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Hot take: that $200 archaeology field school in Belize was a waste of my money and here is why
I paid $2,100 for a two week field school in Belize two summers ago thinking it would jumpstart my career in archaeology. The whole thing was basically us washing pottery sherds in buckets for six hours a day while the actual excavation was done by local workers who were paid way less. I learned more in one weekend volunteering at a local museum back home in Ohio than I did in that whole trip. The site they took us to had already been dug up years before by a real university team, so we were basically sifting through their backdirt. I get that field schools are supposed to be a rite of passage, but I think people should know that a lot of these programs are just cash grabs for the organizers. Has anyone else paid for a dig that turned out to be mostly busywork, or did I just pick a bad one?
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margareth4810d ago
I always figured those pricey field schools were worth it since you get real dig time and a network. But a friend did one in Peru last year and came back saying the same thing, she spent most of it sorting bags of dirt while the crew did the digging. So now I'm with you, that money is often better spent on local volunteering where you actually touch the stuff.
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kelly.nora10d ago
That reminds me of when I signed up for a community garden plot thinking I'd be growing tomatoes all summer... ended up just hauling compost and pulling weeds while the guy next to me had this jungle of peppers. Still learned more in those months than any class I ever paid for.
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