To celebrate the launch of our new Archaeology Traineeship, which provides ten Londoners with an opportunity to train for a career in field archaeology, we’ve asked some of our archaeologists to tell us what they love about their jobs.
Built Heritage Consultant James Dixon, is one of MOLA’s most experienced consultants. He specialises in detailed assessment of historic structures, fabric analysis of buildings and the contemporary landscape. In this blog, celebrating the launch of our new Archaeology Traineeship, James tells us what he loves about archaeology.
What I love about archaeology is connecting with people who don’t work in the field over a shared interest in history and buildings. Archaeology is a platform to discuss the links between people in the past and people today, how they make things and how these things go on to define them. I host regular workshops where we look at historic buildings, but intentionally stripping away the terminology, technology (including pencils!) and formal recording to get to the bare bones of what archaeology is about. It lets us focus on understanding archaeological artefacts in a contemporary setting without having to produce archaeological drawings and context sheets. The best thing about this sort of public, or community, archaeology is that it has given me the chance to learn from people from all walks of life. It has provided me with the opportunity to learn about different values and different ways of communicating. As a result I have grown and changed as an archaeologist and I hope to keep changing the more I work with different people.
Keep an eye on our blog pages or follow #I❤Archaeology on Facebook and Twitter to hear more personal stories from our field archaeologists.
