Archaeology is a professional job

Illustrating Pottery

Tausret Temple project, Egypt (2015)

I have a real bee in my bonnet. Every time I read some article that says an ‘amateur archaeologist’ did such-and-such, I wonder what that journalist is thinking. How would they feel if we called everyone who wrote a blog or posted a text an ‘amateur journalist’?

We don’t use that terminology when we speak about doctors, dentists, lawyers or astrophysicists, so why has it become ok to downgrade the professional status of the archaeologist. They have spent just as much time and effort getting their degrees (maybe more), and archaeology is a complex topic that combines multiple disciplines (earth sciences, geology, botany, zoology, biology, physics, chemistry, art history, language(s), anthropology…). It isn’t appropriate to call a hobbyist out on a weekend with a metal detector digging up ‘treasures’ that ping an ‘amateur archaeologist’.

That is not to say that hobbyists cannot delve into great depths of knowledge if they really choose to. I’m also not saying that university education is the only (or even the best) way to obtain knowledge. But people who have spent many years and lots of money studying the processes and background of a civilization, shouldn’t have their career relegated as a pseudo-job.

So next time I hear a ‘journalist’ call someone an ‘amateur archaeologist’ I may be tempted to tell them to go get their head checked by an ‘amateur doctor’.

I recommend trying the term ‘researcher’.

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