How do archaeologists spend most of their time?
When people think about the work of an archaeologist, most probably think of a crew of people digging in the earth for remains of the past. The field work is only one of four phases of an archaeological project and it can often be the one that can take the least amount of time. Researching a site can be a very lengthy process. This may include finding out what has been done in an area before, securing funding, getting permission to excavate, as well as conducting small-scale testing sampling to determine where to dig. The artifact and data collected at the site during the field work phase, will only be useful after hours of analysis in the laboratory. The laboratory phase of the project is probably the most time-consuming component of an archaeologist work as this process can take months to years to complete. Finally, the results of the analysis must be reported in a site report. Often, other publications and presentations, both professional and popular, follow. It is very important to
