Not a Normal Dig

By: Mia Reid, Archeologist

Hello, I’m back. I thought I’d give you an idea of what A Day in the Life of an archaeologist on a dig is like.

This summer’s dig is on the Isle of Skye, and I’m working with a small group of students and some volunteers. Gordon INC, Charles Gordon’s company, is sponsoring the dig. He’s been involved in digs over the past ten years, so I know he’s aware of how important archaeology is.

The students and I are staying at a B&B close to the dig. It’s a lovely place and the village has a few pubs and restaurants where we can have dinner. Our hostess at the B&B makes a full breakfast and packs us huge lunches. The students and I meet after breakfast, and I drive us out to the dig. It’s about a five-minute drive. We bring the van in case there’re items we’ll have to bring back with us.

Most of the time, an archaeologist’s day is spent scraping away dirt, sifting through the dirt, and checking for artifacts. We don’t always find a treasure like we did this time with gold coins, gemstones, rings, or valuable daggers. Once we’ve uncovered something, we clean it up and log it into the site’s laptop and in a ledger. If the item has a monetary value, we’ll lock it up in a safe place. Sometimes that’s at the dig, sometimes it’s off-site.

We have security at the dig. It doesn’t always happen, but in this case, it’s necessary. Ethan Carter, my colleague, was killed at the dig. And our tent was ransacked. When Mr. Gordon learned of this, he insisted on security. Once we found the gold coins and gemstones, we had people showing up wanting to dig for treasure! The security team keeps people away.

We typically work from breakfast to lunch with a break at around ten. Archaeology can be hard on a body, and we need to rest and stretch frequently to avoid overuse injuries. Lunch is a break of thirty minutes, and then we’re back at it. Usually stopping no later than three o’clock. We’ll normally get locals or tourists who are interested in what we’re doing. The one question we get all the time is: “Have you found any treasure?”

We return to the B&B and get cleaned up. I write a daily report and send it in to Mr. Gordon as he’s the sponsor and needs to be advised about what’s happening. After work, the students and I will go out for dinner somewhere.

With this dig, Luke Forbes is joining us. He’s with Interpol, the AART team. He’s here looking into thefts of artifacts and an antiquity smuggling ring. He’s working with us on the dig and joins us for dinner afterward. It’s good getting to know him again.

And that’s a day in my life at this dig. Well, at least a normal day. Recently things here are not at all normal. Someone is dead and artifacts are missing. Drop me a comment on what you’d do in my situation!

It was a pleasure, Mia, to have you “uncover” some free time to drop by ePen!