The truth, unsurprisingly, is less about treasure hunting and more about the methodic analysis of historical sites.
Tell us a little about yourself and your experience.
My name is Mason Miller.
I am a Senior Archaeologist/Principal Investigator and Project Manager atAmaTerra Environmental, Inc.in Austin, Texas.
Pictured: A large-scale excavation project in northeast Texas.
What drove you to choose your career path?
I’ve always had an interest in history.
It didn’t really click, though, until I got to college.
That’s it!"
I’ve been pursuing it ever since.
How did you go about getting your job?
What kind of education and experience did you need?
It took a lot longer to get hired full time than I’d expected, to be honest.
Without that you’ll never be able to get permits and you’ll never be able to lead investigations.
What kinds of things do you do beyond what most people see?
What do you actually spend the majority of your time doing?
We spend a good bit more time in the office than one might expect.
For every day in the field, we may spend 3-5 days doing analysis and writing.
Often more than that, really.
The rest of the time is often spent preparing proposals.
What misconceptions do people often have about your job?
I always say, “If we are finding dinosaurs, we are digging waaaaay too deep.”
The things that we look for don’t actually have to be that old.
Next I’d say that people tend to think that archaeology is exotic and exciting all the time.
It’s certainly interesting, but most of the time it’s hardly the swashbuckling adventure you’d expect.
Admitting that what we archaeologists do isn’ttypical, it is still very much a business like many others.
We fill out time-sheets, we send/receive email, we have staff meetings and conference calls.
We are providing a professional service and our expertise is our product.
There are a lot of surveys where we don’t find anything.
The big excavations are even more rare.
Pictured: An assortment of Gary projectile points from an excavation in northeast Texas.
These are roughly 3,000-1,000 years old.
What are your average work hours?
My work week is pretty standard most of the time: 40-50 hours/week, Monday through Friday.
A field project may require some work over the weekends with longer days.
What personal tips and shortcuts have made your job easier?
That’s helped me out a lot over the years.
Those make things much quicker as well.
Pictured: Co-worker Noel Steinle digging a shovel test in Caddo Lake Wildlife Management Area in Northeast Texas.
The wooden frame is a the small survey screen used to sift shovel test dirt to find artifacts.
What do you do differently from your coworkers or peers in the same profession?
What do they do instead?
I find that I enjoy the client interactions and conferences more than many of my peers.
I think that stems from the fact that I studied shipwrecks but work mostly on land at this point.
I’m the guy who reads about some new tool or program and will just give it a shot.
Is it going to waste a lot of time/money?
Are you going to lose data?
But for me the potential for upsides is worth the added stress.
What’s the worst part of the job and how do you deal with it?
I would have to say that it’s the stress.
Environmental consulting (archaeology included) is very competitive.
fulfilling all archaeological compliance requirements for a new electrical transmission line) and price is usually a substantial factor.
I also sometimes worry that we missed something during a survey.
And I give a shot to throw in as many chances to be creative as I can.
Pictured above: Mason collecting a river sediment core sample in the San Marcos River.
What’s the most enjoyable part of the job?
I’d say it would be the opportunity for creativity and the variety.
Often in this career, you get to mentally stretch your legs in one way or another.
You should check it out!
It really is a science that is advanced by those who practice it.
I get to work with shipwrecks one week and 8,000 year old dart points the next.
Do you have any advice for people who need to enlist your services?
Engineering firms are most are our most frequent client.
how wide will the highway be and how deep will they have to dig to build it?).
It’s essential to us knowing exactly what we are going to need to do.
We really are on your side… honest!
Pictured above: Co-worker Rachel Feit monitoring a backhoe trench being excavated in downtown Austin.
She was documenting some elements of Austin’s late 19th century downtown area.
What kind of money can one expect to make at your job?
Or, what’s an average starting salary?
You don’t meet a lot of rich archaeologists.
In the early days, you were rich first and then pursued archaeology as a hobby.
Moving up the ladder comes with increases in salary.
it’s possible for you to live a modest, but comfortable life on an archaeologist’s salary.
But again… you don’t meet a lot of rich archaeologists.
How do you move up in your field?
These are the ones who are second in command (as it were) on a project.
They oversee the day-to-day operations on a field project with possibly multiple crews.
They may then write the whole report on that project.
There aren’t really fixed steps or a set timeline for advancement.
It’s all about the work you put in and your aptitude and attitude.
Specialization is another avenue for advancement.
You might be very good at computer-aided mapping, called Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
What advice would you give to those aspiring to join your profession?
Life may dictate otherwise, but if at all possible get that Master’s Degree or even Ph.D. first.
That opens a LOT of doors that will be firmly shut without it.
There are many archaeologists who get their B.A.
venture to let inertia carry you through to that advanced degree if it’s at all feasible.
Beyond that, theGrade A Number Oneskill that will take you places is mentally active writing…
I can’t stress that enough.
Take the time to learn why you are writing what you are writing.
I put myself in the reviewer’s perspective and make a run at write to make their job easier.
If you’d like to share your career, email us at[email protected].
Title photo byChameleonsEye(Shutterstock).
