Cool Jobs: The archaeologist

There's that whole series on the Discovery Channel about Dirty Jobs. Why not a series (or a blogseries or bloggeries or some other made-up word) on COOL jobs? You know, jobs that some of us secretly (or openly) lust after and woulda coulda shoulda gone into had we just known what it took or how cool it was or some other key feature about ourselves or the job itself.

One such cool job that I would like to highlight today is that of the archaeologist. They get to study human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, features, biofacts, and landscapes (thanks, Wikipedia!). That means they get to go on trips and survey the land for excavation sites that might have some kick butt remains. Then they classify and analyze said remains, drawing important conclusions that allow them (and us, and other scientists) to understand the history of human cultures just a little bit better. The possibilities for specialization are endless - you could study dinos and the KT boundary and stuff like that from one time period. That might be my first choice. Ooo, or ice age humans from the Pleistocene era. Or medieval cultures in Europe! Or where humans originated (they think it might be China now, not Africa)! Or Native American cultures of the northeast!

I can just hear the Indiana Jones theme song now...
deh deh det dehhhhh, deh deh dehhhh, deh deh det DEHHHHH! deh de-deh deh deh! deh deh det dehhhhh, deh deh dehhhhhh -- deh de-deh det! de-deh det! de-deh det! de-deh det de-dehhhh.......