goes out to one don't forget to take tons of pictures.

Thanks for posting that link, excellent idea, have always wanted to do something like that. Never knew where to start though.
I would like too, to have an anonymous drop station here in North Queensland for all the artifacts and bones they dig out of our underground mines. Something I'll be working on here since it came from the horses mouth there are tonnes of history destroyed purposefully so the mining does not stop.
Our boys know they are eradicating links to the past, some are not happy about it either....
s & f

Best to just do it- you'll love it - I promise

Dig bums; never quite gained that titled but I've had friends who did it for a half decade or so. Doing Cyprus and the Middle East in Winter then going to South Asia, Africa and S. America for the other 'Winter', not much pay but quite rewarding in other ways, usually food and board provided. The best places are those expeditions that have private funding. One I worked with briefly in Turkey/Syria had catered meals, unfortunately it was the same meal ever day for four weeks - but usually they run commune style with fair food. The worst were ones where you had to take up arms to fend off the natives, 'police', bandits and assorted riff-raff and the maincourse was cold spam and corned beef. Some day I must write down my adventures hunting down wild goats with a WWII Enfield carbine with broken off sights and armour piercing ammo made in 1945, to keep them off the excavation site and the to make the local villagers happy (they wild ones tended to lure off the domestic ones)

do these digs have a finders keepers losers weepers rule.

because i would be hard felt to turn over gold or diamonds.

the way i figure it, i have as much right to it as they do.

and it isn't stealing since it didn't belong to them in the first place.

reply to post by Hanslune


Bump
Thank you fantastic,

What a wonderful way as well for many to start the new year, either as an new hobby or to get their hands dirty in an subject they love.

Originally posted by Byrd
reply to post by Hanslune

 

Dearly want to do some Central America stuff ...but good old USA stuff would be fun, too.

You might be able to have your cake and eat it to Byrd

Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of an ancient Mayan city in the mountains of North Georgia believed to be at least 1,100 years old.

When evidence began to turn up of Mayan connections to the Georgia site, South African archeologist Johannes Loubser brought teams to the site who took soil samples and analyzed pottery shards which dated the site and indicated that it had been inhabited for many decades approximately 1000 years ago. The people who settled there were known as Itza Maya, a word that carried over into the Cherokee language of the region.

1,100-year-old Mayan ruins found in North Georgia

Kind Regards,

Elf

cool thread hans,thanx! the last dig i was on was digging my garden up in may!!!
BUT,i did find a small gold (18k) bracelet that looked like it belonged to a child! that was cool.
but the real treasure i got was all the wonder full organic veggies i harvested!!!! that was well worth 'the dig"!

Originally posted by randomname
do these digs have a finders keepers losers weepers rule.

because i would be hard felt to turn over gold or diamonds.

the way i figure it, i have as much right to it as they do.

and it isn't stealing since it didn't belong to them in the first place.

Nope. The artifacts go to the ones funding the dig (and it takes YEARS to do the research.) It's not a treasure hunt.

Hans, I did just book a cruise for the Mayan area for November 2012 (and will make sure I can go run around the touristy ruins. I chickened out on a dig because I'm not sure of the political stability of the area.) I'll probably do the TAS field school this year and *may* get to do a T-rex dig later this spring, if the gods smile on me.

Field schools really are the best option, I think, because you can do a brief stint there rather than signing up for 6 months or a year.

Originally posted by Byrd


Nope. The artifacts go to the ones funding the dig (and it takes YEARS to do the research.) It's not a treasure hunt.

Hans, I did just book a cruise for the Mayan area for November 2012 (and will make sure I can go run around the touristy ruins. I chickened out on a dig because I'm not sure of the political stability of the area.) I'll probably do the TAS field school this year and *may* get to do a T-rex dig later this spring, if the gods smile on me.

Field schools really are the best option, I think, because you can do a brief stint there rather than signing up for 6 months or a year.

You can also go with organizations like Earthwatch which set up 2 weeks or so expeditions in archaeology (and other areas) there are also a host of regional organizations like them that set up adventure/archaeology expeditions too

Earthwatch

Originally posted by Hanslune

Originally posted by Byrd
The artifacts go to the ones funding the dig (and it takes YEARS to do the research.) It's not a treasure hunt.

Field schools really are the best option, I think, because you can do a brief stint there rather than signing up for 6 months or a year.

You can also go with organizations like Earthwatch which set up 2 weeks or so expeditions in archaeology (and other areas) there are also a host of regional organizations like them that set up adventure/archaeology expeditions too

Right here, the artifacts officially belong to 'Her Majesty the Queen in Right of the Province of Ontario'. Under the law, excavation...even surface collecting...is restricted to those carrying a government permit. Nobody is going to bust some farmer picking up a point in his field, but the law is in place to record in a professional manner what is found and to deter looters. Most folks just don't realise that a collection of 'arrowheads' in a box imparts virtually no knowledge in itself...that context is everything.

Field schools might be a little tough to get into unless you are enrolled in university and looking for a credit. They can also be pricy, and a longer investment of time than an interested soul might be able to spare. For someone just looking for the experience of being a shovel bum, learning the whys and whats of the practice, the answer might be to seek out your local Archaeological Society. Our chapter is currently working on arranging such an experience for the next field season. You learn how to do it legal and you learn how to do it right.

Thanks for the heads-up Hanslune...I see a field school nearby that we might be able to sit in on. S&F for a valuable thread. And to the poster who made mention...poor health should not be much of a barrier to screening or doing some lab work. Look around.

An even simpler method is if you live near a University that teaches archaeology they will usually welcome adult volunteers for their inhouse field training excavations

Originally posted by Hanslune
An even simpler method is if you live near a University that teaches archaeology they will usually welcome adult volunteers for their inhouse field training excavations

Sure wish that were true across the board. One facility I know of allowed the archaeological society to open a number of units at their field school, as well as inviting members to help process artifacts afterwards. Another displays no such interest whatsoever. Yet one more partners with the Province to invite the public out to man the screens on an annual Archaeology Day.

Archaeology suffers an inherent problem in that sites are controlled and generally kept confidential in order to discourage looting...yet the practice requires public interest to secure funding. Opportunities for public archaeology go a long ways towards easing that tension.
------------------------------------------
Quick edit to say that I just made such an appeal to a local institution and was turned down on the basis of:
a) The need for instructors to concentrate on paying students and
b) Insurance issues.

Still...if you want to learn, keep trying.

reply to post by Hanslune

An even simpler method is if you live near a University that teaches archaeology they will usually welcome adult volunteers for their inhouse field training excavations

Speaking of which, Byrd brought this site to my attention when I PMed her about whether she knew of a database of archaeological sites' GPS coordinates and/or up-to-date maps of the individual digs(as I'm trying to make a definitive KML file of them for Google Earth). After a quick scan(so I might very well have missed them), I didn't see any digs for Oklahoma listed at the site you originally posted and thought others would be interested in this other site.

Oklahoma Anthropological Society

So thank Byrd yet again for a great contribution to the board.

**edit**OH! Btw, Hans....thanks for the coordinates to Wadi Faynan. I think I found it on Google Earth(I say "think" because the source pictures for the area seem to be pre-dig).

Do you have to have Archaeology experience to get a Dig Bum gig?

Originally posted by Reggae
Do you have to have Archaeology experience to get a Dig Bum gig?

All depends, as far as I know. Seems that overseas, a lot of the grunt work goes to local talent. From what I've seen around here, there are plenty of students/graduates that take on the shovel bum gigs The couple of public digs I've seen provide the experience, with proper supervision, but with no compensation. Again, experience might be gained through membership in an archaeological society, or by paying to join a university field school.

I've worked on a 500 year old sweat lodge in the November sleet...some of the other students were studies in abject misery, but you couldn't get the grin off my face. It's not for everyone, but hey...it builds character.

Good luck!