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+--- Thread: Newbie seeking advice (/showthread.php?tid=5047)
Newbie seeking advice - Dirty Boy - 23rd July 2013
Tool Wrote:Now, do please tell me oh you experienced ones, at what point is asking questions considered a pain? I love asking questions, but am aware that this might be seen as a nuisance.
I remember this when I started out!
Answer (should be): there are no stupid questions
If you don't understand what you are doing: ASK.
If you've finished a job and need another - don't start on something random, or have a cuppa: ASK.
Honestly, any supervisor worth their salt should prefer you to come up and ask what you need to do, rather than going off and making a mess of something (although they may be grumpy if they are busy). Asking questions shows you want to learn, and that you are open to it as well. It's what I look for in new site assistants.
PS: Ask for a copy of the WSI and a DBA of the site. The WSI will tell you WHY we do some wacky things like take 10% samples of linear features, the DBA will give you a nice background on the site. Reading these in the site cabin should get you lots of bonus points, and should help you with tricky things like interpretation of features.
PPS. Have fun!
Newbie seeking advice - Tool - 23rd July 2013
OK, just to display my woeful ignorance here... what is a WSI and a DBA?
And thank you. I may be full of trepidation, but I wil enjoy the experience. It'll either be my thing or it won't. Time will tell.
Ermm... trying to think here... DBA = Desk Based Assessment? I'd love to see what has been already learned from this site - it's on the edge of a known Roman town, with Med. ecclesiastical stuff (god I need to do some reading!) there too...
Yes, I shall continue to ask questions. Hopefully interspersed with useful digging...
Newbie seeking advice - Unitof1 - 23rd July 2013
hi T. What is your degree in and why did you get the job?
Newbie seeking advice - Dirty Boy - 23rd July 2013
DBA is indeed a desk-based assessment.
A WSI (sorry for the technical language!) is a Written Scheme of Investigation - these are documents that set out how a site will be investigated, and are usually agreed with the monitoring authority (e.g. council archaeology officer, English Heritage, etc). It mentions stuff like the sampling level of features (e.g. 10% for linear ditches, 100% for hearths) or soil samples (40L minimum) etc. etc. They're fairly dull and dry, but will give you some info on how to do your job.
And make sure you grab a copy of the firm's recording manual if they have one, and keep using it while filling in sheets, etc. Every unit has subtly different ways of recording.
Newbie seeking advice - Tool - 23rd July 2013
@Unit - who said I had a degree? I can shovel shit as well as anyone...
@Dirty Boy Thanks. I guess that's basically a plan of attack or a method statement. Another one for the note book. Ta!
Newbie seeking advice - Unitof1 - 23rd July 2013
presumably you have been subsidising all those archaeology students all those years and now you want to keep them out of a job so that you can subsidize their unemployment benefit.
So no degree -why did you get the job?
Newbie seeking advice - Tool - 23rd July 2013
Unitof1 Wrote:presumably you have been subsidising all those archaeology students all those years and now you want to keep them out of a job so that you can subsidize their unemployment benefit.
So no degree -why did you get the job?
Yeah, coz I hate archaeology students. Those same ones you seem to deride so vacuously. My, I thought I was cynical...
Don't ask me, ask the well-known vary large archaeological business that 'phoned me up this morning offering me work. All I did was send them a speculative job application and CV. In which, I hasten to add, I was scrupulously honest. And if you're really interested, I do have a degree. And a ticket to drive a 360* machine. So what? I've seen many a post-grad bod who disturbingly knows less than me about, for instance drawing a section. But again, so what? We all have to start from somewhere. Or were you born with a silver trowel in your mouth?
Newbie seeking advice - Unitof1 - 23rd July 2013
I haven't derided any archaeology students (although I might not have been so reticent about the universities). I also in no way question your honesty. So you do have a degree. and you have noticed that many a postgrad knows little about drawing a section.
Just out of interest this very large archaeological business- is it based near where you live. You give the impression that the job is close to where you live.
Newbie seeking advice - Dinosaur - 23rd July 2013
Tool - ignore Unit having fun, a lot of the best diggers I've worked with either didn't have a degree or it wasn't in anything to do with archaeology. I doubt there are any figures to back this up, but I'd imagine a fair number of Unit Managers don't have one, especially ones who got into it through job-creation schemes back in the '80s. An expectation seems to have crept in that diggers need a degree, in the same way that they seem to expect one for working in a call-centre, but it sure as hell isn't necessary whatever anyone tells you, I know plenty of guys who make a 'living' from digging without one. Wierdly your background in construction is actually an asset, we took on a guy years back who wasn't even interested in archaeology (at least when he started) but his background in offshore and construction (up to foreman) proved an incredible asset, always handy having someone there who can tell at a glance that the wrong plant has turned up before it's been off-loaded, for instance. He turned out to be a great digger too, and didn't have any trouble at all getting jobs with other units once he'd got some digging experience on his CV. If you've got any valid tickets (eg for pneumatic tools, confined working, dumper driving, first aid at any level, pretty much anything), tell someone, you'd be amazed how rare such things are amongst archaeologists, and sometimes, depending on the job at hand, ten times more valuable than any degree
Newbie seeking advice - Tool - 23rd July 2013
Sorry to impugn your integrity. And yes, from what little I've seen university-based archaeology bears little relevance to the world of commercial archaeology. Or archaeology as it exists in this country... It appears to me that archaeology as taught in universities still looks to an ideal, rather than the reality. But then, what do I know? Neither a degree in archaeology or commercial experience.
Yes.