Friday, February 09, 2024
Archaeology used to be fun. I mostly did excavation projects on mostly historic period sites. I managed crews excavating interesting things (buildings, wells, outhouse pits, trash-filled pits, etc.). I would analyze the historic artifacts. Research the people and buildings. And write interesting reports. Often I would give public talks about the work (I still do, but for old projects or for solely historical research I have done).
Lately archaeology has been less fun. Much less fun. I walk along portions of Interstate highways. "Oh look another urine-filled bottle." I watch trenches being dug for utilities. And then I write boring reports.
And wait for the comments. You try to write a perfect report, and the people reviewing the reports find new things to comment about. Sometimes these are new policies that have been enacted since the report was written since it can take months for the review to take place. Or the reviewers have information about something that they didn't bother to tell you about. Or the "area of potential effect" changes. Or they want additional information that requires maps to be altered or more historical research.
Recently I was called unprofessional by a reviewer. In that case citing a city's historical website was deemed unprofessional.
So anyways, archaeology isn't much fun anymore. I get more satisfaction doing genealogical research.
