Archaeologist

Archaeologists study past cultures at archaeological excavations called “digs.” Of course, you know the most famous Archaeologist of all — Indiana Jones. As a real-life Archaeologist, you probably won’t encounter booby-trapped boulders, chilled monkey brains, or snake pits, but you’ll no doubt make many thrilling discoveries.

You’re interested in people from the distant past — including cavemen, for instance, or the subjects of ancient empires in Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Because you can’t study what you can’t see, a big part of your job is finding and preserving archaeological sites where you can collect physical evidence about historic cultures. There, your duties involve organizing and managing excavations, then collecting, archiving, and studying found artifacts, including bones, monuments, maps, drawings, and objects, many of which end up in museums.

Once you find artifacts, you typically take them to a laboratory, where you examine them to determine what they are, when they were created, and how they were used — information you use to write reports for scientific journals.

Make no mistake: Because you’re looking for a needle in a haystack — and a very fragile needle, at that — your job is hard work, demanding patience, persistence, and precision. Because you’re a modern-day treasure hunter, however, your work eventually pays off in the form of scholarly gold!